Good bye 2009!

Merry Christmas!

We have been blessed this year by getting to experience many “firsts” with Grace!  She started preschool 2 days a week and loves it!  She wants to carry her backpack and lunch box all by herself and is just growing up way to fast! Mommy and Grace continue to go to bible study once a week and Grace learns something new each time.  She particularly loves music time at school and bible study!  This summer we took Grace on her first camping trip where she got to hike to a cave and ride a horse for the first time.  She is still talking about that trip!  Chris is still enjoying his job and his music.  Anna continues to do some volunteer work and gets some weekend hours at her job, but loves getting to be home with Grace the rest of the time.  We eagerly await the adoption of our next daughter – Grace especially can’t wait to meet her little sister!

In adoption news, this year has been full of twists and turns for us.  We began our adoption journey last year pursuing an Ethiopian adoption.  Shortly after we started, the agency we were working with merged with another agency.  This new agency was not easy to work with and we eventually made the decision to leave that agency.  We began to pray about what God would have us do and felt God pulling us toward Uganda.  Uganda is one of the worlds least developed countries with an orphan population of over 2 million. It is only recently that they have begun to allow their children to be adopted internationally.  We officially made the switch to Uganda in October, and our home study was finalized in November.  We are working directly with a lawyer in Uganda who will match us with a child and take our petition to the court.

We ask that you would continue to lift us up in prayer as we wait for the Lord to bring our daughter home.  Please pray for her protection as she waits for us, pray that God would grant us favor with the judges and court in Uganda, and that God would bless us financially as we trust in him to provide.  If you feel lead to contribute financially you can do so by clicking on the donate button on this blog!

As we celebrate our savior’s birth this Christmas season it is with joy that we are reminded of what great lengths God went to in order to bring us into his family.  How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:3)

Wishing you all the joy of the season,

Chris, Anna, and Grace McMurtry

 

I600A

Well, we sent in our I600A this monday!  We are absolutely thrilled to have that done!  However we’re not exactly sure we did it right or we’re not sure that there is a right way to do it…  If anyone reading this has filled out an I600A for Uganda, I’d love to hear how you answered the questions.  Did you answer as if you were finalizing the “adoption” in Uganda OR did you fill it out like you were going to finalize the adoption back here in the states?  Our home study social worker and our lawyer told us to answer as if we would not finalize until we were back home, BUT every adoptive parent I emailed said they did the opposite!  And a few of them had already traveled and had no problems.  We ended up filling out based on what our social workers and lawyer recommended and are just praying that they know what they’re talking about.  Maybe it’s one of those things that is ok either way, not a right/wrong way?  We’ll find out!

 

December Update

Well, since we have officially retained a lawyer in Uganda (who, I’ve recently been told, now has a waiting list!) we are getting our I600A ready to send in to USCIS.  For those of you not familiar with this, the I600A is an Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition that we must file and have approval from the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) in order to get a court date in Uganda and bring our daughter home.  The form itself is only 2 pages and shouldn’t be that hard to fill out, HOWEVER, I am getting some conflicting advice about how to answer the questions on it!  Both ways make sense to me so I’m not sure what to do.  I guess this is one of those times when it would be nice to have an agency to just call and ask I’m sure we can get things figured out, it just might take a little more time and effort that it would if we had an agency.

Anyway it looks like it takes 1-2 months to get approval from USCIS, though their process has recently changed a bit so the time frame may change too.  After we are matched with a child, we have to have USCIS approval to get a court date in Uganda.  Our lawyer estimated that his side of things would take 3-6 months from start to finish.  We are expecting our wait to be matched with a child to be on the longer side b/c we did request a specific age range and gender.  But all that being said, 6 months is not that long!  Since we made the decision to start our journey about a year ago, we are thrilled that there is now an end in sight!

Grace is also eagerly awaiting her little sister.  Today she said “Mommy, I miss my little sister.”  I “miss” her too!

We are trying to think of a good fundraiser… any suggestions?  I do love a good adoption T-shirt, but I’m just not very creative.  We were so excited about Both Hands, but found out we can’t do that b/c they don’t help with independent adoptions   I’d rather do 1 big fundraiser than a bunch of little ones…  oh well, we’ll keep thinking about that!  Our next steps are: sending in our I600A, getting approval, and being matched with a child.  We’ll keep you posted!

 

Ugandan “Adoption”

I just wanted to take a minute to share what I’ve learned in my research of Ugandan adoptions!  It can seem kind of complicated and confusing.

First of all, in Uganda you are technically not adopting – you are granted Legal Guardianship and bring the child home to the US to adopt.  You can read more about Legal Guardianship in Uganda here.

It is my understanding that there are 3 ways that you can get started.  You can choose to work with an orphanage and use the lawyers they advise, you can choose a Ugandan lawyer and let them help you get in touch with orphanages, or you can work with an agency in the states and let them do the legwork for you.  I will try to tell you what I’ve researched about each of these options.

Orphanages:

Amani Baby Cottage and Sanyu Babies Home are by far the most popular.  The both have websites with contact information, and a detailed application process.  Amani has a stateside volunteer who will walk families through the whole process.  Sanyu has a social worker in Uganda.  Sanyu requires you to travel there to be matched with a child – they are the only home that I found that requires this.  They both were prompt and kind in responding to my email inquiries, however neither is accepting applications at this time due to the number they already have and they are waiting to process.  Sanyu told me they hope to be accepting applications again in January, Amani did not give an estimate.

