Our Journey to Africa, part 2

we were in between houses, having moved to an apartment while we were building.

our sweet grace abigail had just turned one.

and my baby becoming not-so-baby anymore had my heart longing.

i can remember standing in the shower and crying.

Lord, I want more babies.

more children.

please, Lord, more children.

---

for anyone that's known me for awhile,

you'll know that grace's pregnancy was not easy on me or my family.

hyperemesis gravidaraum made pregnancy a living nightmare,

a nightmare i could not live again.

but i wanted more children.

Lord, please, more children,

became my heart's cry.

---

 and two years after I saw my friend's photos of a small country in east Africa,

she messaged me.

she was going back.

my heart skipped a beat.

{she was going BACK}.

and this time?

i could go with her.

----

thousands of questions later.

thousands of prayers later.

thousands of conversations later,

i boarded a plane from Chicago O'Hare, 

bound for Ug*nda, east Africa.

our hearts were open for adoption

if that's what the Lord had for us.

i longed for more children,

and our hearts had been broken for the fatherless.

as I prayed for months before I went,

I had about six specific prayers I prayed over and over and over

regarding adoption.

Lord,

let me meet our son on the first day in Africa.

 looking back on it, I have no idea why I prayed that.

why was meeting the child the Lord had for us on the first day so important to me?

for whatever reason, I prayed that prayer for days before I left.

---

two and a half years ago,

that plane touched down in Ent*bbe.

we traveled around,

and our first full day in Africa?

spent in an orphanage, 

volunteering, helping the workers change diapers, feed, laugh, and play with sweet, sweet, children.

and that first day?

i sat down on a chair,

giving a child a bottle.

and then, 

in a moment that my heart will remember forever,

a toddler crawled over to me,

pulled himself up on the hem of my long black skirt,

and I looked down into the deep brown eyes of a child.

a child that we would begin to plead for and pray for.

over and over and over again.

---

and though it has taken two years,

a lot of prayers and questions,

and the Lord has finally said YES.

He has paved a way.

that toddler is now an almost-4-year old.

and in the coming months, he will 

{Lord willing}

become legally what my heart has known since that very first day.

our son.

----

to be continued.