The Ugandan Experience for the Baker Family

The country of Uganda has enabled the Baker family to be a complete, forever family! Why adoption? Why Uganda? Why the Baker Family? Here is our personal story which involves 6 lives forever changed!

In early 2004, our church held their annual missions conference. Attending was a beautiful family with children homegrown (born of the parents) and a handful of heartgrown international children (who had been adopted). We knew that we wanted to be just like that family someday, especially after we heard about the condition of orphans around the word. We were young parents at the time, but even with just one homegrown daughter, we knew that every single child around the world deserved to have a permanent family. We also believe that every child should have access to school/education, healthcare, food/water and church. After much prayer and waiting, we finally set out to adopt Lillian and Caden from Uganda in Fall 2010.

The Baker family has been a family of 6 for about 6 months as I write this letter. We have 2 homegrown daughters (Elli and Mia) and two heartgrown children- a son, Caden and a daughter, Lillian. Mia, Caden, and Lillian are all 2007 babies, so we call them our triplets! Together with big sister Elli, we feel as though our family is complete and can finally take our “official” family photo (above!). All four of our children are thriving! Caden and Lillian are quickly learning English and have so much fun playing with Mia and Mommy while sister and daddy are at school. Everyone has learned how to swim and ride their bikes! They all love to dance and sing at home, church, and story time at the children’s museum. Caden and Lillian are growing so fast and eating incredibly well. We can’t wait to see how well they do in school and what career path they chose down the road after college. Caden and Lillian are two sweet, loving, full of energy kids that bring a smile to everyone they meet! Elli and Mia are so nurturing and patient with them as they learn all of these new things. We are simply blessed to be able to be the mom and dad to four awesome kids!

We know there are other children all across the world and in Uganda that would so richly benefit from adoption. I can’t imagine how hard it would be without having a parent (s), a place to call home, and celebrating life together. Caden and Lillian have unlimited access to water, food, education, healthcare, and love here in our home and community. Both of them were abandoned as infants and we are forever grateful for the love and attention they received in their Ugandan orphanage. But there are more families willing to help more orphans. Our prayer and hope is that one day, there won’t even be a need for orphanages… either all of the children are placed in families, or better yet, parents would have no reason to abandon their children because their needs are met and are able to raise them.

The Bakers

(Andy, Jenn, Elli, Caden, Mia, and Lillian)