Go get her!

The ding of my cell phone reporting a received email was heard only by Josiah. He told me that my phone made a noise.... There was no way to know how important that ding was! I continued to unload the dishwasher. 

The night before our facilitator had told us that he thought our date would be in the first week of December, but since he didn't have a specific date yet, I didn't allow myself to get over excited..... 

When I finally opened my email and saw the email was from our facilitator. I first thought that it must be In Relation to a question I had sent the night before. I completely overlooked the subject of the email. 

When I opened it I saw these words

"Dec 4 is our appointment date!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!"

My heart jumped! I screamed! Finally! We will go get our girl!

I called Ronnie, he had not yet seen the email. So I got to tell him. 

By this time, Josiah and Lydia had come running, wondering why I was squealing and jumping around! I told them that we are going to get Lena soon! Josiah, wearing only his diaper at the time, turns around, gathered his milk cup and snack in his arms, and said, while walking towards the door "should we take Lena some milk and snack too?" He was ready to go get his sister!! We spent a good bit of time yesterday jumping in circles in the living room! 

I am now panicking about getting everything ready in time, but I also work best in a time crunch. So, I guess I got that. We will be having a Ukrainian Christmas this year and I could not be more excited! 

Our next steps are like this:: 

- travel to Ukraine!! Then there will be generically a 3-step process. 

Disclaimer::: This is the simplified, and error free  version of what should happen. We first meet with the SDA. This is kind of like our DHR, or child services. They will give us a referral and file on Lena. We will then go to Lena's orphanage and manage some paperwork while we wait for step 2 - our court date. That is where the judge will declare (prayerfully) that she is legally ours! (This will be 2-3 weeks after the SDA appointment). 

Once we have the court decree, there will be a 10-day wait and then It will be finalized! We can then bust her out and start step 3.... the process of getting her US documents in order. Once we have those (passport, birth certificate, medical records, etc.) we will fly home! 

We expect this, if smooth, to take approximately 6-8 weeks! 

Our prayer requests are mainly that holidays don't make too much of a mess, that Josiah and Lydia manage the travel as well as we think they will, and that our remaining funds will come in:) 

Our God has brought us so far in such a short time. We could not ask for more! 

Lena, hold on, we are coming soon! 

Orphan Sunday

Today is orphan Sunday - recognized around the world in churches and among adoption organizations. My Facebook newsfeed was full of photos with quotes about orphans, videos of cartoons about orphans and pastors talking about orphans. I have friends that had adoption fundraisers today after their church recognized orphan Sunday. All day, the Christians of the world focused on orphans. Our Sunday school lesson was about adoption!  (Kinda easy for us to teach right now) 

I felt myself wondering.

Do the orphans know it? If so, I wonder how it makes them feel? Are they thankful that the Christians in the world are thinking of them today? Are they hopeful that there are families out there who will come get them after they celebrate orphan Sunday? I just wonder what it is like to be an orphan on orphan Sunday. 

I am not against orphan Sunday. Please don't take this that way. Quite the opposite. I am a big fan of orphan Sunday. I am very much a fan of anything right now that draws attention to the beautiful children that need families around the world (Ukraine in particular, right now, for obvious reasons) but also for the orphans that I have spent time with in past years in Jamaica, and in Belize. And those where I have friends that have adopted from, in Ethiopia and China. And those kids in America, who are currently in group homes or foster care. I am thrilled that we have orphan Sunday for these kids! 

But I just wonder sometimes if recognizing orphan Sunday is enough. In our comfortable churches, with our appropriate heat and air, with discussions of football, hunting and shopping and a sound system that rarely flickers (and it is tragic if it does.) is sitting and watching a video about orphans really what it means to "care for orphans and widows in their distress?" Not that the videos are bad either, but that sometimes we stop here. A tear forms and trickles down our cheeks, we smile and the cute little boys and the girl missing two front teeth. We want to hug them although the miles between us are many. But we can't do that now, so, we wipe the tear, walk out the door, and wonder about lunch. With a slight glance back, we move on. 

