We have been officially on the waiting list for over a month now!! This means that we could receive our referral and be matched with our son any day now or up to 8 months from now. With our adoption program, families are typically waiting between 2 weeks and 9 months for a referral.
Once we accept our referral and know who our son is, we will wait for our court date in Uganda. This could take anywhere from 4 to 8 months. We will then travel to Uganda and spend about a week there. While there we will meet our son and spend several days with him and we will also go to court and become his legal guardians. We will then come home (leaving him at his orphanage) for another 4 to 10 weeks before our second trip. On this trip we will be in Uganda for around 2 weeks and our son will get his US Passport and we will be able to return to the States together. We are planning on bringing Evan on this second trip so we can travel home as a family.
If everything goes as quick as it possibly can, we could be coming home in as little as 6 months from now. If everything drags out, it could be almost another 18-20 months.
For Andrea and I, this waiting is difficult. It seems like we have been on the adoption journey for a while now and yet at the same time it seems like we might have quite a while still to go.
At the same time, we feel as though we are continually reminded that this is not our time and our plan, but God's. And He is continually moving and preparing the way for us.
Over the last 9 months we have received 128 individual gifts totaling $34,711 to help us cover the costs of adopting our son. That is an unbelievable amount of generosity—an incredible amount of people standing behind us saying ‘We are with you.’
When we experience the overwhelming generosity, support, love and encouragement of our family, friends, co-workers and even strangers, it reminds us of how compelling this journey is and how much the journey is worth it—no matter how long it takes. It reminds us that our God has called us on this journey and that He will never leave us nor abondon us along the way. He has a plan and He will continue to be faithful at every step.
I have no idea how long we will be on the waiting list, or how long it will be from when we accept our referral and know who our son is until our court date and first trip, or how long we will wait after having held our son until we can return to bring him home, but I do know that we will not wait alone.
We anxiously wait, with choosing to have glad hearts knowing that the living God is pouring out His endless love, support, and provision through our friends, family and the people around us.
Thank you for continuing to journey with us. It means the world to us.
Love,
Andrea, Mark & Evan
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