Yesterday was a GINORMOUS day! Thanks to many of you for celebrating with us. As far as the United States is concerned three children orphaned by AIDS and extreme poverty have been given a family as if it never happened.

Today I want to encourage anyone and everyone who reads my blog, sees this post on Facebook or Twitter to watch this video and ask God if one of these kids, other than our three, is supposed to be yours. Ask for a dream, like I had, or simply just begin to pray for these children that moms and dads would bring them home. Contact Jill Baker at Promise Kids A Future if interested in joining us on this adoption journey, and maybe at this time next year we’ll be attending your celebration.

On Monday, as long as we find favor with the judge, three children will officially become Smiths. Over four years we have been on this journey, and there have been many significant moments in the midst of those four years as we have celebrated life and mourned death. We have expanded in some areas and retracted in others. We have simply become new, different, transformed people. We went from possibility to actuality.

In order to put in perspective what happens in four years here’s a short list:

I completed work on two Masters degrees.

We went from having four in elementary school to still having four in elementary school along with one in middle school and one in high school.

My 11 year old became a teenager, and my five year old became nine (lots of change there), and Kristi and I turned 40 (ouch).

My mother was diagnosed and the lost her battle with cancer, yet left us with a legacy of faith that will be impossible to forget.

Kristi’s grandfather lost his battle with age.

We went from adopting a boy and only a boy to a boy and two girls, from one to three.

We went from private Christian school to public school.

We went from three jobs to two, a working mom to a stay at home mom.

We went from four bedrooms to five, and from a minivan to a Suburban.

We went from none in diapers to one at night.

We went from times when the laundry hamper was empty to a perpetual laundry producing machine.

We went from having leftovers from dinner to barely having enough.

We went from three kids to six, two soccer teams to four, packing three lunches to six, from very little homework assistance to a lot, from kids who were at the top of the class to kids who are behind.

And I won’t even get into the change Kamri, Lucas, and Lilli have endured.

I stand in awe. How naive I was the morning I awoke to from a dream. All of this born out of the pursuit of a dream.

To God be the glory forever and ever, AMEN.

This may be the single most frequently asked question I get since returning from Uganda with the three newest additions. I don’t want to discourage anyone from continuing to ask that question, but the reality is that the kids adapted within the first few hours of being placed in our care the day we arrived in Uganda.

Now, they still have their issues. I mean they are little, cute untamed balls of original sin, but that’s no different than any other child.

The question, or questions, everyone should be asking is, “How are you adapting?” “How have you been transformed as a person, dad, husband, friend, son, brother, pastor, etc.?” What work needs to be done in your life, Robert?”

When I got the call on a warm Southern California January morning that a third child was now in the picture I had all of the confidence in the world that Kristi and I would make it work. What I wasn’t prepared for was that I wasn’t prepared. I thought I was prepared, but the little things are what always sneak up and derail you.

I wasn’t prepared for the increase in noise, the worldview of our new children that they should be able to get anything that they want, bed wetting, and five soccer players on four different teams. I wasn’t prepared to discipline differently. I wasn’t prepared for the change of expectations for my wife and the struggle she would have with the fact that the laundry won’t always be caught up nor will the floors always be clean.

What about this one – I never saw a need for having a deep freeze, but if we want to quit going to the grocery store twice a week, then we better get one.

The good news is this…God is always in the midst of preparing me, and while I may never be completely prepared for life’s situations He will never fail to sustain me in my development as His son. I was a pretty confident Dad before February, and now I realize I have a lot yet to learn and that’s a far better place to be – unprepared and yet confident in the result.

Most of you know by now that we have made it back home.

What a homecoming!!!

Family, friends, signs, balloons, TV cameras, and newspaper photographers.

While we were there we made the Georgetown News Graphic, and since our return we were on the front page.

The day after our return we celebrated Dad’s birthday, and distributed souvenirs amongst family.

Less than a week after coming home, and a month to the day of The Call two of our Ugandan kids, Lucas and Kamri, have already begun school.

In four weeks we became a family of eight…the Suburban is full.

What a Month?!

FYI…I have added links to the Adoption posts so you can navigate a little easier. The story began here.

Fast forward three and a half years to January 28th at 4:30 am.

So, our journey to adoption has taken yet another incredible neck breaking turn. At 4:30 am Eastern, which is 12:30 pm in Uganda, on Thursday, January 27, 2011 we get a call requesting our availability for a Monday, January 31, 2011 meeting with our lawyer…in UGANDA!!!

