Our First Trip to Uganda
The first time our family went to Uganda was the fall of 2013. My dad, mom, and I flew there to meet and take home JoAn. We landed in Entebbe Airport, near Kampala. From there, it was a seven hour drive to Fort Portal, Uganda, where JoAn lived. Once they arrived, we spent the night in a beautiful hotel only minutes away from the Y.E.S. offices. Y.E.S. is the organization that began the children's home JoAn was living in. Their mission is to create sponsorships and better lives for children and families living in that community. We met with the woman who began Y.E.S., Carol Adams. The day after we arrived, my parents and I went to get JoAn.
When we first saw her, she bowed to us because that's the custom there. She was very shy, but also sweet. All she had with her were the clothes she was wearing and a small backpack. Immediately, she called my parents 'Mom' and 'Dad'.
JoAn stayed at the hotel with her new family and some other adoptive families from America. After a few days, we had to go to court to get the judge's consent. Unfortunately, the judge was against adoption and refused to allow JoAn to leave the country with us. Distraught, my parents asked what we could do. Our lawyer told us to leave her and go home, but we knew better. This judge wasn't getting in the way of our family.
My dad and I had to go home for work and school; we both wanted to stay, but there was just no way we could. My brothers were both still in America, and in order to stay, I'd have to be pulled out of school. There was no way to know how long my mom and JoAn would have to stay. We went home without my mom or my sister. They lived in Uganda for two months, working and waiting for things to line up so JoAn could come home to her new family. While they were there, my mom and another adoptive mom helped Carol with the sponsored kids in the villages. They loved volunteering for her.
JoAn and my mom were gone for Thanksgiving and Christmas. When people heard they were finally coming home after two months, they were ecstatic. The crowd at the airport was huge.
Our family fought hard to get home to America, and now we're fighting hard to get back to Uganda. When we were there, we felt called to stay. It felt like something we were made to do.