Hurry up and wait!

We have been playing the waiting game for about a month now. We had to rush to get fingerprints done, medical checkups, background checks, autobiographical information, and reference letters. We submitted all of that to our social worker, Malisa, (from New Mexico Christian Children's Home in Portales) the first week of September. Since then we have been waiting. But Malisa came to our home and spent the night with us Wednesday night. Yesterday afternoon she conducted our homestudy interview to follow up on the information we had already submitted. The interview took several hours.

Mark and I were somewhat nervous about this interview. Not that there was anything we were afraid of revealing. But the questions are very probing - dealing with issues from our past and situations we've experienced in our life and our marriage. It was as if we had been turned inside out and upside down and shaken. Malisa is very nice and is just doing her job, but whew! We were emotionally spent when the interview was over.

Malisa will now gather the rest of our information and write a full report about our life and family. When that is finished we can begin working on the International part of the adoption. This will all be done through Cornerstone Adoption Agency in Florida. They specialize in International adoptions and have facilited many adoptions from Ukraine, so they are very familiar with all the requirements and regulations of the Ukrainian government.

We are working on a very tight timeframe. We have to have all of our background checks, reports and paperwork completed by December in order to send it to Ukraine to be translated. The translation will take place in January. February is the only month in which the Ukrainian government considers adoption requests. If we want the adoption to take place this year everything has to be in order and ready to be considered by the first of February. Then, from what we understand, Ukraine only allows 1500 children to be adopted, within the country or internationally, each year. When we consider the needle in the haystack aspect of all of this it seems overwhelming. But God is so much in control of this! He brought us to it and He will bring us through it. We continue to walk by faith and not by sight.

If all goes well and we are approved for adoption by Ukraine in February, then we will have to go back to get the girls in the summer. We've been told that we will have to spend at least 30 days in the country. Part of that time we would be in Kiev where the national adoption board is. We would probablly have court appearances, etc. When we are released from Kiev we would travel to Mariupol (by plane to Donesk and then by train to Mariupol, where the orphanage is located). We will probably spend a couple of weeks there, finalizing all the girls' information and appearing in court with them. Only when all that is finished can we bring them home. But even after we have them with us we'll have regular checks on our family and on the girls to see how they are doing. The girls will remain Ukrainian citizens until they are 18, when they will choose which country they want to claim for citizenship.

We are convinced that God has chosen these girls for us. He is forging our relationship with them. Thanks to our dear Valya, we received a packet of letters and drawing from the girls two days ago. Most of it is in Russian, so we will need to find someone to translate, but the drawings are so expressive! We could make out "Mama" and "Papa" on most of the pages. On one paper they had drawn 6 faces and labeled "Papa," "Mama," Nathan, Annie, Zhanna and Ella. Our family! How all these things touched our hearts! We feel so connected to the girls and long to hold them and hug them and give them our love. We pray for patience as we hurry up and wait.

Our great appreciation to all who have been praying for us and the girls. Others have shared encouragement and cards and gifts to remind us to trust in God and that He is at work. We are so grateful to those who have given donations toward the adoption. Almost $8000 has been given so far. Praise God! We've already had to submit about $5000 to Cornerstone to begin the process, but it was supplied at just the right time.

We thank you and we praise our God in heaven for His abundance and joy as we continue to be led by Him! The waiting isn't so bad when friends join in the journey.

Much love to all,
Dawn