Story #1: The Willis Family's Ugandan Miracle!

My husband and I have been praying about adoption for years.  When he went to Uganda with our church in June of 2010, God made it clear that our child was in Uganda.  We started the day he got home and a short 4 months later our son, Owen, was in our home.  

God walked us through every step of the way.  One of the benefits of adopting from Uganda is that you are able to do it independently.  We hired our Ugandan lawyers after lots of research and referrals.  We got most of our information from a private facebook group!  We met lots of new friends and learned lots tons about both adoption and Uganda.  We hired a social worker here in the DFW area from another friend's referral.  She has walked us through the American processes and showed us how to get all of our needed training.  

Owen was brought to our attention by a friend of our lawyers who adopted a little girl from Uganda - she posted on facebook that a little boy needed a home and we prayed and inquired. 

The most valuable tool we have had along the way is prayer.  Our friends and family prayed us along and God moved mountains to get us to the child He always intended to be ours. When we were done with all of our required paperwork and training in the US, we waited for a court date in Uganda.   We were told about this date with less than a week's notice!  So, we packed up and got ready to travel.  

When we arrived, we stayed at the orphanage where Owen was.  We volunteered and learned about Uganda and it's people.  I didn't know it at the time, but I was falling in love with Uganda every step of the way.  We went to all of our legal appointments and were granted legal guardianship of Owen.  Our lawyers were so helpful and really lead us through the process.  We traveled home 3 weeks after we arrived, and then with our daughter, became a family of 4 at DFW International Airport!

Our process was very smooth (considering) with lots of scares along the way.  We had no agency to buffer anything, but we were thankful we were able to go independently.  It is often cheaper and has a shorter time frame too.  We prayed and God moved.  We asked Him to lead us to the child He had for us - and He did just that.  Uganda has 2.5 million orphans waiting for forever families.  We are very excited to see what God has in store for our future.  We have no idea what He is up to, but we are so thankful for the journey he has put us on. 

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