Straight From Heaven

You can read about our adoption on our adoption blog here, but Steve & I look at our lives now and we just have to chuckle. We NEVER considered adoption for our family. We always thought it was something neat that other families did but never thought of it for our own family. But in December of 2011 - I remember it very clearly - I just really felt God calling us to adopt from Uganda. I laughed and argued with God because we were in our early 40's & living a pretty comfortable life. Surely I was missing something or not hearing correctly. No - God made it very clear.

So, fast forward to March 7, 2013 - the day we met Asher. What an amazing day. So many thoughts were going through our mind... "What in the world are we doing?!", "What if he doesn't like us?!", "What if he's not a good 'fit' for our family?", "What if we're not a good fit for him?!", "What if he has major mental issues or health problems?!", etc.  That's the day our faith in God grew by heaps and bounds. That's all we had was faith & we had to follow His leading. It was also a huge reminder to us that God accepted us just as we were - with all our mess-ups and imperfect lives - and he loves us unconditionally anyway. So we decided before we even met Asher that even if it was hard, we were also going to love him unconditionally and give him the forever family that he needed and deserved.

So many people have told us that we've done such a "great" thing and we're such a blessing to Asher - but we don't feel that way at all. We mean no disrespect, but we didn't do anything "great". We just followed after God's calling and added a little guy to our mix. And we feel that he has blessed our lives sooo much more than we ever could for him. Our love for him has grown so much and we are so thankful to God for placing him in our family.

Just wanted to share a few pics of the progress he's made over the past 6 months. Every day he amazes us with something new - whether it's new words he's picked up, a puzzle he's learned to put together, something he learned to take apart and reassemble, or growing into a new size of clothes. Our cup overfloweth...

This pic was taken a few months before we met Asher.

March 7, 2013 - Our first day to meet Asher - his "Gotcha Day".

March 14, 2013 - Court date in Kampala, Uganda

Hike at Murchison Falls, UG

Entebbe Zoo

Nile River

This was a happy day - the day we received Asher's visa - the last step in getting legal guardianship & now we could finally go HOME!

Our homecoming at the airport - so good to be on Okie soil after being away for 8 weeks!

 

These next few pics were taken our first week home.

Getting chubbier & having fun experiencing new things!

Bartlesville Kiddy Park

Love those huggles!

First haircut :-(

Playing with cousins Lance, Luke & Will

Posing with cousins Emily & Riley

Asher loooves trains, cars, airplanes, puzzles, and reading books.

Daddy FINALLY has someone to watch football with ;-)

Asher's become quite the little swimmer! He loves to jump in the water without anyone catching him and he even goes down the slide & jumps off the diving board by himself!

Asher loooves his daddy!

Day trip to Stillwater - ate at Eskimo Joe's & walked around the campus. Can never start brainwashing too early ;-)

We'd like to thank everyone that has played a part in our adoption - from those who prayed for us, to those who donated towards our adoption expenses, to those who gave Asher gifts and hand-me-downs, to those that provided meals for our family after we returned home, etc. You are all such a huge blessing to us and we are eternally grateful for all you did and continue to do. Now - go love BIG! ;-)