I had only recently hit the wall emotionally as the judge we had been assigned was refusing to schedule cases because the person whom he was replacing had not moved out of her office. Our judge was also the new head of the Family Court, and there is a significant amount of pride as men rise to his level of power in Uganda. Seldom does one find a humble man, but when one has authority in Uganda they tend to use it to every advantage even if the only advantage is making sure that you know they are in control.

Not only did he only give us five days notice of our hearing, but after delivering his ruling he took 9 days to sign the typed copies. We were told it would be ready Monday, but the judge was out all day for a burial. Then we were told to come back Tuesday and our lawyer waited for him to arrive to sign until 4:00pm. She was told that he was having his lunch, and then once she was given the opportunity to see him at 4:30pm he told her it was too late and to come back Wednesday morning. Agnes arrived at his office at 9:30 am on Wednesday morning and well that story can be read here.

A lot happened in that 3 1/2 years. Family members have died. Friendships have come and gone. Sources of income have changed. I have gotten  two more degrees. Our children are 3 1/2 years older. We went from adopting one to three. We’ve even changed vehicles twice.

While I still wish Mom and Grandpa Barney were here to experience this with us and I still wish we would have completed this journey a year or two ago, but I can see God weaving together everything for a purpose. I don’t think we would have gone and been home in 2 weeks and 6 days if it were not for the timing of this episode. Egypt in disarray, Algeria not far behind a regime change, people protesting in Bahrain and Libya, and an election in Uganda involving a president who has been in office for 25 years all came together to maybe make our trip one of the fastest in the history of Ugandan adoptions. The length of our stay was a prayer concern, and God intervened. If we had known all of that was going to happen we might have been able to predict The Phone Call, but what fun would that have been?

Chapter 7: The Surprise

Chapter 9: Real Time Updates begin here

When I arrived home from my month-long excursion to Uganda in 2007 I was showered with love and gifts by my children. The first thing I opened was a card…

That was three years and six months ago.

Chapter 6: The Mission Trip

Chapter 8: The Phone Call

I had been on other trips to help build physical buildings for churches in Jamaica and Costa Rica, do Vacation Bible School for for hundreds of kids – some who swam through the sewer to reach us in Jamaica, repair homes in an old gold mining town in South Dakota, but Africa was always a dream.

In 2007 a vision was shared to use soccer to help disciple kids in Uganda, and off I went for an entire month.

There were many encounters, lots of emotions, and a ton of memories.

Memories include driving most of the way from Mbale to Busia in the pitch black dark in a Toyota Corona that had electrical problems. So, we either tried to stay with vehicles that passed us on the road or we used flashlights as headlights. However, this seemed more safe than stopping somewhere with two Mzungus who had large sums of money on their person. Blaine and I actually made a video in the back seat just in case we didn’t make it home.

We held the soccer camp next to the school run by the mosque on the other side of the field. We walked passed the mosque every day as we traveled between our hotel and camp. We didn’t realize this until the second week of camp. The mean looks we kept getting from the people at the mosque then began to make some sense. We think they may actually own the field too.

Prossy made pizza in a solar oven only because I talked about it. And it was incredible. I was constantly amazed at how much she got done using a solar oven and a charcoal stove.

And then there was my first encounter with the Oktoberfest Ugandan Style

And the list could go on.

The highlight; however, was my return home. There is no place like home. And at home a surprise awaited…

Chapter 5: The Laugh

Chapter 7: The Surprise

So, I brought a book entitled Sacred Waiting by David Timms. I finished the introduction today and now I am afraid to go any further.

“We will only wait on Him with joy if we have deep confidence in His love for us.”

There has been a lot of waiting in 3 1/2 years. Sadly, not much of it was with joy, but instead felt like a wrestling match.

I’ve done quite a bit of waiting since being in Uganda, but the speed of life has been anything but African in nature as we rush from one appointment to the next.

Even yesterday I waited on our ruling to be released and family to arrive to once again sign amended releases. I was here from 6:45 am until 4:30pm, made the same request of God over and over again, and yet, as I write these words, I am in the lawyers office once again awaiting the release of our signed ruling by our judge, and our Embassy appointment was moved from 2pm to 10:30 am today. It’s now 10am, and my chest is beginning to tighten and heart rate is beginning to climb as adrenaline begins to course through my veins because of the expectation I have of leaving Uganda before elections on Friday.

Far from Sacred Waiting…

Even our trip to Busia seemed whirlwind. I tried to stuff in as much as possible as if I was trying to make up for lost time. I spent little time having tea and chatting with friends, which had made my last trip so fulfilling. And so, while I feel like I did much, it is empty of any sense of a rich and satisfying use of my time.

