From Uganda to the UK: Our Journey to Bring Our Family Home

Emilie Larter is organizing this fundraiser.

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Who We Are

Hi, I’m Emilie - I’m from the UK, and I live in Uganda with my partner Josh and our four children.

Our story began over a decade ago, when I came to Uganda to volunteer at 22 years old and was unexpectedly handed a five-day-old baby boy to care for. That baby was Adam - and that moment changed everything. He became my world, and after years of emotional, difficult legal processes, I finally became his legal mother.

During those years, I met Josh (in 2016) - and as time passed, more children joined our home. Tallie and George, who are part of Josh’s extended family, came to stay in 2018, and their little brother James followed in 2020. What began as temporary care became permanent love and they’ve been part of our family ever since.

For three years, we lived apart - Josh and the children in Uganda, and Adam and I in the UK - trying to manage adoption proceedings in Uganda while also going through the re-adoption process in the UK, hoping to meet the strict immigration requirements. It was an incredibly hard time - we missed countless milestones and the emotional toll of being separated for so long was huge. When things weren’t moving fast enough, despite knowing it would be financially difficult, we made the decision to move back to Uganda so we could be together and push forward as a family.

We’re now doing everything we can to return to the UK as a complete family - not just to be together legally, but to build a life where we all have a real chance to thrive. In Uganda, opportunities are limited for both us as parents and for the children. Josh and I simply can’t earn enough here to support the family long-term or work toward a better future. In the UK, we’d be able to access real opportunities - for stable work, for education, for support. Our entire support network is there. And while we know the UK isn’t perfect, we know deep down it’s what’s right for our family.

Our Goal

We’re aiming to raise £80,000 by the end of this year to cover:

Finalising the adoptions here in Uganda – including remaining legal fees, required TB tests, certified documents, and all the transport and admin costs involved (we don’t own a car, so we rely on hire cars for court and office visits)
Spouse and dependent visas for the UK - which come with huge costs, including UK-based lawyer fees and NHS surcharges for each family member
Relocation costs - including flights for all of us, arrangements for the pets that will be coming, and provisions for those who will join us later
Starting from scratch in the UK - we’ll be arriving with almost nothing: no car, no house, and very few belongings. We’ll need some money in the bank just to get on our feet and start rebuilding.

This GoFundMe reflects our total goal, including anything we earn ourselves. We’ll be adding all income from TikTok creator rewards, brand deals and other things we’re working on behind the scenes as offline donations, so everything is fully transparent. (This total also includes tax we’ll need to pay on any income earned - around 30% - as well as standard GoFundMe processing fees deducted from each donation.)

Why We've Set This Up

People often ask us if we have a GoFundMe - so after a lot of thought, we’ve decided to set this up alongside everything we’re doing to raise the money ourselves.

We’re working incredibly hard to reach our goal - documenting our journey, creating content and putting every bit of income from things like TikTok creator rewards, brand deals, and a few other ideas we have in the works straight toward this. All of that will be added as offline donations, so you can see exactly where we are.

But for those who do want to support us directly - this is here, and we’re so grateful.