Summer

Well, first to update...Katya FINALLY made it back to the orphanage from the hospital on Sunday - which was Easter in Ukraine. It is a huge holiday and I think most things are closed this whole week. I heard that she was extremely happy to be out of the hospital - of course!!! We are supposed to be able to talk with the girls tomorrow.

For those who do not know, we are officially planning to host the girls for the summer! The cost turned out to be much less than what we thought and we get to have them for the ENTIRE summer (pending visa approval)!!! Ukraine has been incredible slow with adoptions right now and things are unstable in general, but our facilitator thinks/hopes that we can submit our dossier by late summer - which would mean traveling several months after that. So it will likely be after Christmas at the very earliest. Of course, that is just the best guess I can have right now and could change at any time :) So much for my nature to be a planner.... I am learning to not look to far into the future and how very little I am in control of.

We are not even 100% sure that they will be able to get the visas to come this summer - I am a little worried about this as Ukraine seems to be tightening up on hosting trips and apparently larger groups do fine but small groups like ours are a little iffy. So we are praying for those visas and are so excited about them coming. We will get to finally meet Katya in person - we kind of feel like we know her from all the phone talks, letters, and pictures. God has given us a love and compassion for these two girls, and I know that He has caused our lives to intersect at this time... It is amazing to see the plan unfold, there are still lots of unanswered questions and some things are quite frightening, but we trust not in ourselves, our ability to figure things out, but in the God who created us and who created these girls. Okay, in all honesty, at least this is what we aspire to do - sometimes I freak out :) We are praying for God to work in their lives, to pour out His mercy on them, for His glory to be shown in this journey. For His perfect will for them, which He knows far better than we do.

So now it is ONE MONTH FROM TODAY when they are scheduled to come! We are trying to prepare and plan for what our daily plans will be, chore lists (yes we will put them to work), fun things we want to do (swim, ride horses, roller skating, swim, ride bikes, swim, paint nails, art camp, swim, fish...) Okay so we are really excited about swimming. My parent's have this amazing natural pool that we pretty much live in every chance we get. It is sparkling clean but with practically no chlorine. Although I want them to learn English, get some dental work done, and other important things - I do want them to just be children - lighthearted, carefree, laughing children. I want to tube the river, play games (how I have missed those uno games), watch movies, and I want them to just be able to let down a bit and feel taken care of and loved. I pray that even though we may not have the words to explain, that we can reflect the love of Christ to them. That they can sense His presence and His love and that they can drawn to Him. I pray that they would get even a glimpse of God's special love for them...that this time would plant seeds in their hearts.

I will post as soon as I get word on the visas - maybe in about a week...