We are SO eager to pack our bags and go on our big trip, but the answer to the question is "No, we have no travel plans yet." If you know me, I like to have a plan and it is a bit unnerving to have no idea when we embark on our journey. Back in May when our agency said, "Yes, of course you'll bring her home this summer" I had it all figured out. I thought for sure we'd bring her home at the end of July, take the month of August to get acclimated to being a family of 6 and then begin our homeschool year in September. Nice and neat. Ha!
Slowly, our departure date has slipped closer and closer to the fall. I am beginning to learn that this adoption process is not nice and neat. It involves trusting God and letting go of control. God is not surprised by the twists and turns. He is not surprised by the steps forward with paperwork and the steps back. I have to trust that His timing is perfect. And I need to remember that every step of the way He will be with us. What a wonderful promise!!! Oh how I wish though that He would send me an email or text message and let me know the plan. ;) This has been a very hard lesson for me to learn. (Frankly, I've been a bit moody about it!)
Good news: Our dossier was FINALLY submitted on July 25th. Praise the Lord! (Ukraine only accepts older child adoption dossiers on Thursdays.) Coincidentally, this was our 15th wedding anniversary so it is a definitely a date we will remember.
Other news: Due to the change in Russian adoption laws, more families are seeking to adopt from other Eastern European countries. What this means for us is that the 2-3 week approval time for dossiers is now running closer to 7 weeks. (maybe more, maybe less?) We are praying we hear from Ukraine by September 12th, if not sooner. Will you join us in praying?
When we receive contact from Ukraine, they will tell us when our appointment with the SDA is in Ukraine. That should be between 2-4 weeks from our dossier approval. Perhaps we'll travel in October?
Technically, this is the closest we have been to knowing our travel date so far and yet we still do not know. Our dossier is sitting in a stack somewhere in Ukraine. Fully translated and ready to be examined and reviewed. We are praying with hope that it will be soon, but also trying to prepare our hearts for later.
Contact with Irina: We have been sending letters and small packages every 3-4 weeks. A dear Russian women from our church has been translating them for us and we pray that Irina receives them and that someone is kind enough to read them to her. (I don't know what her Russian reading capabilities are.) She is not able to send us anything back, so it is all very one sided. We'd love to know how Irina is doing, but we have no way of knowing. It has been almost 7 months since we said goodbye at the airport and my heart aches to hear her voice and give her a hug. In the meantime, we look at pictures, watch the video we took at Christmas and remember our 3 minute long phone call on April 14th.
I haven't had a chance to share that on the blog, but it is a huge praise that our agency director visited Irina's orphanage in April. While she was there, she was able to call us and put Irina on the phone for a very short conversation. I wish I thought ahead to tape record it! The call came at 5am on a Sunday morning and we were delighted to hear her little voice speaking both in Russian and in English. She was coached to say a few phrases to us, that of course, were delightful to hear. "I love you and I miss you." I can't believe that was already more then three months ago! Oh how we wish we could call her again, but it just doesn't work that way.
In the meantime, all we can do is prep for our school year, get her room ready, read lots of books on older child adoptions, parenting an adopted child and PRAY! Pray for her protection. Pray for her heart. Pray for the Ukrainian courts to process things unexpectedly quickly. Pray for the boys.
It has been very therapeutic for me to decorate her room and organize her closet. I just finished sewing her curtains and made a bedskirt to go along with the bedding. The boys helped me paint letters to hang in her room that say her name. I hope to post some pictures soon!
All in all, we trust that God is good and He has a plan. However, this "pregnant" Momma feels a bit overdue!! I'd like to be induced, please!!!
Thank you for praying! Let's bring our sweet girl home!!!!!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
Dossier, Distractions, and Delights!
A very quick update for those of you wondering...
* It seems that just when we think we understand what's next concerning paperwork, there are more twists and turns. This has been a great test/ learning opportunity when it comes to patience. I still have a LOT to learn in this department, so God keeps allowing me opportunities. ;) Darin sent off a stack of documents to our adoption agency freshly marked with their apostilles. (An apostille is a seal that is attached to all our documents verifying that they are genuine and that the notaries are indeed real notaries. All our documents for the dossier need an apostille.)
* The government offices in Ukraine are closed all this week and not accepting any dossiers next week. They will begin accepting dossiers on July 15th.