The orphans don't. They don't move on. They are still there. The boy on a broken rusty swing, the girl running through the field. Their birthdays come and go, many without mark or remembrance. Some not remembered because no one that now cares for them even knows when they were born. There is no day to celebrate. No birthday candles, no cake smash, songs to be sung or family to argue about who will take the photos, or who has to be in Which photos. 

We discuss the price, the fears, the questions and concerns. We consider all options and weigh the costs. They stand and simply say, it really doesn't matter who you are, or what you have, I want a loving family. 

I believe orphan Sunday is a good thing. I really do. If it does what it is intended to do. If it makes us uncomfortable long enough to force us to do more than smile at a video. If it makes us do more than throw money at an orphanage. If it makes us do more. Christ calls us to do more than recognize a problem. Christ calls us to solve the problems, with His help. Christ calls us to love..... 

Do we really want Him to break our heart for what breaks His? We might do well to look to the people He instructed us to take care of. What is stopping you? 

Surprise!

Well. Sometimes awesome stuff happens. 

We have been praying for a couple of weeks that we would be able to go to be with Lena on her birthday in November. Remember how I said it would be a miracle? I was praying for our date to be on, or before her birthday.... Which doesn't seem to be happening. 

Ok, well, when God works, it doesn't usually look like we expect it to, but it is always so clear it is still him. 

Someone has very generously given me a ticket to Ukraine from the day before Lena's birthday, until about 8 days after to go over to see Lena. This will not be our official appointment date, but an extra bonus visit. I will be flying by myself (Julia) and get to spend some time specifically with Lena for a little while. 

You can only imagine how excited I am!! Not only for the chance to see her and be able to finally tell her in person how much we love her.... But also to celebrate her birthday.... It will also just be so awesome to be able to kinda get a preview of the big trip to help me know how to better prepare to take our whole family over there! It's just amazing all the way around! 

She doesn't know about this yet.... So for those of you with vk accounts, I haven't decided yet it if will be a full surprise for her, or if we want her to have something to look forward to. The one thing I want to be clear about when she does find out, is that this is just an extra visit. I would never want her to end up disappointed because She misunderstands and thinks this is the big official trip. So, I am going to make sure that I have a good translator when we tell her..... Whenever that is! 

For the official update: We are still awaiting notification on our dossier approval. (Maybe this week?) And then our travel date assignment for the official trip.... My prayer now is that we will know our official travel date by the time I get to go over there so that by the time I leave, we might be able to tell her when we will be returning! How awesome will it be to be able to hug her when I have to back to the airport and be able to promise a a specific return timeline! 

... "Peace, Be still!"

.... and the winds were calm.

We just talked with our facilitator. He went back to the SDA today to check on our status, and while we are still not fully approved, the SDA worker basically told him that in this case, this would not be a problem, but that documents with this error would likely not be accepted again.

I have heard awful stories of minor details being the reason for rejection. I was afraid of that..... but in this case, our prayers have been answered. Jesus calmed this storm. He worked in the heart of an SDA officer. This will not hold us up for now.

As I said, we are still not officially - fully - approved.... but our potential problem that we learned about yesterday, is no longer a potential problem. AND we didn't have to wait two weeks to find out!!!!

Praise The Lord! Thanks be to God. Keep praying!

Urgent prayer needed:::possible delay

Urgent prayer.

There is a possible delay in our paperwork. It isn't definite yet, but a small detail (almost unbelievable, really) has been found in our dossier. We were made aware of it, our facilitator was questioned, but we were told that it didn't mean a rejection, yet. 

We may know something later this week, or a couple weeks from now. 

It could be a big deal. Delaying us as much as a month. 

It could be no big deal at all.

The waiting and not knowing is complicated.

Draining.

Emotional.

Exhausting. 

When we got the email today, we panicked. I cried. I was angry and didn't know who to be angry at. 

After a series of emails and a phone call, Ronnie suggested we pray. 

His prayer included the disciples in the boat with Jesus. How they panicked, ran around, and woke Jesus up when the storm raged.... Jesus looked at them (possibly a bit exasperated?) asked if they still didn't know who He was, and then calmed the storm. 

