But what is there not to love?

Two days ago I was walking home by myself to this.

And this.

And I was caught off guard that despite various discouragements these past couple of weeks, with a views like these, what is there not to love? I was very convicted about my heart becoming cynical and hardened toward God’s work and goodness, and was reminded that He shows us His grace daily – whether through an incredible sunset, the smiles and laughs of the beautiful children I get to work with daily, the hug and encouragement of a friend, the truth of His Word, or the answer of a prayer. And it is by this grace, that completely saturates this world, that God wants us to see, acknowledge, and break out into a run towards Him.

Then last night I was reminded in a book that I was reading, The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning, when he quoted a rabbi who said “Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder and He gave it to me.” I think I am quick to overlook asking for wonder, so boy does it knock me off my feet when the Lord opens my eyes to it!  

This has been my prayer for today. Lord, I am asking for wonder. I want to be amazed by your works. I want my trust in you to surpass everything else. I want to take in your wonders and your grace that you give me daily. Amen.

Our neighborhood kids playing soccer in the field

 

"How do we live in the presence of the living God? In wonder, amazed by the traces of God all around us."

The Ragamuffin Gospel

And sometimes things go wrong

One step forward, two steps back.

For the big step we took last week, it definitely seems we fallen at least two, maybe three or four steps, behind this week. I mentioned last week that our meeting with the adoption agency went really well and we were really excited about moving forward with them. However, after sending them the list of kids that we have who are adoptable, they sent us an email back earlier two days ago stating that they had too many children with special needs around the world who were waiting to be adopted so they are not able to work with us currently. I could rant more about this, share my disappointment, and tell you how it led us almost to tears, but I think I’ll leave it there.

We are now in the process of seeking other agencies, but we are all pretty bummed right now. Keeping Ekisa in your prayers would be great, and much appreciated. I trust in the Lord’s sovereignty over this and know He’s got incredible plans for our kids and this ministry, but pray that He continues to guide our steps as we figure where to go from here. Thank you!

Here's a verse that has been on my heart the past couple of weeks, that I am especially clinging to and trusting right now:

Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.

Isaiah 25:1

Something to do

Tuesday, we took a step in moving forward with international adoptions. Such an exciting day, and a meeting that I was very much looking forward to for the past month – this meeting has been a long time coming, but scheduling was difficult with the busyness of summer schedules. Emily and I had a meeting in Kampala with the in-country representative of a pretty big adoption agency in the States. (We haven’t officially signed with them yet, so I may wait until that happens to disclose which agency this is.) But we are so excited!

Finding an agency that we desired a partnership with has also been something that has taken a long time, and even in this decision it has taken a big leap of faith. There are countless adoption agencies in the States, and I’m sure even more around the world, but it was important for us to seek and find an agency that lined up with our ethical beliefs and practices, as well as practiced what they preached, so to speak. This was a pretty incredible learning experience for me over the past several months, as I learned positive qualities of agencies, big red flags, the market in the adoption world, as well as what we wanted in an agency that we worked with.

This takes me back to my little mini-series on Adoption, and the question Where does it go wrong? The more I learn about adoption, especially in Uganda, the more I learn about the messiness and corruption of it, as sad as it is. But in the process of opening my eyes to this, the Lord has given me a heart to share it with those around me – because once you know, it’s hard to play ignorant. And by not being ignorant to such a big conversation in the world, you learn the questions to ask, the efforts to support, and very realistic steps to take in supporting the orphan crisis in the world today – whether or not you ever want to adopt.

In seeking partnership with an international adoption agency we had a couple red flags that if they became evident, we would turn the other way running.

First, does the agency own/financially support or sustain any orphanages? At first glance this question may not seem all so important, but let me explain. Adoption is a supply-and-demand sort of thing. Economics was by far not my easiest class in college, but I did come to understand the concept of this. The demand are the people who want to adopt. The supply are the children in orphanages – but, notice I did not say the ‘orphans’ or the ‘children who need to be adopted’ or the ‘children whose lives would be better in America’. Often these are all used interchangeably, but this really isn’t the case. Around 80-90% of children in orphanages have at least one living parent, most of whom could be resettled with their families or extended family, and do not need to be adopted. But because of the market in adoptions, these families are frequently overlooked, lied to, threatened, or misguided in order to supply the demand for cute, little, African children.

Second, does the agency provide any money to the orphanage? Again, this is an unethical practice, but happens all too frequently as a means to encourage orphanages to supply them with adoptable children.

Third, does the agency work with any orphanages in Uganda that are on “our list”? There are over 400 orphanages in Uganda, and a friend of mine who is working for family preservation here, said that she would recommend three for people to adopt from. This doesn’t mean that every child in all these other homes should not be adopted, but that people should proceed with caution once getting a referral for a child in these orphanages. However, the orphanages that made it onto our list, we know of specific examples of unethical practices that they have done in either getting children or adopting them out, or they are not fighting at all from family reunification or domestic adoption.

There are more, but these are a couple big ones, that if you are like me about a year ago, you knew nothing about. But now let me tell you some of the values of the agency we want to work with. The Ugandan representative told us that once getting a referral from the orphanage of an adoptable child, they will conduct their own investigation of the child, as well as hire a third party to do the same. This way when the child and prospective adoptive family go to court there is three separate social work reports (including ours) that will be presented to state that this child does not have family to care for them, and they truly are in need of a family. They also have the same values in seeking family reunification above all else, then domestic adoption, and then proceeding with international adoption as a last case. This s something we highly value, as I’ve mentioned before, and we are so excited to find an agency with a similar and encouraging agenda.

Sorry this post is a bit all over the place, but like I said, God is using this experience to open my eyes and heart to a big issue, and I also believe that He is able to use me to educate those around me. In the book Orphan Justice (great read and very informative) the tagline for the title is, “Not everyone can do everything, but everyone can do something”. I pray that my time here in Uganda, as well as for the rest of my life, I am challenged to do the things that the Lord is placing in front of me, not everything, but something. I want to challenge you to think about what’s something you can do?

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Philippians 4:13