It's been a while...

My apologies to those of you who enjoy following our blog on a regular basis! It has been a while! In the midst of preparing our home and hearts for baby Sommerlot, due in just 2 1/2 months, keeping up with this blog has been on the backburner! However, preparing our hearts and finances for our adoption has not been on the backburner! We are still so excited for the time when we will be referred and get to travel to Uganda!

The Lord has continued to bless us with the funds we will need to complete the adoption! We wanted to update you on how much He has provided so far! If you look on the top right hand side of our blog, you can see the total funds received and the amount we have yet to raise. So far God has given us $8,253.49! We have yet to raise $21,746.51. We feel like we are well on our way to our goal of reaching $15,000 by August when we can start back up with the adoption again! And hope to raise the rest of the funds after that. We are still taking donations for our garage sale this spring where we hope to raise a good small chunk of support! If you know of anyone willing to donate stuff, please pass this along to them! If you would like to donate, we would love if you can hold onto your stuff until spring, but if you can’t, we can take it off your hands for you!

 We have continued to see the Lord’s hand leading us to pursue this adoption since we began the process! It is such a blessing to see the Lord at work nudging us to continue on in times when we feel discouraged and overwhelmed by it all! The Lord has NEVER failed to send a little bit of encouragement EVERYTIME we have questioned why we are doing this. Whether it is an anonymous donation of $5,000 or a simple email or card from a friend telling us that they have felt God putting it on their heart to pray for us and the adoption! He is so good! And it is so rewarding being in the Lord’s will!

 For those of you wondering how the pregnancy has gone so far…all I can say is I have felt so lucky and blessed. I haven’t had a single day of sickness, I continue to workout daily, no tiredness, pretty much a symptom free pregnancy. Praise God!

We’re so blessed by your partnership with us!

 “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’  Philippians 1:3-6

Garage Sale Fundraiser!

Next spring we are planning on doing a garage sale fundraiser. We think this is a good way to raise a small chunk of the total we will need to make the adoption possible! Although we have to physically put the adoption "on hold' until next August, we are still pushing forward in our support raising so that when we can start up again, we can go full force not having to worry about funds! We would like to raise $15,000 between now and next August! If you have anything you would like to donate toward the garage sale we would appreciate it more than you know! If this interests you, please let us know! And if you would like to help out, or have any great fundraiser ideas, please let us know! Thanks for being a part of God's greater purpose! We are blessed to have you!

Medical Missions Trip

Some friends of our recently went on a medical missions trip to the Central Africa Republic, about 400 miles from Uganda. We wanted to share with you some of the things they encountered on their trip. The saddest thing is that most of the children in these pictures are sick and or dying from malnutrition and the most simple cureable diseases.

Impetigo

Delivery room at the hospital.

This is Flora. She was severely malnourished and had kwashiorkor, anemia, malaria, parasites, and dermatitis.

Severe Scoliosis

This is Flora. She was severely malnourished and had kwashiorkor, anemia, malaria, parasites, and dermatitis.

Hannah said: Traditional African Medicine combined with witch-doctor activity made so many of the kids we saw extremely sick. This boy's parents had attempted to rid him of the "evil spirits" that the witch doctors told them were present in his body. He had become severely malnourished and anemic in the process. He died the day after this. So many kids are dying of very preventable illnesses. Education is needed terribly! This little boy stole my heart"

Twins that Hannah helped deliver. They were 2 lbs each. Lower birth weights are very common.

Many kids were attracted to the airstrip by the sound of the plane. They were surrounded with the kids as they prepared to depart

The kids from the malnourishment program waiting their one-on-one check-up with the Doctor.

A Fun Surprise!

Well I figured it is time for an update! It has been a while; life has been a little crazy around here! We are so happy to let you all know that God has already provided $1,000 towards the cost of our adoption. He is so good and we continue to trust that He will provide all we need to make this happen. Granted $1,000 is a ways off from the $30,000 some thousand we need, it is fun to say we have a thousand down! We continue to be so excited about adopting from Uganda and we know God already has a baby or two picked out for us across the world! I just love how adoption is and always has been God’s plan for His children:

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption. And by him we cry, ‘Abba Father.’ The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

Romans 18:15-17

We have been seeing news clips on what Americans are doing in Uganda to improve the hospitals over there, and it just makes us that more excited! With that being said, it looks like we are going to have some more time to raise support for our adoption. Come Valentine’s Day, a little blessing will be added to our family. Yep…that’s right, I’m pregnant! We are so excited, however it does change our adoption plans a little bit! The agency we work with requires us to put everything on hold until our biological baby is 6 months old. At that point, we can begin the adoption process again. In the meantime, we will continue to raise support, so that a year from now, we can pick up the adoption process again in full swing. We plan to pursue the process without letting down when we are able which is why we hope to raise a good chunk of our support in the meantime so that we have the means to jump back into it and not let down until we bring home our Ugandan baby or babies!