We were the disciples today..... But for now, we go to bed knowing Who it is that is in charge of this small (possible) storm. 

We covet your prayers as much today, if not more, than since this began. We are praying for peace to rule in our home, for guidance through this crazy navigation system, for those whose hands touch our paperwork.... We want Christ to shine in us, through us, and through our paperwork to those who see it. 

Fall basket raffle!

A beautiful basket with coffee! Chocolate! Popcorn! Mugs and more! Also a $25 gift card to TJMaxx, Home Goods, or Marshall's. The basket is valued at app. $95. 

You can purchase opportunities to win this basket from now until Saturday Oct. 26 at 12:00, midnight (central time.) we will announce the winner on Sunday October 27. 

Each entry will be assigned a number when the donation is given and The winner will be chosen using random.org.

You can send us checks, we can take credit/debit cards, we take cash, or you can give to our youcaring.com site.

(http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/bringing-lena-home-/69199?utm_source=widget) 

With any of these, make sure you let us know that you are purchasing chances to win. 

Each chance to win is $10, or you can buy 3 chances for $25. 

Only two weeks! 

While we wait....

There is so much about this process that is fast.... getting documents together, running to the post office, running to the notary (three times after 9pm for us over the course of this so far!) and hurrying to raise a ton of money.

But the largest percentage of time is waiting.

We waited for our home study

We waited for our fingerprints

We waited for our USCIS approval

We waited for our dossier to make it to Ukraine

We are now waiting for our approval, so that we can turn around and wait for our travel date.

So, while we wait. We pray. We prepare a pink room for a beautiful girl. We raise money (only about $8,500 to go!). We try to build a relationship via text message, facebook chat, and rough phone conversations.

The other thing we are doing is trying to prepare ourselves (and anyone else who cares and will listen) for the reality. For, you see, adoption is a beautiful picture of redemption. It is how we are moved from sin into the family of God. It is the picture of salvation. But do you know who needs to be saved? Lost people. People who cannot help themselves. People who are without hope and in need of saving.... those are the people who are adopted into God's family.

Adoption, similarly, while beautiful, represents some of the most painful portions of life. Adoption never happens without first having severe pain.

I am reading a book now that will hopefully help us be able to help Lena process the unfathomable pain that happened at some point in her history. I am constantly on blogs, articles, FB pages. I have said before that we may never know her full story, and the story may come out in parts but whatever it is, I want to be sure that we are as prepared as possible to assist her in processing it. The grief of losing a mother - whether through adoption or death - must be addressed. The love of our family cannot fully be understood or even accepted until she is able to process her past - and that may take a lifetime. I read that to say to an adoptee  something like "You are so lucky" is similar to saying to an amputee "You are so lucky to have that prosthetic leg" They my want to respond with "yes, that is a good thing... ya know what would have been awesome? Keeping my leg to begin with!" And, while I realize that many people mean this in a very good way, it can be interpreted to the adoptee very complex.

There are multiple locations and information sites that I can help you find if you are interested in helping your family be prepared for our family's adoption, or another adoptive family. Just comment.

There are days that my tears just seem on the edge of overflow. Today is one of those. I am a simple basket of emotions and just really want to hold her, hug her, tell her that I love her and promise that we will be there for her forever. Knowing that she has homework and someone else is helping her, that she may cry and someone else is comforting, she may be cold and someone else has to give her clothes or blankets to keep warm. We understand that she is in an excellent orphanage.... but you know what an orphanage is not? It is not home. I am ready to bring her home. I am 15 weeks into this process and I am ready to go get my daughter and her princess smile, her awesome sense of humor, her conviction about what is right and her strong opinions. I am ready to learn her language and have Josiah and Lydia teaching her English. I am ready for complicated conversations, charades for primary communication and the whole world being a giant game of Taboo. I am ready for emotions, questions, laughter, dinners, and games. I am ready to be outnumbered children/adults in my home and have them all using language skills that confuse me and Ronnie. I am ready for her to have friends here that love her, along with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Not that I am ready to replace her heritage, but I am ready for her to add to that heritage. We do not want to remove any part of her history that she wants to keep.... we just want to give her some new promises of hope!