* Our dossier will still need to be translated before it is submitted. Please pray that this is a swift process. Please also pray that we have caught all the mistakes. It seems at every turn there are new hurdles and backtracking to correct the errors of others. Pray that we will be gracious, all the while advocating for our daughter.
* On a fun note... I finally cleaned out Irina's closet of all the random things that get stored in an extra closet. (You do that too, right?) Now, everything in her closet is for her! Almost all the clothes we have for her are the result of generous contributions of both new and used clothes from friends. I have her bed set up with a pretty quilt and pillow shams. I'm still hunting for just the right dresser/bookshelf on craigslist and am eager to sew her coordinating curtains. This has been very special for me.
* I'm not sure if it's "pregnancy brain" or what, but I've struggled with being distracted and forgetful. Really scatterbrained!! I need to praise God for my husband who is handling all the paperwork. He is juggling his heavy work load and all this paperwork, not to mention being a husband and dad too. It is such a relief to know that Darin is handling all of it and know that he is handling it well!
* I'm also busy cleaning out our attic of all the boys baby stuff since we won't need it anymore. Slowly, I am making progress selling items and adding money to our adoption fund. It's only a small dent to the cost of the adoption, but it feels really good to contribute in some way. God is teaching me to trust Him to provide what we need. I'm not a big risk taker and this feels risky, but I believe in my heart that God is calling us to take this risk. The benefits of walking closely with Him and trusting Him, far outweigh the risks. Please contact me if you know someone looking to buy some boy clothes or other baby gear. I have some really cute stuff!
Prayer Requests:
* That the dossier will be translated quickly and ready to be submitted ASAP!
* Irina's safety and protection - both outwardly and inwardly
* Continued prayers for the boys... that God will be preparing their hearts for the upcoming transition.
* That we will trust God for His provision.
* For our family of 5: that God will enable us to extend grace, forgiveness and love to one another in the midst of distractions and demands. Particularly, that I will be "present" and enjoy each moment with the boys instead of fast forwarding in my brain to our future with Irina.
* It seems that just when we think we understand what's next concerning paperwork, there are more twists and turns. This has been a great test/ learning opportunity when it comes to patience. I still have a LOT to learn in this department, so God keeps allowing me opportunities. ;) Darin sent off a stack of documents to our adoption agency freshly marked with their apostilles. (An apostille is a seal that is attached to all our documents verifying that they are genuine and that the notaries are indeed real notaries. All our documents for the dossier need an apostille.)
* The government offices in Ukraine are closed all this week and not accepting any dossiers next week. They will begin accepting dossiers on July 15th.
* Our dossier will still need to be translated before it is submitted. Please pray that this is a swift process. Please also pray that we have caught all the mistakes. It seems at every turn there are new hurdles and backtracking to correct the errors of others. Pray that we will be gracious, all the while advocating for our daughter.
* On a fun note... I finally cleaned out Irina's closet of all the random things that get stored in an extra closet. (You do that too, right?) Now, everything in her closet is for her! Almost all the clothes we have for her are the result of generous contributions of both new and used clothes from friends. I have her bed set up with a pretty quilt and pillow shams. I'm still hunting for just the right dresser/bookshelf on craigslist and am eager to sew her coordinating curtains. This has been very special for me.
* I'm not sure if it's "pregnancy brain" or what, but I've struggled with being distracted and forgetful. Really scatterbrained!! I need to praise God for my husband who is handling all the paperwork. He is juggling his heavy work load and all this paperwork, not to mention being a husband and dad too. It is such a relief to know that Darin is handling all of it and know that he is handling it well!
* I'm also busy cleaning out our attic of all the boys baby stuff since we won't need it anymore. Slowly, I am making progress selling items and adding money to our adoption fund. It's only a small dent to the cost of the adoption, but it feels really good to contribute in some way. God is teaching me to trust Him to provide what we need. I'm not a big risk taker and this feels risky, but I believe in my heart that God is calling us to take this risk. The benefits of walking closely with Him and trusting Him, far outweigh the risks. Please contact me if you know someone looking to buy some boy clothes or other baby gear. I have some really cute stuff!
Prayer Requests:
* That the dossier will be translated quickly and ready to be submitted ASAP!
* Irina's safety and protection - both outwardly and inwardly
* Continued prayers for the boys... that God will be preparing their hearts for the upcoming transition.
* That we will trust God for His provision.
