Meet Lily & Hope
Because of the sensitive nature of Ug@ndan adoption I have not been able to share details of what has yet been one of the greatest rescue stories of our lives. A story that is now becoming our pilgrimage.
But today justice and mercy kissed and we saw the strong arm of the fatherless on behalf of our no-longer-fatherless.
Today, in Lily’s words, “the judge said yes.”
As the weeks unfold I can’t wait to tell the story. Their stories. My story. His story.
In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak at the two latest ones who have stolen our hearts. Please praise God with us for moving through the impossible to make them Hagertys. We are crazy about them.
Video is below here, after the jump…
wow. wow. wow. amazing. We love The Hagerty Six! =)
Congratulations Hagerty Family !
Many Blessings from you friends from FCF
Aron and Raya
WOOHOO! Hooray for faces and stories and Lily and Hope Hagerty!
(and hooray for occasions for the Hagerty kids to eat shake-milks and Sundays.)
Love you all!
This is the most amazing, beautiful story. I am weeping tears of absolute joy!
Beyond beautiful. My heart is so full.
Oh man, Sarah…WEEPING tears of joy for you guys as I watch this. How amazing to see this story unfold and God’s faithfulness to walk all 6 of you through this journey. Will be praying for all the transitions to come, but for now REJOICING and thanking Jesus with you all!!!
Much love from the Smith clan
Lovely.
crying tears of joy! praying for all of you.
I don’t know you, but I have been following your story…. I am overwhelmed with joy for all of you!! Praise God!
Wowee! So excited for you guys! What a beautiful family! Can’t wait for you all to come home!
Carrie
Congratulations!! I am crying tears of joy for you all! WooHoo!
HOORAY! Hope looks amazing! And comfortable enough to show some facial expressions revealing her feisty and goofy sides
Wow. Wow. Wow. Thank you for sharing this! Thank you for being such an inspiring example of pursuing the fatherless! I’ll be praying for your family with joy.
I thought I was going to hold it together, until… Eden took off her little flower headband and placed it on her new sister’s head. Totally lost it. Praise be to our Mighty God, who alone brings such JOY!!!!
beautiful!
Praise God!
oh man. tears before the pictures even started. i can only imagine. praise God for his amazing plans.
This is awesome. I’m on my way out the door to a wedding and now I’m bawling
Tears of joy, mountains of goosebumps. God is so so good!!! Yes, you can see Him in His children!!! Praising God!!!! Blessings to all SIX of you!!!
Sitting here in tears as I watch this-praise God and Congratulations to all of you! What a blessing it has been to be able to pray with you and get peeks into what God has been doing in your family…I can’t wait to see more of the story unfold. Blessings to all of you!
Sara, that was absolutely beautiful. Tears are running down my checks. We are beyond excited for you all!! God Bless!
Just simply beautiful. Rejoicing with you!
Sara and Nate, Thanks for sharing. You are amazing people and we love you and miss you in Charlottesville. My prayer is that your children will continue to be a blessing to you as mine have been to me. It has only just begun but it goes by fast!!!!
Tears of unbelievable JOY! God is SO good!!
I am home in Charlottesville, and my mom and I are crying tears of joy for you and Nate and your beautiful family. God is so great!
Praising God with you! Looking forward to hearing God’s faithfulness as your hearts are knit together in all these new ways.
I am speechless…the tears running down my cheeks say it all. Your family is perfect and beautiful…thank God that He sent them to you…and you to them. It was a match made in Heaven…God is good. Amen.
We are rejoicing and praising God with you…many tears as we watched this beautiful movie!! We are soooo happy for your family!!
Precious. That is all I can say. Precious!
So excited and proud of you guys. I didn’t make it through the pictures 10 sec before I was sobbing. Congrats and safe travels to everyone:)
Sara. I am sitting here in tears rejoicing with your family. Oh what our great God will do with hearts open to His leading. Blessings, blessings, on your precious family.
Sara, through tears of happiness and joy I am rejoicing on the addition of Hope and Lily to the Hagerty Family. May God Bless you all.
I am in tears watching your beautiful family. I have loved following along your journey. I have prayed for your sweet children and the process to get them here. I am so glad that the day has finally come. I can’t wait for the day when we get to welcome more of our own into our family!
Thanks for always being so encouraging. I love your blog!
Sara, wow! What an amazing story – I am rejoicing with you, I’m so moved. My heart is filled with compassion and joy for your family! Enjoy every second, every ‘first’ moments you will all have together!
thank you for sharing your beautiful journey. You have blessed me so much by your heart for the Lord. Many, many prayers over you and your most lovely family!
absolutely beautiful!
