You Guys are CRAZY

August 24

Ukraine Independance Day

I have to say, I think today was a bit of a red letter day in this story for us.....

We not only got the Visa for "A". We also got our I-600a APPROVAL....for our next child.

As many find who enter this journey, God may have bigger ideas than you do...... and so we are moving forward with our second one before officially we are a family of six in "real" yet....Sounds crazy, I know!

Feels incredibly scary and terrifying, but according to those whose opinions we trust, this just makes us "Jesus Crazy" not plain old crazy,.

So we will see what the Lord does... As we have learned, every adoption is a miracle and if B had not been delayed, he wouldn't have been available by phone for me to get some needed information today from him  as he was in Ukraine still and not on an airplane! (We also likely would have just been focusing on today's arrival and not on V!!!...)

....and then I wouldn't have gotten from him the information needed to get our caseworker on the phone and then who knows, but perhaps she might not have had any other day clear to work on it other than today and.... because our "daughter to be" turns 16 in a matter of days, time was running out for us to get documentation done in America to approve her coming into the USA, and now not only is the documentation received but our understanding is that it's DONE (a step that took about 7 weeks for Z/A!) and now we should very soon have the "next piece of paper" from the US government to begin our dossier for her.

The first dossier expires in the next ten days (it's only valid for six months) , and so we have to completely redo it again. However at this point it's like doing over again a 1000 piece complicated jigsaw puzzle... you sort of remember how a few pieces fit.

However we are again reminded that every adoption is a miracle and we just know that if the Lord wants her to live here with us, He will have to go ahead of us and make things happen that right now I cannot see happening. Not the least of which, doing all this travel again, while leaving the four kids here this time (for many reasons, most obviously is school!).

Our apologies for so much information .....if you are tired reading about our life , we gurarantee you, we are feeling frail and tired and overwhelmed living it.

I  suspect that the real work of one's life is not what one does necessarily,  but how one prays.
We appreciate yours and are always looking for ways to incorporate more praying for others into our lives as well. Thank you for anyway you petition God, on behalf of "V". And please share your hearts/needs with us. We move forward with trepidation and worry (me) but also a sense that God has been moving to put us and V together, and even IF for some reason we cannot adopt her, we cannot imagine not being a part of her life.

Adoption is definitely not the "Solution" to the problem of all orphaned kids in Ukraine.... we are learning that. So we move forward, knowing that we have no guarantees, but we already have a strong emotional bond to V (especially C, our daughter does) from the short time we have spent with her earlier this summer.....(another amazing God story)....

Time to sleep....

Love,
Us