Be Obedient

Well, we've officially been home for almost 3 months! So much has happened over the past few months, it's nearly impossible to have ever imagined that this is what life would be like and that God would bless us with such an amazing child. 

For those of you who were able to join us on Valentine's Day as we finalized Eli's adoption, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It was a day we will never forget! Click here to view pictures from our day at court. 

Eli celebrated his first birthday on Feb 21st. I can't believe he is already 1! There was a day in time where we weren't sure if we'd even be back in Florida to celebrate his birthday, but by the grace of God, we were. We only invited family over for this special day, as Eli had so much excitement throughout the week at the Hardee County Fair, it was best to just keep is sweet & simple.

While I've enjoyed so much of our journey and sharing so many good, bad, emotional, wonderful, exciting times with each of you, the updates from here out will be rather limited. Parenthood is hard work and we want to give our little Eli as much attention as we can, because he is already growing up so fast as he begin to take his first few steps last week. I'll try posting on our blog here & there. And of course, there is always Facebook, Twitter & Instagram where he frequently appears.

If you haven't already seen the video, here is recap of our journey to adopt Eli. We had major issues with our camera in Uganda, even asked for you all to pray at one time that it would start working. But despite the camera issues, we were blessed with 

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 different photographers along the journey, 

​Emily Goodrich

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n Uganda; Caroline Maxcy at the Tampa International Airport; Megan Hartman, at court; and Annie Agarwal, who although we begged a

nd​

 pleaded with

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 to fly with us to Uganda and capture it all, was able to capture our first of many, family photos. 

Please be in prayer for Eli over the summer time as we have begun visiting with several Doctors on his health and he'll be having a minor procedure. 

This journey has been mind blowing and it has taught us so many things about our Heavenly Father. 

I'd like to leave you all with this... Adoption was never "Plan B" for us, it was never a second option, it was God's design for our life. The way we view our future and our family isn't always the same way God views it. Be obedient. Whatever that looks like in your life, according to God, do it! No excuses, be faithful. It might be scary and unpredictable. It might be emotional and time consuming. But I promise you, in the end, it's worth it. God

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 is worth it. And for an orphan child, lying in the forest, trusting that God will protect him... It's totally worth it! 

Blessings,

​Paul, Jamie & Eli