Yaaaaaay!!!!!!!!
Can’t wait to hear more once you’re home!
More tears of joy here for you all! Praise His Holy Name!!!
Sara and Nate, you don’t know me but I have been corresponding with Mandie and have had the pleasure of following your sweet little girl, Lily. She is amazing!!!!! Congratulations!
Tears of JOY. So so so good. A God of great promise. Sara your family is beautiful. You are so beautiful to me and such a role model!
love,
Jodi
This is beautiful. A true expression of God’s heart. Thank you for sharing this with all of us! Can’t wait to hear more of the story, and follow this journey with you and your family!
LOVE this
Your family is so beautiful!
Just speechless as I watch. God is good. I can only imagine how tired…. and absolutely adrenaline filled you are right now. What an amazing story, Sara.
How beautiful!!! Many congrats to you all!! God is AWESOME!!!
Joyful! Congratulations on your new family members!
So excited for your family and the story that God is weaving! My husband and I are adopting from Ethiopia and were both weeping at the end of the video. The girls are beautiful and look so happy! Can’t wait to hear more! (Also, thought I would say that I’m a college friend of Kelly Tarr.)
Love, love, love this, Hagertys! We are rejoicing with you tonight.
This is just amazing! Thank you – it heals my heart, too. ;0) I miss you all!!!
Oh, Sara! Thank you so much for sharing your lives with us. Your children are so beautiful! What a testimony of God’s goodness and pursuit! It is a joy to see how the Gospel is played out in your lives–thank you for allowing us to see this in and through you! Jesus is so sweet. May He continue to bring you great joy as you seek Him and love your family! {I cannot stop crying!!}
Praising the LORD with you!!! What an amazing story HE has written! Praying for you and Nate as you bring them HOME!!!
What a great video. Thank you so much for sharing.
I have never seen anything so beautiful Sara, cant wait to meet them!
WOW! I am so in awe of the King of Kings that we serve! I am also in tears! Such joy for your family!!!
So sweet!
Simply beautiful.
Beautiful redemption. Two more no longer orphans in this world. I am rejoicing with you Hagertys!
Sara,
That was amazing! I can’t wait to hear the rest of their redemption stories. So thankful for Hope and Lily and for how God placed them into your family!
Beautiful!
Would you mind sending me the agency you’re working with in Uganda? Thanks! katielipovsky(at)gmail.com.
Congratulations! Absolutely fanstastic. Love radiates throughout.
Oh…..we are so happy, happy, happy for you guys!! You have waited on the Lord, He has renewed your strength and caused you to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint. He is so blessed by Your faithfulness to lean upon Him. We worship and praise Him with you for His amazing grace and goodness. Can’t wait to see you all. We love you!!
Wow!! Tears and tears and tears. To be used in such a way. Praises to God for this journey you have chosen. You have inspired me today! So much love to you all!! Look forward to hearing more!
Praise the Lord! And thank you, Jesus!!!!!! (tears of joy for your beautiful daughters joining your family…)
Just sitting here in a hotel room in Raleigh, NC balling my eyes out with tears of amazing joy. I love you guys.
I watched every second of the video and cried tears of joy at His HOPE and RESTORATION. I’m going to share this on WAGI this weekend – I know it will be a blessing to the readers there as your posts always are.
“You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; in your right hand are eternal pleasures.”!!! Psalm 16:11 HCSB
Abundant joy, abundant love, abundant blessings! . . . the words that come to me but don’t do those photos of such beautiful smiles and precious moments justice! God is soooooooooo good! Praying for safe journeys to becoming the family God designed you to be!
Beautiful beyond words. Joining in your celebration from Texas.
*wipes tears of joy.
I am so overwhelmed.
So much love and joy, beauty and faith.
Happy for all the Hagertys!
Tear for the beauty of God in your family and your family’s story. Congrats!
I first thought….”this is too good to be true.” BUT IT’S NOT!!!! It’s all true and good and better than we could ever imagine. What a beautiful TRUE story with lots more chapters to come!!!! Woooo HOOOOO! hugs all around from each of us.
So so excited for yall! God blessed your stepping out in faith and making the trip early, He made the paths straight for yall, He parted the seas, He completed what He started. He is a good and faithful God! Stephen had tears in his eyes, Emma kept asking questions, “That’s their Mommy now? They have a mommy and daddy now!”, and after the video stopped little Asher paused and then said, “Praise Jesus!” Thank you for sharing the video and pictures with us…we’ve all touched God’s heart through this miracle that has unfolded before our very eyes…much love, Natalie
Sara (and Nate) — What a beautiful tribute to God, and to the wonderful expanding family that you have. Our best wishes, and congratulations!