Only until dinner last night with a new friend did life seem to slow to a meaningful pace.

Yet I still acknowledge that God will provide a way, and it will be the best way. I admit that while I may not like it God may want us
here through the elections for reasons that will not be revealed until we are far removed from our current circumstances and hindsight is
20/20.

Father, help me to wait joyfully, increase the depth and breadth of my confidence in Your care for us.

It’s now 10:45am and still no ruling. Kristi is heading to Embassy anyway in order to finish paperwork and begin answering questions.

Father, help me to wait joyfully, increase the depth and breadth of my confidence in Your care for us.

11:03am Agnes has called and she has one signed copy of the ruling in her hands. I am not clear but it seems she had to take it somewhere before returning here. Kristi and the kids are on their way to the Embassy. We’ll be an hour late at least, but hopefully it receives purpose.

Father, help me wait joyfully, increase my confidence in Your care for me.

12:00 and rulings have yet to arrive. Kristi should have been at Embassy for 45 minutes by now. We cannot raise Agnes on the phone for an update so we have no way of preparing for my swift departure.

Father, help me wait joyfully, increase my confidence in Your care for me.

12:18 Prossy just called me wanting to brief me before I go to Embassy. She is waiting for me there. I still await Agnes and the ever absent ruling. I wonder of what I need to be briefed.

Father, help me wait joyfully, increase my confidence in Your care for me.

12:25 Everyone in the office is trying to reach Agnes on her cell. I’ve been asked to participate. No luck with voice, but sent txt and she replied. She’s in court, but I’m unsure as to why. It seems she is still waiting on my judge for something.

1:00 pm Agnes arrives with rulings. She is now nicknamed “The Victor” by her office mates. Now I am on my way to the embassy.

1:15 pm I’ve arrived at the Embassy and get briefed by by Prossy before giving up my phone.

1:25 pm I’ve entered the waiting room and Kristi hasn’t been seen yet, nor has Tim received his visas.

4:30 pm We are informed our visas will be ready on Thursday at 4:00 pm, I have paid lots more money, sent emails to book flights, called parents, and Kristi rides her first boda boda, now we wait once again.

Father, help me wait joyfully, increase my confidence in Your care for me.

The next real time update…

So, here is where we stand today. We have an Embassy appointment at 2:00 pm, which would be 6:00am Eastern. Which means we’ll likely be done by the time you read this. I also hope to get the signed ruling from the judge today.

What has transpired over the last two days is a testimony to how things typically work in Uganda. I spent two whole days either in my lawyer’s office or at the Embassy. On Moday, the Thompsons had their Embassy interview. Their judge was rather quick in getting them the signed ruling, while ours has been less than accommodating.

I’ll need to wait and reveal details of the Embassy interview for the Thompsons, but I can say that it resulted in us having to arrange for every family member to return to Kampala in order to sign another irrevocable release yesterday. Most travelled through the night to arrive using public transportation. The experience of public transportation is beyond my ability to describe, but my sole experience ranks as one of the most uncomfortable four hours of my life, and many of the family came from further than I did. I also waited until 4:30 pm for our ruling to be released only to have our lawyer return being told to “come back tomorrow.”

I’ll tell more of that story later, but for now I will leave in 15 minutes to go back to my lawyer’s office to await the release of the signed ruling. I then will attempt to get that ruling to the Embassy before 10am. If I fail to do so it could jeopardize our receiving visas by tomorrow. We’ll then return to the Embassy for our 2:00pm interview where we hope to hear that our visas will be ready on Thursday. We have initially booked a return flight, but I won’t reveal details until I have visas in hand.

The next real time update…

On Friday I went to see a dear friend, Jimmy. Jimmy was arrested last February on charges of murder just prior to an Adopt Uganda team’s departure. It seems that he was arrested on the sole fact that he was in possession of a brown jacket.  It is not clear if the police were trying to obtain some bribe money from the Mzungus, or if was just a simple mistake.

In any case he has now been in prison for a crime he did not commit for a year. He is in the Torroro Prison Farm. I was happy that his wife was able to join us for the trip. She had not been able to visit since December 6^th.

While Jimmy was happy to see us it was obvious that he was also somewhat discouraged. It now seems that another person has been arrested for the same crime, but Jimmy is still in prison. A hearing is scheduled for March in Mbale, and it is now our hope that bail is set and met so he can enjoy freedom again.

The next real time update…