About a month to 6 weeks ago, Tracy's school had an outbreak of conjuctivitis. As we know here in the states, it is a highly contagious, but reletively easily treatable infection in the eyes. You apply a opthalmic antibiotic a few times a day and it is taken care of. Other than an itchy inconvenience, it is no big deal. But in Uganda, it is a whole different story. Because they aren't aware of exactly what it is, no measures are taken to keep it from spreading and extreme measures are taken to get rid of it. Rehema learned of the outbreak from an online newsource. In the report, over 100 children in Tracy's school had pink eye and in extreme cases, they were resorting to cutting out the children's eyes.
Hold the phone!!!!! Cutting out their eyes???? For Pink Eye? This is the point in time when I said, "We have to get Tracy here....soon." I told Rehema to tell her sister to keep Harriet Called Tracy home for a while until the outbreak was over and in the meantime, we would start the process of applying for a visa so she could come and be with her mama. We started asking around to find out exactly what had to be done to get her here and how to apply for passports and visas. Paperwork was started, money exchanged hands (everything requires a bribe in Uganda) and things got going.
Then the Kampala bombings occurred. Churchill is in University in Kampala and when the bombings happened, he freaked out. He asked his mom on skype, "When are you going to get me out of here?" And so we added Churchill to the process.
We have sent our end of the paperwork to Churchill and he is filling everything out for the American Embassy in Kampala in order to get visas for himself and Tracy. Ironically, Tracy now has a case of conjunctivitis!
This is what must happen in order to get both of them here:
1) We had to write a letter of invitation for both children to stay with us saying we would provide for them while they are in the United States.
2) They must provide specifics about what schools they will go to and where they will live while they are here.
3)They must be able to state who will provide plane fare for their trip to the United States.
We have taken the responsibility for them in all of the paperwork, but honestly, we do not have the cash laying around to buy two plane tickets from Uganda to the U.S. I am trusting that God will provide, and if He doesn't, then it's not in His plan for them to come to our home. This post is not a plea for support, but if you feel led to do so, please contact me to find out how you can help to bring Rehema's children to her in the United States and out of harms way in Uganda.
I know all things are possible for our Heavenly Father, and these children are more His than ours. I trust Him with them and with their situations.
This is what it would look like if they were to make it here to Austin....
Churchill would go to McCallum High School...probably as a senior.
Tracy would go to Robert E. Lee Elementary with Graceyn...probably as a Kinder or 1st grader.
They would live here in our house with us and their mother.
They would have 'adopted brothers and sisters' and a huge extended family.
They would have an amazing church community.
They would learn all kinds of things that they never would have experienced in Uganda.
They would teach us things we can't even imagine.
We would absolutely fall in love with them.
Perhaps Graceyn would stop asking me on a daily basis if God had spoken to me about adoption....that would be a bonus for me.
I am hoping that we can hold several fundraisers to get Churchill and Tracy here. One idea is to hold a penny race at Graceyn's school. They already collect books for Libraries of Love which builds libraries for schools in Uganda and provides them with books. And they hold Geography Day every fall in which the whole school is transformed into a small globe for one day and children get to spend a whole day in a different country, learning about the culture, history, food, and people. Last year they added Uganda...hmmmm? Their radar is tuned in, so it should be a no-brainer. Hopefully we can arrange a skype date with a child in Rehema's family for Geography Day (probably her niece Precious...Tracy is too shy) so we can make it real for the kids. I also wanted to hold a semi high-end garage sale to raise plane fare.
If any of this touches your heart in any way and you want to help out in getting Churchill and Tracy to our home, please contact me. Devin has a 501C-3 set up that we can run everything through. If you want to give treasure, great! If you want to give time, great! If you want to give talent, great! These are two lives...three really...that you can help make a difference in. What our Father considers pure and undefiled religion is taking care of the widows and orphans. Rehema is a widow and neither of her biological children knew their fathers. I think God would qualify them.
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