The other 2 homes that I have heard of are Ibanda Babies Home and Nsambya Babies Home.  They do not have websites, but I have an email address for the social worker at Nsambya.  It took her a little while to respond, but she was very thorough in answering my questions.  Nsambya does have a application process.  I don’t know about Ibanda b/c I don’t have a contact for them.

Orphanages in Uganda must be approved by the Ministry of Gender to care for children in order for you to work with them.  It is my understanding that the 4 homes I’ve mentioned have that approval.  There is another one called Loving Hearts Babies Home that is awaiting this approval and hope to have everything ready in December.  The last time I heard from them they didn’t have a website yet, but are working on one.

Lawyers:

The Lawyers that have been recommended to me are: Peter Nyombi, Victoria Katamba, and Isaac Obiro.  I have heard both good and bad things about Peter but I did not personally contact him b/c I was told that he was out of town these last couple of weeks that I’ve been researching.  Victoria responded to my email quickly and sent me a client letter explaining the process.  We have chosen to work with Isaac b/c he is willing to assist us in identifying a baby that needs a home.  Other lawyers will help you get in contact with the orphanages and you work with the orphanage to identify a child.  However, since the orphanages I had contacted weren’t accepting applications, we thought it’d be best if we had a lawyer who could help us in that capacity.  We are just getting started with him, so I will keep you posted about how the process goes!

Adoption Agencies:

It is important to note that Uganda has not approved any agency to facilitate adoptions in their country, at least that is my understanding at this time.  That being said, here are some agencies that have a Ugandan program:

Holt – I called and left a message inquiring about their Uganda program and no one ever called me back.  From their website it seemed to me that they might work mostly with placing older children, but wasn’t able to ask b/c my call was never returned!

Generations – Their program is new and when I spoke with them earlier this month they hadn’t completed any adoptions yet.  The person I spoke with was very nice and answered all my questions EXCEPT she wouldn’t tell me what orphanage and lawyer they work with.  Seemed strange to me.

Lifeline -  I spoke with a family who is using them and highly recommended them, I have not personally spoken with anyone at Lifeline.

So there you have it!  I hope this might help someone who is interested in bringing home a Ugandan blessing.  Please leave a comment if you have any questions, I will try to at least point you in the right direction to find an answer!  I am by no means an expert but I feel like I have done my best to research all the options about getting started.  I’m sure I’ll have more to post as we move forward and learn more about the process.

 

Uganda here we come!!

Well, we’ve been praying a lot and really feel that God is leading us to Uganda for Grace’s little sister!  We are super excited to at least have that much figured out.  What we have to decide now is whether to do it independently, as most adoptions in Uganda are done, OR to sign up with an agency who has started a pilot program there but has never completed an adoption.  Personally, I feel pretty comfortable doing it independently.  We haven’t had great experiences with agencies and I like the idea of having direct contact with the orphanage.  I think Chris likes the idea of an agency being the middle man for us.  One perk about working with an agency is that you have to be with an agency to apply for grants.  Most grants won’t give you money for an independent adoption.

So, that’s where we stand now – independent or not?  What are your thoughts, any advice?!  Know of any orphanages in Uganda that you would suggest?  (We have already contacted Amani, but they are not currently accepting any more applications.)

Another positive thing is that we are done with the home study!!!  Yeah!  The Social Worker is just waiting to fill in the blank that says what agency or orphanage we are working with….

 

Bye Bye Dillon

We have officially decided to leave our adoption agency.  That is all I know for sure right now.  We’re still praying about what the next step should be.  Please pray with us as we seek God in this decision.

 

on hold

our home study is now on hold.  it has not been sent to Dillon for approval b/c we are not sure that we will be continuing our adoption with Dillon.  Dillon does not accept credit cards.  the social worker is going to see if they can work something out for us, since we started with a different agency.  we’ll see what happens.

i posted about it on my blog too.

 

home study

we are officially done with our home study interviews!  yeah!  i’m so glad to have that huge task checked off the list.  now we wait for the social worker to write the document and then we submit it to dillon and wait for approval.  it seems like things are actually moving forward and that is so exciting!  at the same time it is hard not to get discouraged by how much more there is to do and how much longer there is to wait…

 

A slight change.

An agency change.  Yep, you heard me.  Our adoption agency, Buckner, has merged with Dillon for all their international adoptions.  We have known this for a few weeks, but I have not posted about it b/c I haven’t really been sure what it means for us.  Now I understand a little better. It means a new agency, new case worker, and our case has to be staffed and approved all over again with Dillon.  We have a new case worker who has to read our file and learn about us from scratch.  So when people ask us what agency we are using, the answer is Dillon.  Which is strange to me b/c they are not who we chose!  Now, I have heard nothing but good about Dillon and I’m sure they are a great agency.  Maybe this is where God wanted us the whole time.  Maybe He had to get us with Dillon this way b/c He knew they weren’t even on our top 5 list!  We are just trusting that He has a plan and the He “will work all thing for good of those who love Him.”

We are finishing our educational classes this week and home study interviews are scheduled for Sept. 1st.

 

in the buggy at Sams

last week grace and i were shopping at Sams.  for what, i do not remember   they have big buggies there, the kind with 2 seats in the front for children to sit in.  about half way through our shopping excursion grace randomly says “i want my little sister to sit right here” as she points to the empty seat beside her.  my heart melts and all i can say is “i do too, sweet girl”.  i do too.

we hope to start the home study interviews next week, waiting to hear back from the social worker.