Waiting in the Lord

When I first felt called to adopt, almost 5 years ago, I thought I might be loosing it. Just to make sure I scheduled a meeting with my pastor. I asked him, 'How do you know if God is calling you to do something? or if your just loosing your mind?' He gave me some of the best advice!!! Pray, move forward, if doors close it is your will not God's. God will make a way for it to happen if it is his will. I moved forward and doors opened. But if have to admit, when I strayed from His path, to do what I wanted to do, the door SLAMMED shut. Instead of listening to God I pursued foster care--it is much cheaper. Didn't trust God to show up big with the money=Door slammed shut. Pursued a child available through domestic adoption. Didn't trust God to give me the courage to travel to Africa alone to do something no one I knew had done before=Door slammed shut.
So I learned to trust God. I learned to wait. I learned to listen. God might call you to do something, but it will happen in His timing, not yours. If you try to rush it, it might take longer. DON'T RUSH IT!!! Enjoy it. Savor this time with God! He wants to teach you! He wants to grow you! He wants you to lean on him! I don't know why people think an adoption should only take 3 months. Does a pregnancy only take 3 months? God has a reason for making us wait. Were not ready for what He is about to do! Listen to him! Listen to people who have gone before you! Learn as much as you can about your child's country! culture! and how your family is going to change when you bring home this little(or big) bundle of joy!
Wait in the Lord!! That doesn't mean sit back and do nothing! That means pray! Pray for everything and everyone you can think of ! Pray for your adoption process! Pray for the children you don't know yet! Pray for their birth family! PRAY!!!! And educate yourself! Listen when people who have adopted before give you advice! Seek wise counsel, but ultimately seek the wisest counsel!

By the way, waiting in the Lord doesn't just apply to adoption!!!

PS. Just because God called you to something, doesn't mean it will be easy. There will be heartbreak and heartache. But the rewards are worth it all!!!

Foundations…

Are important. Ask anyone. It doesn’t matter what you are building. A house, a church, a family, an education, a relationship, or a charity. When we were developing Awaka we batted around a lot of names. Awaka means family home, which we hope to help provide for the people in one little corner of Uganda(we are really hoping God helps us go big!!). WE picked the word ‘Foundation’ to be part of our name because it projects stability and we wanted to show our commitment to Uganda. You don’t put down a foundation unless you plan to build on it. Our foundation is God and His word and His calling on our lives. We feel that God brought us together in Uganda at the same time for a reason. Not just to build friendships, but to help Uganda and its beautiful people.

We recently laid another foundation. Thanks to generous donations we have been able to purchase land in Kamengo. We have also been able to put a building on that land, thanks to the support of Craft Aid UK. The foundation footings were dug by hand. The next step was very important. The fate of our building that will be a school, a clinic, a church, a community gathering place depended on the foundation. What makes everything stronger? The Word of God. I sent Godfrey Bible verses to put in the footings. We want our building and everything we build to always have the strongest foundation possible.



The foundation has been built.


The floors have been poured and the walls have gone up.


The roof will be put in soon.
The bore hole has been drilled and has hit clean water!!


The hand pump will be installed this week and the village will have clean water.
A community garden has been started to help feed the village.

The women of the village have begun making paper bead jewelry and basket to make money for themselves. God has blessed more than we would have ever dreamed!

The foundation is there; we will continue to build. Would you like to help us? Go to Awaka.org or our facebook page and see our progress and to see how you can help us build.