My wife and I had a wonderful and exhausting week in Uganda. We spent our time at Sanyu Babies Home (the oldest babies home in Uganda) to begin the adoption process.
We arrived not knowing what to expect. The home prefers families come and spend at least two weeks to be with the children. Through that time they encourage each family to pray and trust that God will lead you to the child that He has for you. The usual process for an international adoption is to have the orphanage or babies home refer a child to you. In that case, you would receive a photo of your child and then travel to meet them and bring them home at a later date. This was truly a unique experience! We had no idea how we would choose a child or how we would choose just one!
The home has over 40 babies currently under the age of 3. Many of them brought there because they had been abandoned, others there because their families cannot care for them. Many of these children were sick the week we were there with a stomach virus and many with other medical needs.
We spent the first day or so playing with the children and were drawn to three of them. We spent time playing with them, holding them, feeding them, and just loving on them. Over the course of the next day it became clearer and clearer that God had for us a 9 month little boy who had been brought to the home in March after being abandoned. He is still fairly malnourished and looks about 4 months but to us he seems perfect in every way.
Our next steps are to wait for a court date to be set (we are praying for a July date before the courts go on vacation), then if that is favorable we will proceed with immigration to get passports and visas, and once that is done we are free to bring him home!
Right now we are thanking God for his mercy in this little boys life in bringing him to the home when he was abandoned.
We are also fighting to trust him in God’s hands.
We are trusting that he will continue to gain weight and receive the nutrients his body needs.
We are trusting in God’s timing with the court date and with immigration.
We are trusting in God’s passion to place orphans in families (Ps 68:6) and thankful for the joy and privilege of being a family.
We are trusting that God knows what is best for us and for this little boy we have fallen in love with.
We can rest in that!
The ABBA Fund Blog 
Jason,
Ya’ll are an incredible example of loving the unloved. Praying for the process to be expedited. Exciting stuff man!
So exciting!! I will be praying with your family!!
Love hearing how this agency allows you to come spend time with the children and be part of the process, rather than choosing the child for you.
I need to stop reading your blog (and Shawna’s). You are making me want to go to Uganda too!!!
So excited for you and your family. : ) J
I LOVE watching your family proceed through this process. You so such maturity and faith. We commit to pray with you during your journey in Uganda…. and for years to come!
Yay!! What a great update. I love reading about your trust. . .man, it takes a ton. That and courage to follow the Lord where He leads. You guys are an example of both to many people.
I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in plan. . .but what I really love is how He will use this time to not only bring about adding to your family, but refining you in the process. I can just hear you becoming more like Jesus!
Brandi
. How exciting, wonderful and yet so hard to have met him. We will be praying!
Thanks for the great update. I can’t wait to talk to you guys more about the details of your time at Sanyu, but I want you to catch your breath first. I’m still in awe of this process. It is amazing to see God’s hand at work and to see how He directs our paths in response to His divine call.
Love and blessings,
Teresa
HEy congrats, when did you arrive in Uganda? Keltie is in Nairobi awaiting our visas for the two kids. I am so glad to see you adopting. It is wonderful. Good luck with everything/
Jason,
Very exciting news and encouraging to hear other countries in Africa allowing international adoption.
Note: Your link for the orphanage should point to http://www.sanyubabies.com The current link displays a file not found error.
SDG,
Scott Meadows
wow. what a great story! We actually spent some time at Sanyu Babies Home back in 2006. It ripped our hearts out and confirmed in me (my wife had confirmation long ago) the need for us to begin our journey towards adopting from Africa. Reading your journey excites me. It encourages me.
Thank you!
My husband and I are from North Carolina but are serving as missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Tanzania, East Africa. We are interested in adopting from Uganda. Do you have any idea what the process would look like under these circumstances and what costs are involved?
Thanks so much and God bless!
Dana
Wow, what a great story of love and the Father heart of God! My wife and have recently felt God conferming a long standing desire in our hearts to adopt. While researching through the thousands of adoption agencies I came acroos this blog and really feel like it may not be by chance! I would love to know more about the process you and your wife went through in connecting/adopting from the Sanyu Home! I visited thier website but it didn’t say to much about the adoption side of things? Any direction you could give would be greatly appreciatted (I believe my email addy is attatched to this comment somehow?) and we will be keeping the three of you in our prays!
Thanks for sharing!
Matt
Good luck to you. I am happy to play a role in getting the needy children a home each passing day as a family law attorney in Uganda. Matt, your email address is not visible. Email me at: (dangualia at yahoo dot com) for details of the process.
Its good news to me each passing day that I see a needy child being given a home. I have helped a good number of parents to adopt from Uganda as a family law attorney. Good luck to you. I am happy to play a role in getting the needy children a home each pasing day.
Its good news to me each passing day that I see a needy child being given a home. I have helped a good number of parents to adopt from Uganda as a family law attorney. Good luck to you. I am happy to play a role in getting the needy children a home each pasing day. Email: dangualia@yahoo.com
it healthy to know all children deserve a home ! i and my wife have been looking into the possibility of adopting a child,so that one by one all of them will have homes .we should build this culture and strengthen its roots.A girl between one to three years of age