the matts:

Just thought I’d fill everyone in on some stats about Uganda- home of at least two of our kiddos…

What is the demographic profile of Uganda’s Population?

• 28.6 million people live in Uganda (2007 projection);
• 16 million children under 18years live in Uganda (2007 projection);
• 57% of Uganda’s population are children below the age of 18 years.
• More than 3 million children live below the poverty line;
• Approximately 105,000 children aged 0-14 years are HIV positive.

What is the current status on Orphans and other Vulnerable Children in Uganda?

• 2.3 million orphans in Uganda (2007);
• There are an estimated 890,000 orphans due to AIDS. This is equal to 45.6% of all orphans;
• One out of every 4 households in Uganda have at least one orphan;
• Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (OVC) are estimated to be 7.5 million, equivalent to 46% of all children (2007).

The following info was in an email I received about our founding fathers and their devotion to our God & this country. It’s really good, so I wanted to share

The Declaration of Independence was approved JULY 4, 1776.

John Hancock signed first, saying “the price on my head has just doubled.”

Benjamin Franklin said “We must hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately.”

Of the 56 signers:

17 served in the military;

11 had their homes destroyed;

5 were hunted and captured;

Abraham Clark had two sons imprisoned on the British starving ship Jersey;

John Witherspoon’s son was killed in battle;

Francis Lewis’ wife was inprisoned and died from the harsh treatment.

Many, such as Thomas Nelson and Carter Braxton, lost their fortunes;

and 9 died during the War.

When Samuel Adams signed the Declaration, he said:

“We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.”

John Adams said:

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”

John Adams continued:

“I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration… Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory… Posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not.”

AMEN!!! I think our days as a country blessed by God are numbered, since we have almost completely turned our back on Him and His ways. America was founded as a nation led by Godly men, and now… well… not so much. I pray His continued blessings over us, even when we least deserve it. He is a merciful God, and I pray He has mercy on us.

My sweet angel,

This has been such a crazy month for you… You moved from two naps to just one, and it was a much easier transition than Mommy anticipated. Two weekends ago you got a nasty viral infection in your tummy and it was no fun. You threw up six times in one night and had us worried sick… And then Mommy got sick, too, and then I gave it back to you. It was a wild weekend.

A few days later we went swimming at Mimi’s and you came home and took a VERY long nap. When you woke up, you couldn’t stand up or walk. Mommy and Daddy got so nervous that we brought you to the hospital, but as soon as we got out of the car you were fine. The next morning you woke up burning hot with fever, you couldn’t stand or walk, and it was obvious your legs hurt. We went to the doctor and they ran a lot of tests on you… First, they determined you had a really bad ear infection. Then they took your blood, and the nurse couldn’t find a vein so she was poking you to death and Mommy almost had to knock her out.

After that was over, we went to the hospital for some x-rays. After all the major stuff came back clear, the doctor said the viral infection had traveled into your joints- there’s some fancy name that I can’t remember. After a few days, you were good as new. We have never been so scared in our lives as we were then, but you were healed- Jesus takes such good care of you.

Now you are back to running around the house, and you started this new arm swinging thing which is HILARIOUS!!! Your top two teeth are almost all the way through, and you have a big ‘ole gap between them. Your favorite thing in the world to do is brush those little teeth- you scream when we make you stop. It is so cute- everything on you is so cute. Your hair’s getting so long, and it’s really making you look like such a big girl.

You’re such a little character now. You are good as gold, sweet as pie, and rotten as a bad apple- but we could not love you more. Every time I look at you, I am amazed that you are mine. I love that you have my passion for books. I love how you will give “sugars “to everyone and everything. I pray that sweet spirit stays with you forever. I love to watch you pick things up and carry them around, so proud of yourself. I love to watch you stack blocks and empty containers only to refill them.

I love how you say “hot hot hot” and all the other versions of your words. I love how you know exactly what we are saying all the time and can totally follow directions. You are such a genius. You understand everything- it blows my mind. And when you point to your belly button- it couldn’t be more precious. I love how you stand up on your tippy-tippy toes to reach things you want, and how you stick out your tongue when you are concentrating really hard. I love how you stand on your head, and the way you give us big, wet, slobbery kisses over and over again.

Thank you for the joy you bring to my life everyday. I don’t take a second with you for granted. You are a miracle and the biggest blessing God ever created. I love you more than life.

Mommy

Things are changing in the House of Matt. Big things. Great things. I’m kind of a freak in that I love change. I think it’s exciting, keeps life feeling fresh, and keeps us dependent on God.

As you all know, we have been planning for months to adopt from Ethiopia. It was one of the only African countries with a program that adopted to Americans (that aren’t Madonna). It’s a very impoverished country with almost 5 million orphans, all deserving a good home. But we kept feeling like we were hitting brick walls in the process, and that things weren’t progressing like they should have been. Thankfully, the agency we were working with warned us against paying them any money until we were almost done fundraising the complete amount. Then God led us to look at other countries.

That’s when I found out about Uganda- my dream country, the place I always dreamed of visiting and adopting from. A place that only allowed you to adopt from there if you were a resident for three years. But they recently created a loophole so that international people (like us) could give those precious orphans a future and a family.

Through hours of research and speaking with people currently in the process of adopting from there, we were connected to an agency in Texas. Today we received word that our application to adopt from Uganda (through their program) was approved.

The reason things were dragging and never felt 100% right was because our kids aren’t in Ethiopia. They’re in Uganda. And now we can begin the process to bring them home. It should take somewhere in the ballpark of 6 months (give or take) for everything to happen, and we could not be more excited. God has given us such peace about this, and we feel so blessed. We also found out that Chris’ company will reimburse us for a lot of our expenses, so we have just a little bit more to raise. And to top it off, this program will cost HALF of what Ethiopia would have.

