Our second adoption

Joseph Kristian Ariho Barugahare.

Our second adopted baby and fourth child.

His nickname is Joey and goodness me, what a delightful gift.

Joey’s biological mother handed him over to a lady sat next to her in public transport car. She told the lady she was going to use the bathroom but she never came back. She ran off and left the 2 day old baby with a stranger.

The little baby was taken to the police post and a report was made about the baby.

The lady in the public trasport got to keep him for a few days before he was placed in then “Malaika Babies Home “ under childsifoundation an organization that was set up by a British lady Lucy Buck to help find alternative ways of looking after abandoned children because from her opinion, institutions were not the best way to care for abandoned children.

They had just set up base in Mengo, Kampala- Uganda.

Megan Howard an Australian volunteer could get enough of me begging to have a little boy.

We keep telling Joey, he came to us through Gabriels prayers and constant nagging.

See, we were not supposed to adopt another child...atleast not yet.

Gabriel decided he wanted a little brother. We had adopted a little girl, so why could we not adopt a little boy. Why couldnt we have another child...a baby brother.

Gabriel was relentless in his request and George and I just laughed it off for about 6 months.

We were invited to different parties at the time because of Georges work.

Every party or gathering we went to, Gabe would narrow down to boys who were smaller than him and call them his little brothers.

At first, it was cute but as it became more and more familiar, it started being creepy.

One time, we show up at this party and Gabe narrows down to this cute little white boy and starts telling him, he could be his little brother.

The little boy’s mother and I looked at them trying to make sense of this compelling boy looking for a small brother.

I was a little bit cross with Gabe, I didn’t want him to be that weird kid. We had a conversation about him not being weird like.

The conversation went in one ear and out the other.

Any little boy we met at parties, in hospitals and different family gatherings became Gabes little brother. This went on for about 6- 8 months and at baout the same time George and i started talking about the possibility of adopting another child.

We also thought, it would be important as part of the adoption exprience for Kayla to have a sibling to bounce off any thoughts that none of us could relate to.

So we began to pray for God to show us which little boy belonged with us. We never asked Him if it was His will, because He has already spelt it out for us in the bible that true religion is looking after orphans and widows.

George and I decided to honor Gabes dream to have a little brother.

Our search begun with Sanyu Babies Home because it was first orphanage that we had worked with. The staff had been very helpful with Kaylas adoption and so naturally, we would go back.

However, we wanted a baby boy between 0-3 months or stretch it for 4 months. They didn’t have the age we were looking for. I run around different orphanages looking for that specific age but no little boy was available for adoption. It was mind blowing for us because all these orphanages did not have a little boy for us. But some orphanages just literally ignored me, because we were not white and probably did not make sense since most of them just pretty much told me to go first give birth to my own babies before looking for other options.

None of them knew I was already a mother to a bunch of crazy little kids and I didn’t really bother to explain because I knew I was going to say not so nice things back to these women who were literally judging me without knowing me.

My mum knew about our search and sent me Megan Howard’s number and said she maybe be able to help.

I literally stalked Megan and would not let her rest. She was still registering Malaika Babies Home and had no right to allow any adoptions yet.

But she told me to be patient and wait for the registration to finish because she had a potential little boy.

We patiently waited for the registration to end. They carried out a home visit, we did the paper work and we met Joey.

After Megan allowed us to start a relationship with Joey, the very excited family of five went to meet Joey. We carried him, kissed him…told him he was ours forever; Gabe was over the top with excitement that he was going to get a little brother.

He came home to us when he was only 10 days old.

We became a family of 6 and we were very thankful for the addition and that God was going to be glorified even in his life.

The day we all first met Joey! This picture was taken at the orphanage. Danielle was 7, Gabriel 5 and Makayla 3 years old.