We are hoping and praying to Ukraine in April/May to adopt our girl and bring her home to her "forever family". Our journey began in April 2009, we were asked to host a child for the summer and we said "yes". Well....it wasn't quite that simple but that is a story for another time. A few of the difficulties we have encountered along the way are: 1) for some reason she did not get to the plane with the original hosting group (she was from a different orphanage); but she finally did get here and we had 6 wonderful weeks!! 2) we found out she was not registered with the SDA in Ukraine. She was registered locally and it had been sent to the regional office but there it sat for months. 3) she got moved to another orphanage 4) recently there has been a possible moratorium looming on international adoptions. There was alot in between 1) and 4) but I won't go into all of it.
We were blessed to have been able to host her over the Christmas holidays 2009/2010 and have been able to call her regularly and send care packages. More importantly, she seems to love us as much as we love her and is waiting for us to bring her home.
Along this journey, we have been asked numerous times "why not give up or adopt another child" or " have you ever thought about a different country"? The one thing we have been sure of from the beginning is that God called us to pursue adopting this child from this country. Now does this mean we have never worried or questioned our sanity in pursuing this adoption. NO!! We have discussed it in length and one such time was April 15, 2010. My husband is a CPA so I remember the date well. Late in the day we were driving to the coast talking about the attacks and difficulties and asking "should we continue"? Well, as you know, God is good and the next morning when I opened my devotional "Streams in the Desert" there was the verse Hebrews 11:8 - By faith ...,
So even when this journey does not make sense to the world, God has given us His peace that we are being obedient to His call and we must place our trust in Him -- He is in control and He already knows how this story will end.
One last thing, our son graduated from college a couple of weeks ago and move to Washington DC today. So we are excited to see where 2011 takes him too. A BIG "Thank You" to all that continue to pray and encourage our family!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
