We've made it home!

Wow it's been such a long time since I was last able to post.  A lot has happened.

1. We got Jonah's guardianship order (we are officially his legal guardians!!)
2. We got his visa and passport.
3. We made it home just in time for Christmas.  The plane ride was really smooth and Jonah really enjoyed the airplane and the airport. 
4. We found out (on Thanksgiving morning) that we are pregnant with Jonah's first official sibling!  We are due in late July.

Now we just have about 5 more months until the adoption finalizes on the American side.  At that time Jonah will get his official United States Citizenship, social security number, birth certificate, official name change, and we will be official mommy and daddy (aka mama and deeka)!!! So many "official's" but it's a very good thing!  We are on the home stretch and it feels really really great.

 

Our big prayers these days are: 

• That we would continue to really seek to be better parents, with lots and lots of patience, wisdom, and love.
• That we as a married couple would still take plenty of time for each other and our marriage.
• That we would make the wisest decisions possible about our living situation (buy, rent, live with friends or family for a while, etc.)
• Last but not least, that everything would continue to go well with the rest of the adoption process and the pregnancy.

Thanks and Love to everyone!

A few steps forward and a couple back

Such a big boy

So these days Jonah is very successfully communicating in two languages.  He hasn’t quite mastered either completely but is learning at an incredible rate.  He really seems to be distinguishing well between the two and we learn new things from him every day.  He is really great at please and thank you as well as apologies.  It’s incredible to think about how much he has changed in just the last 12 weeks.  He is making us laugh constantly.  But at the same time has discovered that he can use words of his own as well as his own free will to choose whether he wants to obey and listen to our parenting or… not.   We have been reading a book called “Shepherding and Child’s Heart” by Ted Tripp.  It’s been amazingly helpful and I would especially recommend it to first time parents.  It outlines some really amazing biblical parenting concepts that really help you to see your role as a parent as an honor and a position full of hope. 



Man we look smart aka handsome!





As far as the adoption progress goes huge prayers on the 23^rd of November.  We have been waiting for a few weeks now to get our court date and found out along the way that Uganda just added three new High Courts Judges to keep the family and community cases moving along quicker.  There was a bit of a backlog.  Well instead of speeding up our court date it has put things on hold until the judges are in order on the 23^rd.  Long story short, this is Africa and things never quite go how you expect them to.  On the other hand we have made it over another major hurdle in the process.  This Wednesday, my Dad emailed me a copy of our Immigration approval!  Meaning we have everything we need to go to court and hopefully prove to this new judge that we should be given guardianship of Jonah and to the U.S. Embassy to approve us for Jonah’s visa and sponsorship applications.  So… it feels like we really are starting to see light at the end of this long and pothole filled tunnel.  The remaining big steps are:

·         Ugandan Court date/ guardianship order

·         Medical examination for Jonah (possible vaccinations)

·         Visa and immigration interviews at the U.S. Embassy

·         Passport application

·         Buy Jonah a plane ticket!!

·         Get his safely back to the U.S.

·         6 month post placement period

·         Legal finalization in the U.S. Courts

We hope to just keep checking things off.  I’ll update everyone when we find out for sure when the court date will be as well as a better time frame of when we will be able to head back to the U.S.  Thanks for your prayers!!  They are keeping us faithful and encouraged.  It’s been such an indescribable journey so far.  I know that we are better people and parents because of it. 



Oatmeal is so much better off the floor



The good, the bad, and the unknown

Jonah and Daddy (Taata Jonah)

So last Friday Josh and I went to the Embassy and got our fingerprinting done and sent back to the US! That seems like it should be simple but it was quite the headache.  It also turned out to be quite a blessing though because we got to talk to a woman there who really knows her stuff.  We asked her as many questions as we could think of and she really helped to put us at ease on just about everything.  Now we are just praying that my Dad's fingerprinting goes as smoothly. 

I have to confess though that as we were sitting in the waiting room there was a family there with a little Ugandan girl that they were adopting.  They were there to pick up her visa.  I couldn't help but cry a little at the look of excitement and joy on the families faces.  Josh just smiled and I felt really silly seeing as I didn't even know these people.  I could just imagine though the long road that they had traveled in order to get to that point.