God is SO good.

In addition, I have resigned from the little part-time job I did from home in order to spend more time volunteering for the church and with Presley. These last few months of her being an only child are very special and I don’t want them to slip away. I know she will be so excited when her brother and sister are home and she has playmates. It will be an adjustment, of course, but I have no doubt that she will love them as much as we already do.

Whew. That was long. Thanks for sticking with us. Thanks for believing with us and praying with us and supporting us. This is a journey we are loving, and we are so happy you are by our side!!!

“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20

This is the verse on my favorite t-shirt, HPC’s original homeless ministry shirt that says “Jesus was homeless.” I wear it all the time. I love it. I always thought about what I would say if someone struck up a conversation with me about this shirt, but I just thought it would come to me.

So today in Whole Foods when the really sweet, very courteous deli cheese guy asked me what exactly Matthew 8:20 said and went into his theory about whether Jesus was really homeless, one would think I would have been prepared. I told him that the verse talks about how even the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head, and how that must be a comfort to the homeless of our community.

Then he said something so funny, I had no response- “Well in reality, didn’t Christ just live with his mom for thirty years and then couch surf?”

Seriously? How do you answer that? I hope my attitude, my spirit, and my few words in reply did the Big Man proud. And I pray that I am an example of Him even when I least expect it.

Here’s a little bit of what we have been up to lately

(since I finally got my camera cord!!!):

Presley has forgotten all about that walking thing and has upgraded to running. She’s so fast I keep losing her. Little stinker

At Grammy’s birthday lunch, we did it old school with Presley sitting on a phone book, strapped down with a belt. Then we ate some yummy strawberry cake from Ambrosia. I’m pretty sure Pres ate more of it than I did.

This is my precious nephew, Brendyn (my brother Chris’ baby). He has the Kinney nose and is the spitting image of my brother as a baby.

I could just eat him he’s so cute.

Presley is still obsessed with shoes. If there’s a shoe in her vicinity, she will find it, put it on her hands, and walk around with it.

Then she will scream if you take it away. Seriously, shoes=love.

Our big birthday present from my mom was the Coldplay concert in New Orleans on Tuesday. Those guys are AMAZING,

and we were only 18 rows away from their splendor.

We were so close!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the night. I took 96.

Presley is beginning to merge her two shorter naps into one longer one. The first day we tried it, she got pretty tired at her usual first nap time.

The above is the result.

I love my life. I couldn’t be happier or more blessed. There are some exciting major changes on the adoption front. That post will come soon. Stay tuned.

I found this video over at Carlos Whitaker’s amazing blog. It will be some of the best three minutes of your whole day. Take a look (please excuse some of the ridiculous outfits), and then read what he wrote about starting your own movement. I love it!

A few things I think we can learn from this video.
1. One man can start a movement.
2. A movement need not be started by the most skilled member of the movement.
3. When beginning your movement and you look around and no one else is joining the dance, just keep dancing.
4. When the one guy who joins your movement slowly fades away, keep going.
5. Before you know it, the people joining your movement won’t even know you started it.
6. When your movement takes a life of it’s own, just let go. There will be no stopping it.
7. The very people who are staring at you like your nuts as you movement alone, will be the very same people dancing the hardest in the end.

I have nothing more insightful to add to this, except that I hope I am never ashamed of who God created me to be, and I pray that I teach my children to be the same. Let’s start a movement! What will yours be?

Enjoy these pics from Presley’s polka dot themed birthday party over a month ago… Sorry I am so behind

We are holding a huge, multi-family garage sale fundraiser this Saturday, May 30. All proceeds go to benefit orphaned children.

Some of our treasures include furniture, sports items, electronics, kids/baby clothing, toys, housewares, tools and more!

You do not want to miss this!

My sweet angel,
I cannot believe how fast the time has flown. You have been such a joy! Now that you have mastered walking, running is your new mode of transportation- and you are fast! And you are always on your tip-toes, which sometimes makes finding you really hard because you sneak away so quietly. But then you let out a little squeal, or say something cute, and Mommy finds you.

You love repeating what we say now, and sometimes you crack me up with how you say things. You have little conversations with yourself, your dolls and your toys, and you get SO into it. I wish I knew what was going on in that little brain of yours. When you sit down with a book and turn the pages and talk and talk and talk, it really seems like you’re reading and totally understanding it all. Quite the little prodigy you are

Your favorite thing to do is dance, and anytime there is music-or just any kind of beat- you are shakin’ it like crazy! Lately, you’ve been leaning up against something and shimmying your little booty around. I need to catch that on camera!

Your fourth tooth just broke through, so now you have two on top and two on bottom. Your smile just gets sweeter and sweeter! We taught you how to give “nose kisses”, so now you rub your nose against ours to show affection. Of course, you still give wide open mouth kisses to “give sugars”, huge hugs to “show love” and blow kisses when telling someone goodbye. You are the most loving baby I’ve ever seen!

You can’t decide whether you want one or two naps a day, but I think for now we are sticking with two. You seem to still need both, and I think some of your sleeping problems have to do with those pesky teeth coming through.

You’ve figured out how to stack blocks and discover new things everyday. You follow directions better than any toddler I’ve ever seen (like handing us things, shutting/opening cabinets, not doing something if we tell you not to). You are such a monkey- you climb in and on everything. Yesterday we found you in the dishwasher! You still love shoes, and now you love to carry around a purse- you are totally your mother’s child!!

You bring us joy and excitement every day. You are hilarious and crazy smart. You’ve never met at item of food you didn’t like. You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I love you to pieces… I couldn’t love you more. Thank you for being you.

Love,
Mommy