our hymns album!

we finally finished our Hymns album to raise money for our adoption! Mike & I recorded it at home & it's just out voices & guitar. Jude made it on there too! ;) please check it out: www.centerpointchurch.net/barkerbaby. (suggested donation of $10) feel free to pass the link on to friends & family that would be interested in donating.

update on our process:
our social worker has started writing our home study. we are still waiting on one form from the state of Alabama. once the home study is complete we'll read it over & then send it to our agency to approve it. THEN we'll send off to the US to be approved for international adoption. so exciting!
Mike & I have completed 2 of the 5 online adoption courses that are required. it's been really interesting to think through & talk about all this. we're so blessed & so excited! our God is good & our child that's in Uganda is HIS!
the barkers

home study visit!

yay! we had our home study visit today! we've been working so hard to complete projects around the house & clean. I'd say it's time for some quality family time. :) going to do something fun with the boys tonite, then dinner out, then sorbet at sweet cece's. blessed & waiting on the Lord's timing for our home study to be completed.

Home Study

We are about 2/3 of the way done with our home study! We have completed pretty much all the paperwork. We are just waiting on things to come in the mail & make sure our social worker has everything she needs to write it. Mike & I need to complete 10 hrs of adoption training online. We're very excited to start that! Our actual home study visit will happen on Feb 21st. It's all getting done pretty quickly. Yay! The Lord is good. He is ordering our steps. We'll keep you updated!
Al

Our first fundraising letter

Dear friends and family,                 

We are writing to you with the exciting news that the Lord has led our family to adopt from Uganda! The Lord put this on our hearts over the last month. We’ve always wanted to adopt, but we didn’t know what the Lord’s timing would be.

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27 As the body of Christ we all have a responsibility to care for orphans and we believe our family’s current role is to bring a child into our home and make them our own. Adoption is a picture of the Gospel. Christ adopts us as sons and daughters and makes us His own. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

Mike has always wanted to adopt anytime, but the Lord had to soften my heart. Really He had to bring me out of my selfishness of wanting to “have all of ‘our’ kids first” then adopt. We know that His timing is best. The Lord first brought adoption up through a story my friend told me about a baby that wasn’t cared for, my heart felt so much compassion for a child I didn’t even know. I wanted to rescue that baby. Over the following weeks I kept thinking about adoption, my heart longed to bring a baby into our home that would otherwise be orphaned. Some friends of ours told us that there was a great opportunity to adopt from Uganda and they were beginning the process. Immediately Mike and I

felt we were supposed to do the same.

There are currently 2.5 million orphans in Uganda, a country that has the population of California and is the size of Oregon. One million of these orphans are orphaned by aids. We have decided to adopt from Uganda: one, because the Lord led us to, two, because children in Uganda are less likely to hear about the Lord than orphans in the states and three, orphans in foreign countries have harder living conditions than those in the states.

We are beginning the application process and it is likely to take about 12 months till we have a baby in our home. There is much to go through… paperwork, interviews, home-studies, waiting for approval, fundraising. It will be hard, but so worth it for a precious life, a life that might not even be born yet. We ask that you and your family would prayerfully consider giving financially for our adoption. We ask that you would be in prayer for us and for our baby.

We have setup an adoption fund through our church so donors will receive a tax write-off. Please send funds to our address, but make checks out to Centerpoint Church (in the note: the Barker family adoption).

         We love all of you!

         The Barkers

Welcome Welcome

Hello all,
Our family is in the process of adopting a baby from Uganda.  This blog is a way for us to keep in touch with everyone who is supporting us through prayer and financial aid.  There will be more to come later, but we wanted to quickly let you know that we're currently in the middle of our home study right now.  After our home study is finished, we can apply for grants and submit the necessary documents to the US government.  It's an exciting time as we continue to check things off our list of to-do items!

Also, we are finishing up our album of hymns.  It's just Mike and Al and a guitar, but we think it's turning out pretty good.  We'll post a link soon to the site where you can donate and download it.

If you have time, check out the website for the babies home that we're adopting from:

Here's a little about our family:

Mike- is the worship pastor at our church, Centerpoint Church in Lakeland, TN. He really enjoys his job & is quite gifted in leading our congregation in worship. He is so good at working hard for our family & trusting the Lord to provide. He is an amazing husband & father. Jude & Sammy look up to their daddy so much & can't wait for him to get home from work each day. Mike has an amazing servant's heart for his family. We are blessed by his kindness & love that he so freely gives.

Allison- I am a stay at home mom & I absolutely LOVE my job! I enjoy serving my family by cleaning, cooking yummy vegan food, keeping our home organized, making our home feel like a home :), & just having fun with them. Michael, Jude & Sammy are my favorite people to be with in the whole world! I adore my boys. I am so blessed!

Jude- is the sweetest 2 year old boy! He loves loves loves to sing! His favorite songs right now are "Holy, holy holy" & "Jesus loves me". He adores his little brother & is always concerned about him. Jude is a big help to mommy! He has the cutest sense of humor. He's a great big brother & he prays for our baby from Uganda often.

Sammy- is 5 months old & quite busy. He's ready to be running around with his big brother. Sammy thinks Jude is so funny. They laugh a lot together. He smiles all the time & is working on crawling. He tries to grab anything that's in front of him, so meal time with him in my lap is always interesting. :)

The Barkers