Adoption: The Glisson Family
Hello. My name is Scott Glisson. My wife, Emily, and I had 4 biological children (aged 6, 4, 2, 5 months) when, in 2003 we moved to Uganda to work with the Banyankore people of Southwestern Uganda. Shortly after arriving, Emily saw a great need in our dusty little town's hospital to provide assistance when babies were orphaned or abandoned. Up to that point babies that were orphaned or abandoned were left unattended or sporadically taken care of by other patients. Sadly, the hospital only had 2 or 3 nurses to care for hundreds of patients.
A nurse told us that many times these babies died due to the lack of care that they were able to provide. Emily said, "the next time you have a baby that is all alone, call me". Not long after that they called. And called. And called. Over about a 4 year period they called us 52 times. And 52 times we went to get those sweet babies and brought them to our home to care for them until they were healthy and able to be cared for in a wonderful babies home about an hour and a half from our house.
One of our first little foster babies was orphaned at birth. Her name was Hope. Her mother had died of AIDS and delivered Hope at 26 weeks. Hope was only 2 lbs. We brought her home where she slept in a shoe box covered with blankets. Amazingly, she started gaining weight and getting healthier by the day. After many, many weeks of love and care by Emily and me and our 4 kids we couldn't bear the thought of taking her to a babies home as wonderful as it was. She was just as much a part of our family as any one of our other kids. So, we announced to our kids that we were going to adopt her, and started the process through the Ugandan court system of adopting Ansley Hope.
At the time, Uganda had a requirement that parents wishing to adopt a child must foster that child for 3 years before being allowed to adopt. That wasn't going to be a problem for us since we were living there anyway. So, three years after becoming the legal guardians of Ansley Hope, she became our legal daughter!
Fast forward a couple years and the laws in Uganda changed to allow parents to become legal guardians of a child through the Ugandan courts and complete the process in the U.S. This was good news for us as we were wanting to adopt another child, however, our term in Uganda was ending within a year and we knew we wouldn't be able to foster a child for the required 3 years. Right about that time the hospital called us about a little boy that had been abandoned and they asked us to come and pick him up. Immediately after seeing this little chunk Emily and I both knew he was to be our son. We named him Brooks. Being that the new adoption process was in place we immediately started trying to get legal guardianship of him so that we could complete the process in America.
After gaining the Legal Guardianship document through the Court we felt confident that we could complete this process in the U.S. in a few short months after arriving. That is until 10 days before our flight to America was to leave.
One afternoon, I received a phone call from the Consular at the U.S. Embassy who told me that they had reversed their stance on foreign adoptions and the 3 year foster period would now be back in effect. We no longer were allowed to travel back to the States with Brooks because he did not qualify for a U.S. Visa. We were stunned. We had already sold all of things and paid for our airline tickets. We were to leave in just 10 short days. The Embassy was not willing to be flexible at all, however, they did say if the Uganda Court agreed to waive the 3 year fostering period then we could go, otherwise, we had to wait 3 more years. No judge had ever waived the 3 year period before, but we had to try.
Nothing in Uganda moves quickly so we expected this to take months and months to sort out. Amazingly, within a couple weeks we got in front of the same judge that helped us adopt Ansley. After hearing our case he said, "You've asked me to do a very difficult thing. But, because you have lived here for 6 years and have gotten to know our language and culture, because you are held in high standing within our community, and because you have adopted before, I am going to waive the 3 year foster period and grant you a full and final adoption of Brooks." God is great!
Having Ansley and Brooks in our family has been more wonderful than I could have ever imagined! God has filled my quiver and I couldn’t be happier.
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It's sad to know that they'd rather allow children to die than make exceptions for adoption outside of their country.
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Who would've thought a Mid-South Youth Camp friendship could end up with such life-changing stories!
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We have been blessed to foster 3 children and adopt 1 of them. We are expecting another foster-to-adopt child in the coming days or weeks.
Blessings,
Greg
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Thank you for knowing that every life is precious and from God. Your family saved 52 sweet and precious lives!! Your mission has touched many more lives, not just the babies you nurtured to good health.
We love all of you!!!
Georgia
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Jennifer Harden and Gauge :)
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It was a blessing to read your story. Traci and I adopted our three children. Our process was much different than yours, but I can identify with the fear and trepidation that comes from having the fate of your family's future in the hands of court. God bless you all.
Jason
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This story brings tears of joy to my eyes! You have both been such a blessing to the Ugandan people and now you are a blessing to those who are getting to know you back in the states! Scott, I am still waiting to read your book once you write down all of your family adventures!
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Love you guys!
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God bless you and your beautiful family!
Gillian
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You are inspirational - may God continue to pour out his blessings on all of you!
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You guys are an amazing example of genoristy and what it means to have a home of hospitality. We are so glad to see that the Lord has blessed you and kept your family together.
Penny
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"They are pretty babies!" -- Cate, 6 years old
"Loved reading your story with my children." -- Christy
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I wish you the best and may you continue to grow spiritually everyday!!! You are truly an amazing family. God is GREAT!!!!!!!!
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Y'all did a great job for the Lord and he has blessed y'all with your 6 little blessings and more.
I am so glad our paths crossed.
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God has certainly blessed you through these precious children and you have allowed God to use you to bless these babies and glorify His name. Great testimony!
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You two are truly amazing! Thank you for sharing the story with everyone. God has worked through your family in so many ways and I am a blessed person to have seen this love in action. The shoebox that morning I will never forget! And look how beautiful and big she is now. Love you and hope to see you soon.
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I am not sure if you remember us from Campus, it has been a long time. We are now working as full time missionaries in Russia and Ukraine (with the Browne's) We too have adopted. She is a young lady from Russia, Sasha two years ago. She is now almost 18. What a wonderful experience. We now have 5 girls. Congratulations and praise God for all you are doing.
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You guys have such a beautiful family. Your compassion has had such an impact on so many. Thank you for sharing your story and your lives! I know that God has blessed you with precious children and I pray He will continue to bless you all!
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You and your wonderful family are amazing. You are definitely a light in this world. Our love and prayers.
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What a wonderful thing you and your family have done for these children. They are so innocent in being born into this world. I pray that your efforts for the Uganda orphans will continue while in the US.
God bless you and your family.
Michele :~)
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And what an amazing story. God truly is SO good!! If there are mountains to be moved, HE can do it! Sometimes we forget as Christians, that we are in this world, but are not of this world. And that His divine favor can do the otherwise unthinkable! oh yes... GOD IS GOOD!! Praising him for all he has done and is doing in (and through!) your beautiful family!!
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