Bringing Fiona Home

Hi Everyone! Thanks for joining us!

I think I need to start by filling you in on how this all began. Last October following Dave's eye surgery, I went next door to pick up our dog, when our neighbor and good friend Rachelle said she had something to ask me. She told me that they had decided that they were going to go to Uganda to adopt an 8 year old girl, Rachel. (Rachel is the little sister of Dorcus, who is a lovely 19 year old girl who made her way to America two and a half years ago. She came to live with Mark and Rachelle and their family and has since been adopted by them).

As they were deciding to adopt Rachel, they found out about another little girl, Fiona, who was also needing a home. Fiona's mom died when she was quite young and was taken in by Rachel and Dorcus' mom, who has since also passed away. They are both staying in a home now with some other orphans and being cared for by a wonderful woman.

We soon discovered this was something that we wanted to do and believe God has planned for us. We had been thinking about adoption for a while, but to be honest, working through an international adoption, flying 20 hours to Africa, and staying there for three weeks was not part of our plan. God works in wonderous ways though and that is exactly where he is taking us!

The last few months have been exciting as we have been fingerprinted, had background checks run, worked our way through a mountain of paperwork, had our home study done (and approved!), and worked with an attorney in Uganda to get all the documents ready that we will need. At the same time as it is exciting, we also feel like we are taking a huge leap of faith. Things have been moving very well though and we've been very blessed by the support of our family and friends. Last week, we asked our attorney to send us Fiona's birth certificate as we needed it for a form we were filling out. Up until this point, we did not know what her birthday was. Dave called me at work to let me know we had gotten it and that I would be really interested in the date...May 2...which is my birthday! There have been many birthday these last few years when this is exactly what I have wished for, so I guess I am finally getting it!

We are hoping that we may be able to travel to Uganda in May or June to get her, but we will also be at the mercy of the courts there, so it is hard to tell for sure. Today we mailed our I-600 form to the US government, which will basically give us permission to bring home and adopt an orphan outside of the US. Once we have that and our attorney in Uganda has our documents, we will be waiting for a court date!

Check back with us soon for more updates!!!

Love,
Sara, Dave and Tyler