* For our family of 5: that God will enable us to extend grace, forgiveness and love to one another in the midst of distractions and demands. Particularly, that I will be "present" and enjoy each moment with the boys instead of fast forwarding in my brain to our future with Irina.
Friday, June 21, 2013
New Understanding
Years ago before having children, I was a high school math teacher. As a part of my job, I spent a lot of time talking with parents about their children. I listened empathetically to whatever challenges they were facing with their children and would offer my two cents as it pertained to their son or daughter's math/school struggles. I really thought I understood. Now that I have my own school aged children, I realize I was clueless. Even though I listened attentively, I didn't really get what they were facing as a parent without being a parent.
The same is true for our adoption experience. I didn't really know how hard it would be to wait for an adopted child to come home until I was the one waiting for my adopted daughter to come home!
We've been pretty intentional about our choices with the boys. Whether it's movies, music, video games, books, outside influences, etc., we've paid careful attention to whether these things would draw the boys closer to God or pull them away. As their parents, it is our right to decide. Of course, we must ultimately trust God, but we can do our best to protect and shepherd these treasured children given to us by God. Can you imagine how hard it is to have our 10 year old daughter miles away in an orphanage and all we can do is pray for her safety? Occasionally, I have these crazy dreams where I move to the orphanage and temporarily live there so I can protect her until we bring her home. Oh how we long to have her here!!!
The lyrics from this Watermark song have been playing over and over in my head and this really encourages me:
Good For Me by Watermark
You bring life to my bones
And a spring to my step
And a heart that knows what it means
To wait before You
Laughter into my house
And a time to sing and shout
And a heart that knows what it means
To really trust You...
And when the shadow of sorrow comes
I will fall on the only One I know
Is the Rock that won't be shaken...
'Cause it is good for me
To lay it down at Your feet
It is good for me to lay the good and bad
In Your hand, my God...
It is good for me
To lay it down at Your feet
It is good for me
You are the constant One
When my life is overwhelmed
And You stay the same when all around is changing
And, oh, how good it is, yeah
Just to know the life You give
And my song shall ever be
That my God is faithful...
And when the shadow of sorrow comes
I will fall on the only One I know
Is the Rock that won't be shaken...
And when I delight myself in You
You give me the desires of my heart,
When I confess that You know best
Peace flows like a rive and joy comes in the morning...
Daily, I'm reminded that I have to lay the timing of bringing her home down at my Father's feet. I can't control it in any way! (And I sure like to control things.) It is completely out of my hands and I have to trust that God knows best! It is hard. I'm not gonna lie.
And so an update on our process: We received our I600 approval in the mail today! Hooray! We are one step closer to sending our dossier to Ukraine. We were told that the approval time for dossiers is now taking up to seven weeks, instead of three. This is due to the increase in Ukrainian adoptions ever since Russia closed. The government offices also have an extended non-work period in July. SO, we still don't have a time frame for travel yet. August may be wishful thinking. It may be September, but my heart is trying to prepare for later so I'm pleasantly surprised instead of disappointed.
We would love your continued prayers for Irina's safety and protection. Please pray for swiftness in paperwork approval and perseverance/trust as we wait.
The same is true for our adoption experience. I didn't really know how hard it would be to wait for an adopted child to come home until I was the one waiting for my adopted daughter to come home!
We've been pretty intentional about our choices with the boys. Whether it's movies, music, video games, books, outside influences, etc., we've paid careful attention to whether these things would draw the boys closer to God or pull them away. As their parents, it is our right to decide. Of course, we must ultimately trust God, but we can do our best to protect and shepherd these treasured children given to us by God. Can you imagine how hard it is to have our 10 year old daughter miles away in an orphanage and all we can do is pray for her safety? Occasionally, I have these crazy dreams where I move to the orphanage and temporarily live there so I can protect her until we bring her home. Oh how we long to have her here!!!
The lyrics from this Watermark song have been playing over and over in my head and this really encourages me:
Good For Me by Watermark
You bring life to my bones
And a spring to my step
And a heart that knows what it means
To wait before You
Laughter into my house
And a time to sing and shout
And a heart that knows what it means
To really trust You...
And when the shadow of sorrow comes
I will fall on the only One I know
Is the Rock that won't be shaken...
'Cause it is good for me
To lay it down at Your feet
It is good for me to lay the good and bad
In Your hand, my God...
