Summer 2009= Big Changes for the Matts

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!!!