March 27, 2009 Friday

It was just a week ago this past Wednesday, after we had returned from getting Caleb's referral in Kjiv and meeting him for the first time, that we heard our court date to make our adoption official wouldn't be until March 30 or 31. Being the good Project Manager at heart I quickly pulled together the team working on our adoption here and tried to address our critical path and how to shorten it. You see, with a court date of March 30 or 31 and then the mandatory 10 day waiting period required by law, we would not have Caleb and "D" with us for good until April 10 or April 13 - weekend days do count toward the waiting period but your final "pickup" can only be on a weekday. As Easter is on April 12 and the fact that I took my FMLA through April 12, we always believed that we would be home by Easter…and part of me still wants and is trying to believe. But, I suspect God has other things in mind.

Despite incurring some extra costs for expedited "expeditious" work and thinking we had all our ducks lined up to be able to attend court this week, it was not to be. The documents that Jene personally drove to Kjiv this past Monday did not receive the needed approval signature from the SDA deputy director until this morning (yes, it IS Friday) - too late for getting them on the morning flight from Kjiv to Odesa. As we were told by Yulia, the docs can only be registered with the SDA on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday - and even though they arrived by 5 PM Monday were not allowed to be registered until Wednesday. Once that was done the needed signature remained elusive until this morning - just enough to push court until next Monday at 10 AM. Yulia and company tried EVERYTHING with the judge here in B-D to allow court today, but a faxed copy of the approved docs is insufficient.

As Darla wrote in yesterday's blog, this process is not for the faint of heart. We have trouble understanding why things work/don't work at various points in the process but ultimately know that we should have NO EXPECTATIONS of man - our TRUST is in Our Heavenly Father and He knows far more than any of us can imagine. Perhaps our date of April 10 to finally get the kids will move up but perhaps not - we're at peace with whatever may happen as in the grand scheme of our lives it is minute. Yes, we DO MISS OUR CHILDREN at home and family and friends - please know that!!!!! But God has directed us every step of the way since we had our first conversation about adoption 4 years ago, and while our emotions try to lead us on a rollercoaster ride we must remain true to Him.

Our morning visit with Caleb, before we knew the official word on court being postponed, was so much fun. As with "D" yesterday all the clothes we purchased fit really well - no more pink and baby blue sweaters for this guy!!! With a blue sky and sunshine we could venture outside for some of his beloved "swing time". "Sine pap, sine" was uttered by our little boy almost as soon as his little bottom touched the swing - yes, stronger son, I know. Push, push, push the swing. Nathan, Andy, and Evan - get ready - SERIUOUSLY - I'm not kidding. My arms, shoulders, upper body, legs are all getting a great workout just from swing time. We tried some new tricks on the slide until a little cut on Caleb's index finger (from a rusty slide) had us retreat inside for cleaning. We pent some time on pronouncing certain words for different animals and played some more games before leaving at lunch time.

During lunch was when the official court news came so there was much praying and discussion Darla and I had. One thing that really stood out to us was how down in the dumps our team here, our new friends, had gotten because of the date change. I had earlier read in John 15:12-17

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no other than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other."

I cite these verses not as reference to our relationships with our friends but to our relationship with Jesus. Our Lord and Savior calls us to bear fruit that will last and to love one another; are these really not one and the same from a certain perspective? Believing so we reached out to our team, our friends, and asked them not to be sad or sorrowful for us but to instead rejoice in all that we all have been blessed with, most of all the two children God is entrusting to us to raise per His plan.

With our renewed sense of purpose we visited "D" and had a wonderful time. We were inside only for a short time, working on a flower craft project. As the day had continued to be so warm and pleasant we were finally able to talk our little girl into going outside- and had a ball - literally!!! Using a little squishy football we engaged "D" and friend Erin in some throwing and catch. Pretty soon our little game had more than 10 participants - what fun to see the sense of accomplishment each time a child made a good throw or caught the ball. The tomboy in "D" came out each time she taunted me with fast throws. Darla and I each worked individually with several kids who appeared to have little or no exposure to any kind of games involving a ball. Vitalyk, a "groupa-mate" of "D's" who walks around muttering sounds to himself much of the time quickly was engrossed in "Darla's School of Baseball". Who could have ever envisioned that we'd be in the middle of this impoverished country and Darla is giving throwing lessons to an 8 or 9 year old boy - and he was doing pretty darn good. Father God, thank you for ALWAYS showing us what really matters - all these little ones of yours. There are so many here - if you're reading this and have room for one or two or three, what is stopping you?