It is good for me
To lay it down at Your feet
It is good for me
You are the constant One
When my life is overwhelmed
And You stay the same when all around is changing
And, oh, how good it is, yeah
Just to know the life You give
And my song shall ever be
That my God is faithful...
And when the shadow of sorrow comes
I will fall on the only One I know
Is the Rock that won't be shaken...
And when I delight myself in You
You give me the desires of my heart,
When I confess that You know best
Peace flows like a rive and joy comes in the morning...
Daily, I'm reminded that I have to lay the timing of bringing her home down at my Father's feet. I can't control it in any way! (And I sure like to control things.) It is completely out of my hands and I have to trust that God knows best! It is hard. I'm not gonna lie.
And so an update on our process: We received our I600 approval in the mail today! Hooray! We are one step closer to sending our dossier to Ukraine. We were told that the approval time for dossiers is now taking up to seven weeks, instead of three. This is due to the increase in Ukrainian adoptions ever since Russia closed. The government offices also have an extended non-work period in July. SO, we still don't have a time frame for travel yet. August may be wishful thinking. It may be September, but my heart is trying to prepare for later so I'm pleasantly surprised instead of disappointed.
We would love your continued prayers for Irina's safety and protection. Please pray for swiftness in paperwork approval and perseverance/trust as we wait.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Answered Prayer and a Hard Decision
We asked for prayer on Monday... and you prayed. God answered. Thank you! All praise be to God.
On Tuesday, I received our completed home study to review for corrections!!!! We reviewed it, made small corrections and the agency was able to overnight it to our social worker for final signatures that day. It was then overnighted back to the agency, and overnighted today to USCIS for immigration approval. It should arrive there tomorrow and you better believe we will be tracking this package! Thank you for praying. Wow!
Our best case scenario travel time is early August. This is highly variable depending on the efficiency of all the workers involved. None of them will have the same drive that we do when completing their paperwork in a timely manner. We've heard it really depends on whose desk our papers land on. However, it is definitely not outside the realm of possibility to travel in early August and we are praying that is the case. We are learning though to expect the unexpected and to pray and wait. We can't control this and that is a good thing.
Today, we were faced with a difficult decision. Around mid-day we were asked to decide whether we would host Irina while we wait for our travel invitation. The hosting trip is scheduled from July 25-August 29th. It is a risk. If she is here being hosted and we get our invitation to travel, we will have to postpone our travel until she is back at the orphanage. By law, we cannot change the travel plans made by the hosting company in coordination with the Ukrainian government. She has to travel back with her group on the scheduled date. That would mean the earliest we would travel is early September. We would spend three weeks in country, return home for a 10 day waiting period. Then travel back to Ukraine to retrieve her, get her visa to travel here and not return to the states until sometime in early October.
The alternative is to wait for our invitation, pray that we travel in August and bring her home by early September for good. After much prayer and discussion, Darin summed it up best: "We decided not to host Irina and instead pray hard that God will work it out so we can travel sometime in August. But, if it turns out He has other plans and we don’t travel until September or later, we will be content in the knowledge that His timing is perfect and He has some reason to make us wait." We are in unity in our decision and at peace. Definitely a gift as we muddled through this together in the midst of a work day for Darin and a busy afternoon for the boys and me.
Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for Irina and the timing of our travel. God is growing our love for her as we wait and teaching us more and more to trust Him.
On Tuesday, I received our completed home study to review for corrections!!!! We reviewed it, made small corrections and the agency was able to overnight it to our social worker for final signatures that day. It was then overnighted back to the agency, and overnighted today to USCIS for immigration approval. It should arrive there tomorrow and you better believe we will be tracking this package! Thank you for praying. Wow!
Our best case scenario travel time is early August. This is highly variable depending on the efficiency of all the workers involved. None of them will have the same drive that we do when completing their paperwork in a timely manner. We've heard it really depends on whose desk our papers land on. However, it is definitely not outside the realm of possibility to travel in early August and we are praying that is the case. We are learning though to expect the unexpected and to pray and wait. We can't control this and that is a good thing.
Today, we were faced with a difficult decision. Around mid-day we were asked to decide whether we would host Irina while we wait for our travel invitation. The hosting trip is scheduled from July 25-August 29th. It is a risk. If she is here being hosted and we get our invitation to travel, we will have to postpone our travel until she is back at the orphanage. By law, we cannot change the travel plans made by the hosting company in coordination with the Ukrainian government. She has to travel back with her group on the scheduled date. That would mean the earliest we would travel is early September. We would spend three weeks in country, return home for a 10 day waiting period. Then travel back to Ukraine to retrieve her, get her visa to travel here and not return to the states until sometime in early October.
