Today is Nastya's 11th birthday. This will be her last birthday that does not get celebrated with excessive fanfare!! Never again will this day pass uncelebrated!
Unfortunately, today was met with bad news :(. We awoke to news from our facilitator that, well, to make a long story short, by the end of the day, we came to understand that we will not be traveling to Ukraine to begin the adoption proceedings for our kids in February. Or March.
It's not a surprise that the Ukraine State Department of Adoption basically "closes" for some time over the next month or so, but however it came to be, we grossly miscalculated the potential impact to us. In all fairness, there are many balls in the air. And, believe it or not, because we are adopting kids that are not yet available for international adoption, submitting too early was a risk also! Then throw in the fact that Ukraine is not necessarily "predictable". Anyway, all the balls that were up in the air came crashing to the ground for us today.
And then the clerk at the Secretary of State office was mean to me today. I wish I could say that making me cry made her feel bad, but I honestly think she was quite pleased with herself. I have a special prayer in mind for her tonight. Don't worry; I'll be (as) NICE (as I can)!
As if the delay is not distressing enough, we have serious concern that Ukraine may pass a law that could potentially put all adoptions on hold for an indeterminate amount of time. Of course, this is way worse than a two month delay! But, we are powerless to affect this and in the words of our facilitator, "What are you going to do; stop (your adoption proceedings) and wait (for an outcome)?". Ummmm...NO!! So we press on thru the tears and disappointments.
What causes us the most sadness in knowing our kids are living family-less in an orphanage when we so desperately want them home with us. In Vova's (paraphrased) words, no matter how nice an orphanage is and no matter how good your caregivers are to you and no matter how many friends you have, the orphanage is not the same as a family. (I can't wait to meet that kid! His Dad left today to start the US paperwork to bring him home!)
For now, I try desperately to keep the faith!! Minute-by-minute, it’s so hard to appreciate that it’s all part of a bigger plan. And it’s easy to forget how far God has brought us already.
Ok. So I’ll end on an upbeat note: IT WILL NOT BE WINTER WHEN I GO TO UKRAINE! You see, God knows I am not weather-hardy!!!
Blessing to all & thank you for your ongoing support and prayers. We (or I should say “I”) need it!!
Praying for you Andrea. There is a lot of fear and natural concern going around right now... but the good news is that we have a God who is bigger than we can imagine! I saw you posted about Crazy Love... have you watched the videos yet? Maybe watching the "Awe factor" one and keep in mind that the God who created ALL of that loves us more than us humans are even capable of showing... He's got it.
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