We got a letter this week from USCIS (US Customs and Immigration Services) that said that we were missing some things from our homestudy but Jennifer at Hope's Promise (one of our 2 adoption agencies) got right on it and things should hopefully be right back on track. Now the things that are forefront on the prayers list is that Immigration will allow my Dad to use our appointment (since we got ours done here at the US Embassy) to get his fingerprints done TODAY rather than waiting to get them done in November when they scheduled his appointment!! Then that they would be satisfied with all of our application info and that they get our approval back to us as quickly as possible. Then it is on the the Ugandan Court system but that is a whole blog post of it's own. 



Big smooches for Uncle Morgan



Let the paperwork fiasco continue...

Ok so we have now met with out Ugandan attorney and he has just helped and raised some expected but dreaded questions about some of our paperwork so please continue praying that things get sorted out.  Apparently when the FBI sends you a clearance on your background check the Ugandan court feels they have the right to require a signature to prove that the FBI was serious.  I mean come on have any of these judges ever seen an episode of Law and order, those people are serious.  Just kidding but seriously please pray that we can get this all ironed out.  We are also waiting on the USCIS (immigration) approval to move through.  We need to get another set of fingerprints done here at the Embassy and pray that they get back to America in a timely fashion.  Wow, I will have to tell you someday which was worse the gigantic headache that this has all been or labor pain!  At this point some of you may think that I am crazy but I really feel like on a lot of levels this might be comparable.

Ok so on to the real fun....  So Jonah speaks a little bit of English and a lot of Luganda.  So I expected that it would be quite the challenge trying to communicate and so far I was about half right.  I see the struggle the most when he is throwing one of those terrible two's temper tantrums (I will just call it the 4T's) and I cannot seem to do much as far as explaining to him why it's not ok to see how much pee he can get all over the seat and floor as he wiggles uncontrollably while trying to use the toilet.  What makes matters worse is when there is a Ugandan "Mama" around to explain things to him or to instruct him, he understands quite well and more often than not the 4T's are avoided all together so I know that it is possible, I just don't have the words to make it happen myself!  Good news is he has already begun to recognise me as the Mommy who tops all Mommies in his little world and seeks Josh and I above everyone else (which brings me a great deal of selfish joy).  Does anyone have any suggestions as far as how to implement consistent, loving discipline?  We definitely try to use consistent words when explaining things to him so that he begins to understand and associate those words with our actions as well as his own.  That seems to be my greatest challenge right now, dealing with the 4T's when he doesn't like something or doesn't get his way.  It seems pretty average to me but I haven't ever been the one in charge of discipline before. I have been told that sign language can be very helpful but I don't know very many words or phrases in sign language and doubt that the book store (or should I say 4x4 stand with some shelves inside) up the road would have sign language for dummies/mommies.

Let me know if anyone has any suggestions.....  Thanks again for reading and responding. 

Where to begin...

Ok so I have decided to start my own little Mommy Blog but just keep in mind I am not the most eloquent writer I just find it fun and therapeutic as well as educational to write/type out my thoughts, feelings, concerns, and joys.  I am thinking that this may be a great way to keep everyone updated as well as seek advice from all of you Moms out there.  For anyone who may not have heard, we spent the past 5½ months working, going to school, and doing a home study back in Colorado.  We are on a long journey toward adopting, who we already consider to be our son, Jonah Elijah Mukisa.  We painfully had to leave him in Uganda for that time and wow it feels good to be back.  We miss everyone at home very much and cannot wait to bring Jonah home to meet everyone so if prayer is your thing we could really use some! 

Ok so, so far we have really just been observing and seeking advice from the parents that we know really well and respect immensely.  We are definitely very open to anyone’s advice, especially anyone who may have adopted before.   This is our first and we have a lot of the same questions and anxieties that I think most parents do when they first bring a baby home… maybe a few more about things like potty training, picky eating, speech/language development, and discipline than you would with an infant…  but all in all we really just fear screwing it all up =)  We know that God is patient and has endless grace and hopefully a sense of humor and is more than willing to help us out in those stinky/sticky situations (figuratively and literally).  If anyone knows some great secrets/tricks to this whole parenting thing we would REALLY love to hear about them.

 I am really excited that our first is a boy. I had a big brother growing up who looked out for me and really helped me to see what type of man I wanted to marry someday.  In a way we sort of got to choose which came first except that I don’t really think it was us who chose Jonah.  He sort of chose us and God gave him to us.  We really enjoy being with him, guiding him, playing and laughing with him, and most of all making him a part of our forever family.