The alternative is to wait for our invitation, pray that we travel in August and bring her home by early September for good. After much prayer and discussion, Darin summed it up best: "We decided not to host Irina and instead pray hard that God will work it out so we can travel sometime in August. But, if it turns out He has other plans and we don’t travel until September or later, we will be content in the knowledge that His timing is perfect and He has some reason to make us wait." We are in unity in our decision and at peace. Definitely a gift as we muddled through this together in the midst of a work day for Darin and a busy afternoon for the boys and me.
Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for Irina and the timing of our travel. God is growing our love for her as we wait and teaching us more and more to trust Him.
"You will keep in perfect peace, him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal." Isaiah 26:3-4
Monday, May 20, 2013
Calling All Prayer Warriors
We would so appreciate your prayers.
Our latest update: We have all our dossier documents ready to be sent, except one vital document. We have submitted our I600A and it is waiting on one vital document to be fully processed. That one important missing document is our completed Home Study. We have been waiting on the final completion of that for over 4 weeks. (We started the initial process at the end of January - almost 4 months ago!) Supposedly, it has been completed by the social worker and is getting reviewed by the agency in North Carolina. It is taking longer then expected.
My attitude has been mostly relaxed, trusting it will all work out in God's timing. However, it was brought to my attention this morning that we will likely not travel in July. We may have to host her this summer instead if this continues to drag out. That would mean we would have to go through the horrible goodbye's at the airport again. I don't want to send my daughter back. I want her home with us to begin healing. Or, we may travel in August. Our travel time is still so uncertain and it's driving me crazy!! If you've been around the adoption world for long, you are not surprised by all these delays. It seems to be a part of the deal, and even though I know this, I had been optimistic until now. Or maybe trusting God? Either way, we covet your prayers as the final steps before travel are completed.
Here are some specific prayer requests:
1) For the homestudy to finally be completed and mailed to the appropriate places. That we would be Christ's light with the two agencies we are working with, all the while advocating fiercely for our daughter.
2) That we'll be able to travel with the two other families adopting Irina's two friends in Ukraine. It is looking like that is not possible now, but with God anything is possible. I am asking BIG things. I think it would be terrible for Irina's two friends to have their families arrive for them while she is left behind until we can travel to get her.
3) For Irina's continued safety. I know she is not getting tortured, but the picture that has been painted for me of her orphanage from those who have been there is VERY grim. Please pray that God would put a hedge of protection around her.
4) The children at the orphanage will be heading to camp in two weeks. I have heard so many conflicting things about camp, some very ugly. Pray for safety for the children and specifically pray that Irina will not get her head shaved at camp. The last time she was at camp, her head was shaved and I saw before and after pictures. I think it was traumatic for her. We're not sure if the head shaving is a preventative measure or a reactive measure due to lice.
5) Continue to pray that we will trust God and cling to His promises as we are tempted to worry or be fearful.
Our latest update: We have all our dossier documents ready to be sent, except one vital document. We have submitted our I600A and it is waiting on one vital document to be fully processed. That one important missing document is our completed Home Study. We have been waiting on the final completion of that for over 4 weeks. (We started the initial process at the end of January - almost 4 months ago!) Supposedly, it has been completed by the social worker and is getting reviewed by the agency in North Carolina. It is taking longer then expected.
My attitude has been mostly relaxed, trusting it will all work out in God's timing. However, it was brought to my attention this morning that we will likely not travel in July. We may have to host her this summer instead if this continues to drag out. That would mean we would have to go through the horrible goodbye's at the airport again. I don't want to send my daughter back. I want her home with us to begin healing. Or, we may travel in August. Our travel time is still so uncertain and it's driving me crazy!! If you've been around the adoption world for long, you are not surprised by all these delays. It seems to be a part of the deal, and even though I know this, I had been optimistic until now. Or maybe trusting God? Either way, we covet your prayers as the final steps before travel are completed.
Here are some specific prayer requests:
1) For the homestudy to finally be completed and mailed to the appropriate places. That we would be Christ's light with the two agencies we are working with, all the while advocating fiercely for our daughter.
