March 11, 2010

Back from Africa

Filed under: Uganda Trip — Tags: Ugandan adoption, Ugandan orphans, watoto — admin @ 1:17 pm

This is our last blog that doesn’t have much to do with real estate (in case you found this by googling it)! Although, while in Uganda, we were advised that buying properties and building homes on it would be a good investment right now. That would definitely make for an interesting occupation!

We are coming home changed which is what we had prayed. Before leaving, parenting a strong willed 3 year old and active 19 month old was emotionally wearing on me. I was so intense on my kids’ obedience and behavior (or lack thereof!). After spending time with over 100 children who have NO ONE to say, “Mommy” or “Daddy” to, my perspective towards parenting is more grace filled. Like I know everything is going to be all right with my kids because at least they have us. They have the same two people in their lives every day telling them the same thing, following the same routine, loving with the same consistent love. This is called parenting and there is nothing very romantic about it on most days of the week. But millions of children around the world don’t have anyone parenting them (about 150 million to be more specific).

I have been to Africa several times and volunteered at orphanages, but never as a parent. The injustice of it all touched me in new places this time. I spent a few days at one babies’ home with 40 children under 2. 40 cribs in one room sleeping, 40 kids in one room eating, 40 kids in one room playing. The mommy in me would just pick up any crying baby and by the end of the first day, it felt like a blur of children. I had to be very intentional about imagining each child as an Amelie or Holden. Only then would compassion flow more freely. I was told there were over 100 homes in Uganda like this.

The new Watoto babies’ home had JUST opened- before there were 80 kids in one home. Watoto has one of the best reputations in Uganda and the homes were filled with love, toys, and cleanliness. I think the kids got bathed more than mine! Their vision is to raise up the next generation of leaders in Uganda. When the kids turn 2, they go to live in a home with 8 other children and one mother, in a Watoto built “village”. It is breathtakingly beautiful. While I applaud this organization for taking a more sustainable approach to the orphan crisis, it was still heart breaking to be in a “village” of 2,000 children without a mother and father. Joe got work side by side with Ugandans building cabinents and cribs for another Watoto baby home opening in northern Uganda.

Bethany and Moses, who I blogged about previously are pictured below. Bethany has a more mild form of cerebral palsy (I think with therapy she could talk and possibly walk), but because she is an orphan in Uganda, she lives in a babies’ home with very little specialized therapy. Moses, abandoned at the hospital when he was three with progressive hydrocephalus, is also bright. He played some of Amelie’s preschool applications on my iphone one day- puzzles, memory, letters, ect. Their smiles brought so much joy to me! But all I could think about was my friends’ kids who have special needs that get therapy multiple times a week in their home, school classes just for them, and I even just read of a theme park in San Antonio created only for kids with special needs. I long for Moses and Bethany to have the same sort of care. If you or some one you know is considering adopting a child with special needs, please let me know. Although Watoto does not adopt out, they are considering finding families for these amazing kids! By the way, there were many other kids with special needs there, but these 2 grabbed my attention perhaps because they are so high functioning and would be living a drastically different life some where else.

We LOVED getting to spend time with our friend, Laura, and see all that she is doing for Watoto and Uganda. We also got to spend some lunches and dinners with the Micklers, who have been in Uganda for 4 years with their 5 children. I think they were secretly trying to recruit us because Downie kept telling me how amazing it was to live in Uganda and raise young kids there! If only the internet wasn’t soooooooo slow and impossible!!! We had so many conversations throughout the week with many different people about adoption, sustainable development, Ugandan government, business, orphans, and oil (the largest discovery of oil in sub saharan Africa was made in northern Uganda last year). “We received a baby today found in a toilet. We received a 2 year old last week abandoned by his grandma because he had parasites in his feet.” Life in Uganda is wonderfully intense and the conversations reflect that. Some days, I would just start crying under the intensity of it all.

The ability to adopt children from Uganda is difficult right now due to some wording in the law that is in the process (hopefully) of being changed. Through many conversations during the week, we felt that trying to adopt from Uganda is not the best idea at this time. However, our last weekend in Uganda, we traveled to a town call Jinja, about 1 hour away (well, in our case it was three but that is another story!) We white river rafted in the Nile on grade 5 rapids and this Mama was feeling young again! We also visited a children’s home who DOES adopt and that made our hearts confused all over again.

So regarding adoption, we do feel that we are going to move forward, but we are still unsure about when and how. Being surrounded by so many children and such need did two things for me. I started to count the cost of adoption more. The reality of orphan life and raising a child out of that brought many questions to mind. At the same time, being surrounded by that much need, made Joe and I realize we HAVE to adopt. I know adoption may not by the long term, sustainable solution to the orphan crisis. I, personally, loved hearing about programs that were getting moms on the proper HIV medicine, giving job training and restoring dignity to broken lives. When you save the parents, there is not an orphan crisis. However, because there are orphans and because we will one day come before our Father in Heaven who is going to ask, “What did you do for the least of these?”, Joe and I want to have an answer. We want to have an answer because we answer to a loving Father, who Himself adopted us when we were not looking so pretty. Please continue to pray for us in the journey! And if you know some one looking to buy or sell real estate in Austin, send them our way! Adoption has a high price tag!

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