Preparing to leave

Allan is making his preparations to leave Uganda. It's hard for me to conceive any of our children, packing up to leave the only country they've ever really known to go half way across the world to live with a family they'd only been with for 4 days. But this is what Allan is doing right now. Seeking out an opportunity for a better life with us here in the United States. We sent some extra money to him last week through Jamil to buy a camera and some film. I wanted him to be able to take pictures of things he'd want to see once he got here. I plan on doing something special with them for his new room.

Although he's preparing to leave, the other children in the orphanage do not know about about his upcoming departure. Allan has helped many of them while living on the streets to provide shelter and assistance for them and they look up to him greatly. Knowing he'll be gone would make them too sad so Jamil has decided to wait to tell them until after he's gone. Please pray for them, especially Issac and Sunday, who also stayed with us in our home in October. We have prayed so often for those two other boys. Our main concerns are that they'll think we did not like them as much, which is obviously not true. We however have limited resources and knew in our hearts that at this time it was only possible to bring Allan here. Isssac and Sunday are never far from our thoughts.

Our last preparations for Allan include his air fare arrangements. We are awaiting word from the doctor to let us know that all his vaccinations have been completed and that his malaria is gone. We hope to book his ticket within the next two days. He would then fly into Houston on January 4th. His new room, which he'll share with Max is not yet complete, but will be in the next three weeks. It's been an exciting part of this journey too and Max is eager to spend time with his new roommate.

We realize that this is going to be a big adjustment for our family and Allan once he gets here. But we are confident in this decision, knowing that God has moved many mountains right before our eyes to make it all possible. The glory is not ours, but God's! As much as Allan's uncle thinks we're giving him a tremendous gift, we feel as though it's really Allan who's going to give us a gift. The priviledge of having him in our home will be a gift for our entire family, especially our children, being exposed to another world, a world without many luxuries we take for granted. We're anxious for Allan to get here and thank you for your prayers and encouraging words. We will post pictures and details of his arrival.