2) That we'll be able to travel with the two other families adopting Irina's two friends in Ukraine. It is looking like that is not possible now, but with God anything is possible. I am asking BIG things. I think it would be terrible for Irina's two friends to have their families arrive for them while she is left behind until we can travel to get her.
3) For Irina's continued safety. I know she is not getting tortured, but the picture that has been painted for me of her orphanage from those who have been there is VERY grim. Please pray that God would put a hedge of protection around her.
4) The children at the orphanage will be heading to camp in two weeks. I have heard so many conflicting things about camp, some very ugly. Pray for safety for the children and specifically pray that Irina will not get her head shaved at camp. The last time she was at camp, her head was shaved and I saw before and after pictures. I think it was traumatic for her. We're not sure if the head shaving is a preventative measure or a reactive measure due to lice.
5) Continue to pray that we will trust God and cling to His promises as we are tempted to worry or be fearful.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Prayer, Papers and Cleaning
I have been so eager to write about our journey towards adopting Irina, but the time to do so has been very elusive. First of all, thank you so much for all the encouraging messages and emails. Darin was just remarking today how significant it is that so many people are praying and thinking about Irina as she goes about her day to day life in Ukraine. Do you think she can feel the love? I sure hope so!
Before I can blog about where we are in the process now, I need to rewind back to January (4 months ago). If you've been following along, you know that we bonded with Irina when she was here. I'm learning through training that we haven't "attached", but as a result of positive shared experiences we have bonded. In the days leading up to and following her departure, Darin began discussing with me the nudging he felt to consider adopting Irina. This is not something I expected. It took me a little by surprise, but I could see Darin's sincerity. He took the lead and contacted new friends we had met through our hosting training experience. I am grateful for the time this husband and wife spent with us on the phone. They listened, shared their experience adopting an older Ukrainian girl and suggested several appropriate books. The best advice they shared with us was to wait three weeks and let the emotions settle down, all the while praying for clarity and wisdom.
And so on January 24th, three weeks after Irina flew back to Ukraine, and after much prayer we still felt the urge to move forward. We felt comforted and reassured that we didn't need to think through all the long term details yet. All we needed to do was pray and take the "next faithful step." (Wise words we heard often from a dear friend.) For us, our next step was to complete a home study. We received our home study packet in the mail on Friday, January 31st. You may already know this, but that is one heavy packet! I sat down for several hours that Friday evening and filled out every page I could fill out without having to think too much. I didn't even scratch the surface that evening on all the paperwork that needed to be completed and yikes! I was going to have to think. :) We worked hard for 3 1/2 weeks and much thanks to Darin's determination we were able to mail our initial paperwork back on February 25.
Throughout this process, there have been many opportunities for God to put up a road block or many road blocks. We keep repeating to ourselves, "Just take the next faithful step. Just take the next faithful step." For a planner like me, it has been an exciting place to live. In the midst of all this paperwork and decisions, we still have three other boys who need our attention. Not to mention our homeschool schedule. All of this has been another opportunity for me to be reminded about who is really in control. As much as I act like I want it to be me, it's so much better that it is not!!! God knows exactly where our path will lead and He is completely worthy of my trust. He has proven that to me over and over.
The month of March was spent arranging home visits with our social worker. Not to mention me going a little crazy cleaning the house. Well, maybe more then a little crazy, all to realize that it wasn't so important that our closet was perfectly organized or that our pantry was arranged in alphabetical order. I'm exaggerating here, but you get the idea. I went into crazy nesting mode purging closets and cleaning in spaces that I haven't cleaned in the past two years that we've lived in our house. I put so much pressure on myself (and the boys!) to keep everything "perfect" so we would seem perfect. I don't think it is an accident that each time I spent hours/days cleaning, the social worker cancelled. Or how about the day before one visit when Aaron decided to do a pull up on the towel bar. (So irresistible without all the dirty towels hanging on it.) Yes, it ripped out of the wall leaving two big holes. Yep! Just another opportunity for me to trust God and not be able to control it all! And by the way, the measure of a healthy family is not the white glove test. We surely don't maintain that day to day, but I felt foolishly determined to strive to attain that level of clean during the one hour (or less) the social worker was visiting. Phew! Oh the things God can teach you when you pursue adoption.
My time is up for tonight. To hear more about March and April and our adoption journey, stay tuned!
