Eli and Ellie have some big news for you all

meet:

ELISHA MICHAEL and ELEANOR JOY GALLAGHER

For those of you who need a short recap:

On August 18^th, 2010, Rachel and I were visiting a child care center near our home in the middle of Uganda with four pediatric residents from the US. A mother brought in her tiny twin babies to be seen, but before long, it became clear that she needed care as much as they did. She was admitted to the hospital and the babies were left indefinitely at the care center. Rachel and I went back to check on them several times and found that despite our efforts to educate the staff there, the child care center was not equipped to handle their care.

On September 2, we brought them home and named them Eli and Ellie, assuming that we would keep them for a few weeks until their mother recovered. We got to know her on several visits to the hospital and began to realize that she might not live. On September 22, the babies had their last visit with their mommy. She blessed them and indicated that she was glad they were with us. We were at a loss about what to do with the babies. We both prayed about adopting them ourselves, but did not feel that this was God’s best for them. On October 4^th, their Ugandan mama went to be with Jesus. On October 4^th, their forever-mama landed in Uganda on an unrelated trip, planned months before she knew about Eli & Ellie. We met her in Jinja through a mutual friend and the moment I put Eli in her arms, I knew she was their mom.

Fast forward to July 4^th, 2011. After months of paperwork, chasing down relatives, pleading with officials, numerous road trips all over the country, mountains of paperwork, and MUCH prayer, the Gallahgers landed in Uganda (without a court date). They felt that it was time to just come in faith and on July 14^th – the day before courts closed – they were granted a hearing with a judge who said last year, “I will never grant another legal guardianship”. He heard their case and deferred his decision until today, when he officially said YES. Many many many miracles have taken place to get us to this day. God is faithful and he DOES FIGHT on behalf of the fatherless.

For those of you who are wondering how Rachel and I are doing, I’d say 50/50. We are so relieved to finally place our twins in the arms that they were created for. My heart has longed for Ellie to have a daddy and this girl is a total Daddy’s girl. She looks at me from his arms as if to say, “I love you, but just LOOK what I have now. I have a daddy!” She snuggles into Mike’s chest and looks at him with such awe. She sits in his lap perfectly content. Watching the twins bond with their mommy has been harder for us, just because we miss being mommy to both of them. Eli tried to come back to Rachel for a few days, but he has also fallen totally in love with Mandy. He is a mama’s boy like none other.

The Gallaghers came with their two oldest children, Emily (10) and Matthew (7). These two children have prayed faithfully for their little brother and sister to come home. Their hearts for Eli & Ellie are precious. At home, E & E have a 4 year old brother, John David, and a 2 year old sister, Hannah, waiting for them. Hannah has learned to say “babies!” and ask for their picture and John David has Eli’s clothes all picked out for his first week home (matching outfits for JD and Eli, of course!). I’ll hopefully be able to give you a full-family picture in just a few days!

We LOVE this family and are in awe of God’s goodness in bringing them to the twins. Their love for Jesus, their family, and others is exactly what we want Eli and Ellie to grow up learning. There have been many special “clues” along the way that the twins were created to be Gallaghers, from their love of all things cozy to the way Ellie holds her food. These two are Gallaghers, there is no doubting it.

Thank you to each one of you who has been a part of these past 10 months with Eli and Ellie. They have been good, but we could not have gotten through the hard parts without your prayers, emails, care packages, visits, etc. You are all a part of their story and for that I am so grateful.

I’m sure over the next few weeks I’ll be processing more and more of these last few months with you, but for now I just wanted you to have the news! PRAISE JESUS!

 

 

If you would like to read the back-story about Eli & Ellie’s life up until today, click on the picture below:

Update 12/24/11:

Here are two recent posts about Eli & Ellie’s life at home in America…

http://www.mandiejoy.com/update-on-eli-ellie/

http://www.mandiejoy.com/update-on-eli-ellie-2/

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