celebrating and weeping with friends in the adoption community

Today, dear friends we stayed with at the guest house in Uganda are arriving in Oregon with their three Ugandan darlings, meeting friends and family - including their three biological children - at the airport.

With them, we celebrate.

Today, other dear friends we stayed with at the guest house in Uganda are separated from their Ugandan boys, as Matt flies home to Des (who came before him by a week or so) and their other children while the US Embassy continues to investigate their case.

With them, we weep.

Being part of the adoption community is not for the faint of heart. It is beauty and brokenness. It is heartbreaks and joys.

I know cases in which adoption shouldn't happen. In which the Embassy rightly says no to visas. In which first families are coerced and children live in orphanages when they should and could be living with the families they were originally born into.

The two boys being adopted by Matt and Des - boys for whom they are already legal guardians by order of the Ugandan courts - need adoption. They don't have other options. Their case is expected to be decided ultimately in their favor - that of the boys to be with their loving, waiting parents - but for now, they wait.

The parents and some of their children in Virginia.

Two of their boys in Uganda.


Please, pray with me for them.

As you pray, it might help to see faces if you're a visual person like me. While I can't share pictures of their precious, precious sons, who are around Patience's and Jocelyn's age, I can share the faces of Uncle Matt and Aunt Desiree, our dear friends who wait with their American children until their Ugandan children can join them too.