Happy Mothers’ Day

We are all packed and ready to go! We just have a couple of last-minute items to wrap up, and we’ll be on our way to the airport…..The last few days have been incredibly hectic, but they’ve also given us many opportunities to gain perspective.

Friday morning, we spoke to Masha on the phone. Special thanks to Lena Statsenko, my friend and Russian teacher, for getting up at an ungodly hour to come over and translate for us on the call. It was wonderful to hear Masha’s voice and to be able to communicate with her!! We did encounter a little bit of a surprise, though…

As many of you know, we’ve been praying a lot about the decision to adopt a second child while we are in Ukraine. We know many people whose plans have changed while they were in country, and since this is clearly God’s journey and not ours, we felt that we needed to give God some “wiggle room.” Because of that, we gained approval to adopt up to three children.

So, back in March, the Director of Masha’s orphanage was with us, and just as we were dropping her off with another family, we told her we were thinking about a second child, and asked if she knew of any children that Masha had a good relationship with and who might be a good match for her and our family. She immediately told us of a little 8-year-old boy. He is currently “available” for adoption, and Luda told us that Masha has a very good relationship with him.

Now we have several decision points about this, and we’ve been praying really hard. First, we would need to meet this little guy when we get to Masha’s orphanage. Then if we were ready to take the next step, we would talk to Masha and see how she felt about the idea of having a brother at all….that would be kinda changing up the rules on her at the last minute, so it’s only fair to hear her opinion on the matter. If we all agree to move forward, THEN, we would need to go back to Kiev to get a second “referral” to move forward on his adoption. This would only add a couple of days to our trip, but the cost rises every time we speak with someone.

Fast forward to this week….the conversation with Masha goes something like this:

Masha: “My future brother says ‘Hi!'”

Mark looks at Christine. Christine looks at Mark. Christine and Mark both look at Lena and say “Uhhhh, WHAT????”

Lena asks Masha “Who says hi?”

Masha: “Vitya, my soon-to-be-brother.”

Christine and Mark, in unison: “What did Luda tell you about Vitya?”

Masha: “She said you were adopting him…..”

…..Hmmmmmm. Now, I have to admit that I’m not the quickest to think on my feet. I like to deliberate and strategize and be careful and thorough in my communications of important and weighty matters…things like brothers and such…. I think, considering the time of day and lack of coffee, that Mark and I did pretty well on the next step.

Us: “well, we are thinking about adopting him. THINKING. We really wanted to meet him first, and to talk to you and see what you thought about this, too. Would you like to have a brother?”

Masha paused for a minute and then told us that she had some mixed feelings about it. She said she would kind of like to have a brother, but that she also kind of wanted to be alone. I thought that was a pretty reasonable and thoughtful comment! We told her to think about it this week, and that we would think about it, too, and that we would all talk about it when we got there. Sounds like we’ll have our first Family Conference and major decision pretty early on!

So…..we would really appreciate everyone’s prayers not only for a safe trip, but also for clarity with regards to Vitya (pronounced VEE-tyah). There are a lot of unknowns and potential risks involved in this, and we really want to make the right decision.

And for today, I want to thank God for the many beautiful people that have called and emailed and prayed their messages of support and love over the past few days. Each one of you is so very special to Mark and me, and we would not have made it this far in the journey without you guys. The past ten months have been like a mountain path….lots of switchbacks, but steadily climbing. We are getting near the peak now, and we are exited for whatever God has in store for us!

Happy Mothers’ Day to all of you mothers out there, blessings and peace to those who have lost a mother this year, and special blessings and rest to the new and soon-to-be mommies!

We love you all……