Amerigandaopia

 When we returned home from our Uganda trip in November 2007, we received an e-mail about the six children living in our agency foster home in Kampala.  We instantly fell in love with two children.  One was a boy named Karim and the other was a beautiful little girl named Phiona.  We went back and forth about which child we should get and ended up choosing Karim.  At the time, we felt like he would fit into our current family better – why throw a little girl into the mix?  Plus, I am not very “girlie” and wouldn’t even know what to do with a girl.  So, we began to prepare for Karim to join our home.  We organized the rooms by turning one bedroom into a play room and the other two bedrooms got a set of bunk beds for the boys.

Months went by and very often I thought of little Phiona.  I wondered if she had found a family.  I prayed that a wonderful couple would choose her.  I hoped that I would get to meet her one day.  I was curious what type of child she was.  I tried to talk my friends into adopting her so that she would be near by and I could get to know her.  For me, there was just a very strong connection to her.

People would ask us if we had any plans of getting a little girl.  At first, I would say no.  But eventually I started saying ‘You never know”. I believe that there was a part of me that thought that Phiona might actually be ours one day – but I never mentioned it to Shaun.  Every once in awhile I would tell him that if Phiona was still available when we went to meet Karim that it would be very difficult not to get her – but he always told me to not even think about it.  As much as he told me not to think about it, I did!

Then one day we found out that Phiona was still available for adoption.  We frantically contacted some friends who had been thinking about adding a girl to their home.  But after a phone call to our agency they found out that they were not eligible to get her.  So, Shaun and I talked to the boys to ask them what they thought we should do.  They both said “get her” so, we called the agency and asked if we could adopt her. We were thrilled when they said yes. Now, as soon as we get home we will begin re-doing the bedrooms! We’re moving the playroom into the sunroom, two boys into the old playroom and Phiona into the old bedroom. I plan on making her room very pink!

We found out that her father was a Ugandan soldier who had been sent off to fight in Sudan but never came back. As a baby, Phiona’s mother left her with her grandmother.  The grandmother eventually gave her over to the agency foster home to be cared for.  Her hopes were that Phiona would get a home in the Western world and she would have a better life.

We plan on giving Phiona the middle name of Belle.  We chose it because the moment we saw her picture back in November we commented on how beautiful she was.  Wait unitl you see her.  You will agree that Phiona is a beauty!  We can’t wait to bring her home!