a brief update

I know many of you do not follow us through email or facebook, so I want to announce a brief update.  I cannot provide much detail in a public forum, as the adoption is now an ongoing case.  We were denied in our application to adopt yesterday.  Our appeal is already in motion, and will be filed next week.  We have every confidence in our facilitator and team...we still believe God's plan is for Violet Dasha to come home with us and we will keep fighting for that.

"If God is for us, who can be against us!"

Why a daughter needs a dad...

Happy Father's Day!

I am back in Ukraine, with Al & Violet...it's been wonderful getting to see them both.

I want to take some time in this blog to talk about my husband...my husband is a man who met a single mom (of two perfectly amazing little girls), fell in love, and took the girls as his own.  My husband is a man who is now the father of 5 daughters, and not just a father...but a dad.  He is a wonderful, loving, and nurturing dad.  He is a dad that looked to sell all of his personal belongings when I came home last August, and with a straight face, said that I wanted to adopt a teenage girl. He is a dad that when this adoption is all said and done, will have spent over 2 months in Ukraine just to make sure our daughter comes home safely. He is a dad that lights up the eyes of 5 beautiful little girls every time they see him.

My husband made me believe in love again..he taught me how to trust, and that it IS possible to put all of your faith in someone, and allow them to keep your heart safe.  He did that for me, and he'll continue to do it for our daughters...how blessed the 6 of us are, to have him with us in this lifetime.

Happy Father's Day!  Court is tomorrow at 3pm...updates to follow:)  Prayers please!

4:10am

And I just found out that we have a court date...PRAISE GOD!

June 20, we will go to the Ukrainian court to prove that Dasha is our daughter, in every sense of the word...

Time for me to look at flights, so this is all I will blog for now...more to come later:)

Thank you Lord!!

decisions decisions

I did not plan to blog about this, in fact, I planned NOT to.  But of course it has been on my mind constantly, and I've changed my thought process.  At first I thought..no point in telling people that there might be some hope, just to have to tell everyone, again, that our application was denied.  But I've realized that negativity has taken over me these last several days...and in an attempt to beat it, I am going to share some news & count on the power of prayer.  I am witness to the fact that prayer changes the world, every single day.

Because our facilitator is so persistent and skilled at his job, he went back after our second denial and plead our case again.  The judge requested some additional documents, which were gathered immediately and presented today.  The judge is reviewing our application and this supplemental paperwork, and we hope she has a change of heart and decides to grant us a hearing.  Normally, I'd follow this with "we will know tomorrow."  But after 4 days of hearing that, and it NOT being true..I will leave it at this..when we know, you will know too.

The range of emotions over this last week has been unimaginable.  We've experienced anger, sadness, happiness, hope, defeat, helplessness, frustration, more anger & sadness, emptiness, more defeat..and finally now, we are left with some hope.

Please pray for God to work on the heart of this judge.  Pray for Violet, who is looking and feeling defeated and sad.  Pray for our facilitator, that he may keep up his strength and perseverance.  Pray for my husband, that he would feel hope and energy as he is starting to lose steam...pray for our daughters (the 4 at home) that they would have some peace where they miss their daddy.  They are just dying to meet their sister, and see daddy..please pray that this is not too far off in the distance.  I'd also like to ask for prayers concerning my health.  I had an ultra sound on Tuesday, which revealed a mass on my liver.  Not too much is known at this point, as it is lodged between my liver and gall bladder.  I have an MRI on Tuesday, and hopefully we will learn more then.  Truth be told, I am not overly concerned...how blessed am I to be in the USA where we have amazing medical care:)

So...there is a prayer list (you're welcome Allie:)  Let's all pray for good news to come tomorrow, that Violet will be coming home SOON!

Thanks everyone, your support is amazingly appreciated!  

if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all..

so I will simply say that the 2nd judge in our region will not be taking our case.  The plan now is to move Violet to a different orphanage where international adoptions are more common...

I guess the one nice thing I can muster up is that I'm thankful for our facilitator, who works tirelessly on our behalf.

we wait another day..

The judge is out of the office today, so we are hoping for news tomorrow...I might just start to copy and paste this...

no news today

Many of you have been such an amazing support, and I want to keep you updated.  Unfortunately, we will not be receiving any news today.  Now, the paperwork will be submitted tomorrow...we are praying for that to happen, followed by some good news.  Thanks for the continued prayers and support..