Praying for wisdom...

Hey everyone!

Lots of stuff going on right now so we thought we would update you all on where we are at in the adopting process and whats going on in Uganda!

Yesterday we found out some heart breaking news and I cannot go into specifics but a friend who went to get their sons visa over in Uganda was denied and everyone thought they had the right wording.  However, I think the embassy and the judges are not going to officially change or issue anything until they have their "BIG" meeting where they all make a final decision to pass onto the embassy.   It just seems some days like this may go on forever and that adoptions may actually stop for awhile in Uganda but then there are other days like this morning when I woke up and read some more news that their "BIG" meeting might actually happen very soon.

Since Jim and I are still fairly early in the process we have more options than these wonderful families that already have their childrens referrals or already have their children with them and are in Uganda.  Our homestudy is done and our social worker is writing the draft right now.  However we are not turning in our i-600a form to USCIS or officially writing up the homestudy until we know more about whats happening in Uganda.

In the past few weeks Jim and I have been praying as I know many of you have been also.  We have been praying that God would help us to know if Uganda is still where we should be and should adopt from or if the doors might be closing and if we should look into other options.  We just want His will and we already know He knows where Isabella is and so we are praying for wisdom and guidance and for Him to make it VERY clear and open the doors for us and shut the rest!

Within the past week or two I found out something that I did not know from a blog friend Kristi that there is a big need for african american domestic adoptions in the usa.  There is 7,000 waiting families to every ONE caucasian baby but there are ZERO families waiting for every ONE african american baby.   One of the reasons Jim and I did not decide to do domestic in the first place was because I did not think there was a need.  I thought there were lots of waiting lists and that the need was not as great as it was in other countries.  However, now I am finding out that our country in general only like to adopt caucasian babies (how sad) and that there is a GREAT NEED for families to adopt african american babies!  In the past couple of days many things and doors have opened for us in this area of adoption.  However, we are praying and waiting as our hearts are also still in Uganda!

So Jim and I are taking a few weeks to pray hard about this and seek the Lord for His wisdom and guidance.  We ask that you would please pray for us during this time that God would help make it clear to us what He would want us to do, His direction for us!  Whether to stay with adopting from Uganda or first adopt an african american baby here in the states!  Both are wonderful options, but we only want what He wants for us!  We are praying that in these few weeks as we are praying, more will happen over in Uganda to help us know for sure if things are looking up or down.

We figure that if God calls us to stay with adopting from Uganda for our first child, that possibly our second child or whenever God would call us to do so, we could adopt domestically an african american, now that we know this statistic and now that its on our hearts!  Or if God calls us to adopt domestically an african american baby for our first child then we will do what He says and know that in the future when adoptions are allowed again in Uganda and going well that we could adopt our second or third child from Uganda!  We are young and if God's plans include us to have many children from all walks and places in this world, we are ready and willing!  They are ALL His children that He entrusts to us anyway...its not our right to choose whether they come biologically, through domestic adoption or international adoption or what color they are because God created all of us in His image and we are all unique and He loves us all the same whether we are tan, black, brown or white!  We want our children to grow up knowing that too!  Whatever ones He has for us, we will want them and take and love them and thank Him for them!

Thanks for hearing our hearts...big decisions ahead and God already knows it so please pray with us that He would help us know what it is and show us the way!  To God be the glory...


SIDE NOTE A:  We have sold 16 of the 100 adoption T-shirts for our adoption fundraiser!  All we need now is a count of who wants one and their size and you do not pay until they come in!  If your interested leave a comment or email me at aprilcstarkey@gmail.com!  Logo of what the shirt looks like is at the upper right hand corner of our blog and the post that was before this one has more pictures of it also!  We need to know counts asap!

SIDE NOTE B:  We will be having our first adoption raffle coming up!  A wonderful blog friend, Emily, told me about doing a baby basket raffle.  Already we have over 11 people contributing baby/child items to this basket!  It's going to be an awesome and big basket to raffle off!  We are not for sure how we will go about doing this but it will probably be something like you buy a raffle ticket for $5 each and can buy as many as you like.  We will have a site do a random drawing to pick the winner and whoever it is, gets the basket full of all the baby/child items!  So if your expecting, know someone expecting or adopting, if your adopting or if you just still have little ones and would like this basket STAY TUNED for more details! 

Love to all,