Before I can blog about where we are in the process now, I need to rewind back to January (4 months ago). If you've been following along, you know that we bonded with Irina when she was here. I'm learning through training that we haven't "attached", but as a result of positive shared experiences we have bonded. In the days leading up to and following her departure, Darin began discussing with me the nudging he felt to consider adopting Irina. This is not something I expected. It took me a little by surprise, but I could see Darin's sincerity. He took the lead and contacted new friends we had met through our hosting training experience. I am grateful for the time this husband and wife spent with us on the phone. They listened, shared their experience adopting an older Ukrainian girl and suggested several appropriate books. The best advice they shared with us was to wait three weeks and let the emotions settle down, all the while praying for clarity and wisdom.
And so on January 24th, three weeks after Irina flew back to Ukraine, and after much prayer we still felt the urge to move forward. We felt comforted and reassured that we didn't need to think through all the long term details yet. All we needed to do was pray and take the "next faithful step." (Wise words we heard often from a dear friend.) For us, our next step was to complete a home study. We received our home study packet in the mail on Friday, January 31st. You may already know this, but that is one heavy packet! I sat down for several hours that Friday evening and filled out every page I could fill out without having to think too much. I didn't even scratch the surface that evening on all the paperwork that needed to be completed and yikes! I was going to have to think. :) We worked hard for 3 1/2 weeks and much thanks to Darin's determination we were able to mail our initial paperwork back on February 25.
Throughout this process, there have been many opportunities for God to put up a road block or many road blocks. We keep repeating to ourselves, "Just take the next faithful step. Just take the next faithful step." For a planner like me, it has been an exciting place to live. In the midst of all this paperwork and decisions, we still have three other boys who need our attention. Not to mention our homeschool schedule. All of this has been another opportunity for me to be reminded about who is really in control. As much as I act like I want it to be me, it's so much better that it is not!!! God knows exactly where our path will lead and He is completely worthy of my trust. He has proven that to me over and over.
The month of March was spent arranging home visits with our social worker. Not to mention me going a little crazy cleaning the house. Well, maybe more then a little crazy, all to realize that it wasn't so important that our closet was perfectly organized or that our pantry was arranged in alphabetical order. I'm exaggerating here, but you get the idea. I went into crazy nesting mode purging closets and cleaning in spaces that I haven't cleaned in the past two years that we've lived in our house. I put so much pressure on myself (and the boys!) to keep everything "perfect" so we would seem perfect. I don't think it is an accident that each time I spent hours/days cleaning, the social worker cancelled. Or how about the day before one visit when Aaron decided to do a pull up on the towel bar. (So irresistible without all the dirty towels hanging on it.) Yes, it ripped out of the wall leaving two big holes. Yep! Just another opportunity for me to trust God and not be able to control it all! And by the way, the measure of a healthy family is not the white glove test. We surely don't maintain that day to day, but I felt foolishly determined to strive to attain that level of clean during the one hour (or less) the social worker was visiting. Phew! Oh the things God can teach you when you pursue adoption.
My time is up for tonight. To hear more about March and April and our adoption journey, stay tuned!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Irina Update
For those of you who have been wondering about Irina, I am thrilled and excited to finally announce the news that Irina is in the process of getting adopted. There is a family here in town that is in the process of adopting her. They have three boys and were blindsided by God's plan for their family. It turns out that family is US! WE are adopting Irina.
When we agreed to host her, it wasn't a part of our plan to adopt her. We sincerely felt led to "only" host her and introduce her to other families. However, God had other plans and He made them clear first to Darin. We've been pretty quiet about our journey, but oh what an exciting journey it has been!! I am so happy to finally share our news. I hope that over the next few weeks I'll be able to carve out time to bear witness to how God has been at work. He has been at work in so many ways!!! I'll be blogging here soon to share the story of our last four months to keep a record of God's faithfulness. I think that will be especially helpful to look back on as we will surely encounter challenges and trials in the months/years ahead. We are hoping to travel to Ukraine and bring her home this summer, so the count down is on. Can you believe it? I am nesting like crazy. ;)
Will you join us in praying as we prepare for this special girl to become a part of our family? Will you pray for Irina as she waits for us? She knows we are coming and has accepted our offer to become a part of our family. Hallelujah! Will you pray for her safety and protection these next few months? Will you pray for us as we complete final paper work and training? Thank you in advance for praying. Can't wait to blog more soon!
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