Live from Uganda!

Right now I am sitting on a porch in Kampala with Jake. We have a cool breeze and I am drinking my Starbucks Via Coffee that some sweet friends sent with me. It has been a long, crazy, wonderful week and I can't wait to catch you all up!

We flew out of Austin on Saturday at 3:45pm and arrived in Entebbe, Uganda at 7:15am Monday morning. We were worried about flying half-way across the world with a 2 year old... but it turns out our son is a rock star! Camp LOVED flying and slept great on our overnight flights. He was easily entertained during layovers and we never heard him complain. God was so gracious!

It felt like everything was going so smoothly until we pulled up at the Baby Home. As we approached the home Camp started saying that his tummy hurt. Then as we arrived he vomited all over me and the car. We were then quickly ushered into the house while carrying all of our stuff and covered in vomit. And in this fine moment was when we were introduced to Baby U. As he was trying to take in the sight of this white couple, who had been traveling for 2 days and smelled terrible, he started to cry. We tried to comfort him and told Camp to help his brother feel better. That is when Camp broke into song and dance singing "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. Let's just say... this moment did not go the way we had envisioned... but we will never forget it!

Things have calmed down a bit from that moment, but not a lot. We are staying at the Baby Home where Baby U is…and where 29 other kids are too. This has been a blessing in one sense, as it has given us a lot of time with our future son, but it has also been very sobering (hard) being around so many precious children who are also in desperate need of forever families. (I am sure we will write more about that later when we have had time to process.)

As for Baby U, we have come a long way relationally since our first meeting on Monday. By God’s grace he has continued to warm up to us more and more each day. On Tuesday he was referring to us as “mommy” and “daddy” and “brother.” On Wednesday he wouldn’t let me put him down and he gave Jake an unsolicited kiss, right on his mouth. It was precious. And today (Thursday) he spent almost the entire day with us in our room, just the four of us. We really felt like a family! He gets super excited when he sees us and really sad when we lay him down to sleep and have to leave him. He and Camp are connecting and Camp is proving to be a great big brother already! Camp is sharing his Toy Story toys with him and he is sharing all of his snacks with Camp; which couldn’t make Camp happier.

Tomorrow is the BIG day. Please be praying for us as we go before the judge tomorrow! Specifically, please pray that the Judge will grant us legal guardianship and that he will submit his written ruling quickly, like by Tuesday, or at least by the end of next week!

We will post another update tomorrow after our day in court. We will also start posting pictures soon. We hope you are all doing well! Please feel free to post comments. We love hearing from you.

Signing off from Kampala,

Krista and Jake