For those of you that are following our story know that this hasn't been a easy one for us. Adoption is grueling, hard, bittersweet, depressing at times, joyful, redeeming, and so many more words that I can't even think of right now. No one prepares you for the fight to the finish that you will have to endure. The ugly moments when all you want to do is cry or the happy moments when you see your child smile on FaceTime and it reminds you why we are here in the first place. We do know this: we were called to do this by our almighty God. The way everything in our life was lined up for us to do this, shows us that we were called. For this child we prayed. We know without a shadow of a doubt, that we were called. Called to save an orphans life. So while we are waiting with utter most faith, all we have is the word. His word. His word is truth. I've been digging into scripture for guidance and peace. Verses like
Romans 8:28 " And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose."
Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand"
Matthew 6:34 " Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of it's own."
James 4:13-15 "Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
Deut. 31:6 "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."
Proverbs 16:3 "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."
John 14:18 " I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
I do know that when God opens doors, no man can shut them. We are asking friends and family to join together with us in prayer. Pray that SDA shows mercy on our dossier, it is in their hands as I type this. Pray that Vitalik will hold on for his family and he knows we are coming. Pray that we have peace during this hard time, because it's REALLY hard to see your child suffer. Pray that we hear good news soon. Pray that we can rise from ashes to beauty and we will be standing at the finish line with victory. God has all the glory! We know God's timing is perfect and he has this all planned out. We are just waiting to hear our next step.
The devil often gets a hold of us and has us convinced that this is over. Of course he does! Why? We are doing good works for God's glory he doesn't like it! Satan has no authority. Our God reigns here. This CAN'T be over.
We welcomed home our dear friends last night from Ukraine. They brought home their 15 year old daughter and 16 year old son. Pasha, the 16 year old boy is Vitalik's best friend. He is so excited he is home with his forever family and can't wait to start his new life here. Yulia, who is the 15 year old girl is also friends with Vitalik. They both came from his orphanage. We are ecstatic for them! Hooray! They are finished!! But....... that was also very hard for us. The humanly, selfish ways wanted to say "why not us?" "Why is V still stuck over there?" All those horrible questions ran through my head as I was trying to put the biggest smile on my face. I'm just being real and I'm sure every adoptive family has had thoughts of jealousy during someone else's happy time. I always wonder why adoption is so hard anyways?!?!? Why there are ALWAYS bumps in the road with EVERY adoption that happens. Maybe it's a wakeup call. A wake up call to understand that God is in control and not us. A reminder that no matter how dark and deep we are we still give him praise. Praise in the good and the bad. To let go of all that we have, and to let God have our heart in full. He's got this. Nothing else I can physically do. It's going to take a miracle for our approval, but I'm trusting it's going to happen.
So we will press on and fight to the finish. Just keep our family in your prayers as we wait these next 4 weeks for our news of the destiny of our adoption. We are leaning on God's redeeming love and know that he will carry us through. V tells me he prays every night. He told me he prays our "documents will be good" and " Jerry and I can come get him soon." Jesus hears the orphans right?
Ukraine or bust!!!!
Some recent FaceTime and Skype pictures. As you can see some Skype moments are happier than some... :)
Jeremy Camp- Reign in Me
Kendall and Jerry
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