Although this has thrown us for a loop, we continue to trust God’s timing in all of it. Part of me was afraid that if we had our biological children first, my desire to adopt would disappear, but it is a blessing to say my desire to adopt has only increased! It really tells me that this is God’s plan for us, and although our timing isn’t His timing, ultimately His timing is perfect. I just love how God works out all the little details for us!

We are continually thankful for those of you who have been faithful to support us not only financially but prayerfully. We ask boldly for your continued support in prayer, as we know we can’t do this alone. We are so grateful for the body of believers that God has surrounded us with!

Adoption Account

For those of you who had asked or were wondering, we have set up an adoption account through our church. This account will be tax deductible for those of you who want to go that route! We thank you so much for your support and prayers!

Sent to:
Milaca Free Church
1100 Central Ave N
Milaca, MN 56353

***Put Sommerlot adoption fund in the memo line***

We are thinking about possibly doing a t-shirt fundraiser, but we need to see if there is enough interest to make it worth it. I have attached a picture of what the shirt would look like. Please let us know if this is something you would be interested in! The cost for the shirt would probably be around $20.

Uganda Missionaries Blog

I thought some of you might like to read this. It is a blog from some missionaries working in Uganda. The stories are very sad, but it gives good insight into the problems that Uganda faces.

http://warfieldsinafrica.blogspot.com/

Orientation

On Friday we had our orientation. Since the agency we chose is based out of Texas, we did it over skype. We learned a lot about the process, and the agency. It made us feel that much better about the agency we chose. Generations Adoptions only places children in active Christian homes, this was the reason we chose them in the first place. We really love the fact that they see the importance of raising kids up in the way of the Lord. We also found out that the orphanage they work with is Christian run and part of a larger ministry in Uganda. They actually call it a babies home because most of the children there are 3 years old and younger. The next step for us is getting a home study done. We won't do this until the Lord provides the money to pay for the home study. If you are following our blog regularly this is one of the things you can be praying about! We know that God will provide in HIS time. Another thing you can pray for is that we would continue to have a sense of peace about the whole process. God seems to continually reassure us, what a great God we serve!

-Jenny

God Speaking

Since before we were married, we knew we would adopt "someday." Adoption is such a scary thing; it is easy to put it off not knowing what the process will be like. There had been times that I looked into adoption, researched various agencies, etc, but never really felt God's leading. However, three weeks ago something cool happened! This is what I like to call our "God speaking" week. Over the last few years we had thrown around different countries we thought we might adopt from someday, a few being Ethiopia, Congo, and Haiti, but never Uganda.

 On Monday, I'm not even sure how or why (other than the Holy Spirit’s leading), I felt compelled to research Uganda. I almost felt this immediate urgency towards Uganda. I came across an adoption agency and sent the link to Spencer, and left it at that. I decided that if this is really God's calling; then Spencer will feel it too. Well, the week went on without really talking to Spencer about it. During that week I had someone ask me if I had ever looked into international adoption and the cost to finance it. I thought to myself...okay God what’s this about? A few days later, we received a letter from our Operation Christmas child...she is from Africa about 400 miles from Uganda, coincidence? I thought again to myself...okay God, I’m listening! A few days later, on Sunday, we commissioned our pastor and his wife for their trip to Uganda. At this point, God not only had my full attention, but I was convinced this was God speaking…calling us to adopt. Oh wait, I still hadn’t talked to Spencer about it. What did he think? Was God speaking to him too?

 Some would say it’s just coincidence that all of this happened within a week’s time, and to them I would say: I don’t believe in coincidence, I believe in God’s timing. This is God speaking…

 After church I found out that he had been feeling the same way, he had been feeling a pressing from God that this is something we need to do, and the time is now! Scared and unsure of how we would finance an adoption, unsure if we would even be accepted, and intimidated at the thought of entering into parenthood, we decided to send in the application and leave the rest up to God. We figured with all of our school loan debt, it was very unlikely we would be accepted anyway. Our prayer was that if this wasn’t God’s timing our application would be rejected, but if it was God’s timing we knew we would have to step out in faith and trust that God would provide the finances for the adoption.

 Just a few days after sending in the application I received an email titled “Welcome to Our Program!” Wow! I felt a whole new set of emotions: scared, anxious, nervous, excited, unsure. And then these doubts entered my mind, I thought how in the world are we going to afford this? This whole process is scary, exciting, unsure and every other emotion, but God continually speaks peace and re-assurance to me. I felt God speaking to me this morning during church as Pastor Dan preached on compassion. He referenced this verse in 1 John 3:17-18:

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

So where are we now? We are stepping out in faith, in complete surrender to God; trusting that if this truly is His plan, He will provide the finances. He will make a way. Our great God can do ALL things! And if this isn’t God’s timing, we trust that he will close the door.

 We know we can’t do this alone. We will continually lean on the support of our family, our friends, our church, and ultimately our God. A saying goes “it takes a village to raise a child” we will count on our “village” to help us through this. We know that not everyone will be supportive of us; in fact we know some of you will question why we would even do this in the first place. But for those of you who will support us, we can’t thank you enough, and we’ll need as many of you as we can get. A village can never be too big, well at least our village can never be too big. J

 “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6



 -Jenny

“If