Day 1 - Jason in Uganda

Here are some pictures that Jason emailed today from their time spent with 300 plus kids at Return Ministries in Uganda.  I LOVE these pics!  The first pic is Jason getting ready to do some 'bucking bronco'...if you recall this from the Bill Cosby show when Rudy had a slumber party. :)  Kids love this!...and Jason is going to have a sore knee tomorrow.

Jason to Africa

Jason left today to Uganda and Ethiopia with a group of 35 or so people on a 'Visiting Orphans' mission trip.   Some things they are doing are playing and spending time with lots of orphans and helping fix up some families homes.  I know they are doing much more, I don't know exactly, but the links to some of the organizations they are working with are below.
We were at the airport by 4am this morning and Jason got checked in and made it to Charlotte and DC smoothly.  He is currently on his way to Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) then they take another flight to Entebbe (city in Uganda - maybe the capital?).  Addis Ababa is where we will be heading eventually to visit our son, once we have a referral.  So that is exciting for me as Jason gets to check out the city first.
I will keep updating as I hear from Jason (I hope Skype works).  Please pray for safety and life changing events for everyone.

http://www.visitingorphans.com/
http://www.sixtyfeet.org/

www.ourglimmerofhope.org/campaign/dig-deep

www.dudeperfect.com

http://www.toms.com/

Waiting times

We found out that it is going to take longer to get a referral than originally thought. We knew this based on what has been going on but our agency had never quantified those delays into revised wait times. Today we have been told that basis the latest referrals the revised wait time for an infant boy is 10-16 months. Because we were DTE 3/4 that would put us at getting a referral between Jan and July. I hope it will be sooner than later of course but God has a plan!

Not much to update...

It has now been a little over 4 months since we sent in our Dossier and have now moved up to number 34. There haven't been many referrals lately but quite a few children have come home so I'm thinking there has to be some soon. The Ethiopia courts close in Aug for the rainy season so no children will get to come home during that time, so when they open back up some time probably in early Oct there will be a backlog of families that need to pass Court. Pray for those families that they will pass court and embassy so they will be able to bring their children home before the closure. I can't imagine seeing your child's face then having to wait 2+ months before you can go meet them. It has been slow moving, but every month gets us a liitle closer! :) We know there is a special little boy picked out for us. That's all for now!

Slowly Moving / Fishing

We have moved up a few spots in line and they now say it will take 7-10 months for an infant boy.  This of course changes monthly depending on how many referrals there were.  I am still praying for some quicker movement so the babes don't have to stay in the orphanage longer than they have to.

Since there's not much news on the adoption front - here's a picture of my fish I caught in the Gulf last weekend.  It is my biggest fish so far, a King Mackerel.  My brother-in-law Jeff also caught a Nurse Shark!  Gross.

Update

On 5/4 we will have been waiting 2 months.  They have gone surprisingly fast.  At the end of April our Agency said it was now taking 8-10 months for an infant boy referral...before it was 5-8 months.  So it seems we are back to the 8 month countdown again.  I will definitely learn patience during this process - or I hope so!  Someone posted that if all families submitted to Embassy in May pass, that would open up room for 20 more children in the transition home.  That would cause some more movement, that all the waiting families would love to see!

Seeing Some Movement

If you noticed, I added near the top right corner of our page our number on the 'unofficial' waiting list.  We started as # 45, and in the last two days moved from # 44 to # 38!  I am excited to see some movement!