Sitting in my kitchen here in Utah, praising Jesus with you. Beautiful!!!!! Cannot wait to hear more about Lily and Hope, and for them to come home and just live with their family.
From one MODsquad mom to another . . . CONGRATULATIONS!! I’m so happy for you and your entire family. God bless you all.
Oh Sara!! So amazed and thankful to the God who saves and restores and redeems what was once lost!! Tonight I have been so discouraged and your video brought me back to hope, to our Jesus!! I am sooooooo happy for you all! And my prayers continue for you all as you journey forward as a family!!
Your story is life changing. For you, for the girls, for their siblings. But more than that, your story is life changing for the reader. For me. In a world caught up in trivial things like gadgets, social media, and seemingly meaningless routines, your story stops us all dead in our tracks and reminds us of the importance of life. Those little faces are made in the likeness of God, the Almighty. When we look at your two newest daughters, we are looking at their Father. At the same time, as I look at your face and Nate’s I see the Father as well. Your selflessness is remarkable. What you have done is truly a human display of heavenly love. That’s huge. Bigger than words can ever describe.
Love, Love , Love it. You are a mama to four! Such sweet girls. I cannot wait to meet them!
May God richly bless your precious, beautiful family!
Sara and Nate,
What a great family and a great video. I had to watch it twice to see through the tears. I am so happy for you and the girls.
Things are tough for us now, but as I looked at those first moments of meeting I remembered our first meeting with our girls and I knew then, as I know now, that from all time He had meant them to be our family. So it is with you.
All the best,
Mike and Ami O’Neill with Quinn Fu Bing, Margaret FuQing, Pema JiangTsan, Norah JiangYi, Lachlan ZiHui, and Kassidy YiQiu
Sarah, His Mercy and Justice were never more beautifully intertwined. We are adoring the Most High for you. (And crying tears of joy alongside you!) Thank you, dear Lord!! God bless you all!!
The Gasperini Family
Congratulations! What a gorgeous family you’ve been given…
Sara and Nate,
Rejoicing with everyone else and ditto, in tears like most everyone else. Your journey has been nothing short of Amazing and full of Miracles. He is truly the God that makes the impossible , possible. Praise His wonderful name. Soooo happy for all six of you. Your story -His story is truly beautiful. Blessings for a safe trip home. Linda
Praise God! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing. Beautiful…just beautiful. I can’t help but worship as I watch and think, Lord this is good…it’s like seeing Jesus tangibly working in lives. Can’t wait to hear more.
Amazing.
Congratulations! You don’t know me, but I’ve been following your blog for a couple years and rejoicing as your family has grown! (I graduated UVa in ’02 and a couple years ago a friend who knows y’all mentioned your blog and recalling your names I checked it out. Thanks for sharing your life and wisdom with so many of us.) God bless you in this new season for your family!
Wow. Sara that was so incredibly beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your precious journey with us. You are a family of 6 now! Oh, God is so good! I love all of the pictures of your new family. Next time we’re in KC I would LOVE to meet up with you. God bless you and your family!
What a powerful picture of of God’s love for each one of His children! I just “happened” by your blog today…I know it was God directed:-) Thanks for sharing your story and the power of restoration. We are in the “waiting” for our referral to come over and bring a little Ugandan boy into our family. We can’t wait to meet him and shower the love of Jesus over him!
God Bless you and your new family!
Sara, Nate, they are GORGEOUS…your whole family!!! Congratulations!! Your video and pictures are amazing!
Wow. Oh Wow. I’m just catching up on your blog and tears are streaming down my face. Our Father is wonderful!
Praying for you and your four. For healing, restoration, peace and love….
Dear Sara and Nate,
I’ve missed so much of your life in the past few years. Janet Saulsbury gave me an overview today at lunch. Now, I see for myself what you,ve been up to. All I can say is, How merciful God is to all six of you. I will put you back on my daily prayer list, as I suspect you could use it
Betti,
So good to “hear” from you — yes, God is so merciful! thank you for praying!!
warmly,
Sara
Too beautiful for words … such great images and wonderful memories for all of you. So happy to see you all together. Makes our long wait feel so worth it after seeing your video and gorgeous family. O’ the joy you all must feel : )
Dear Precious Hagerty family, Thank you for the Christmas card and the invitation to see this video. It is beautiful and such a wonderful memory to have of this time. Thank you for sharing. Your family is beautiful. I’m happy for each of you. Love, Beth Blunk