Psalm 82:3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
This blog is designed to ask you to journey with us on our quest to adopt our son. The young man whose picture you see is 9 year old Vitali who lives in an Ukrainian orphanage. It is our hearts desire to make him a part of our family. Vitali was a part of a hosting program that gave him the opportunity with the organization Redline United to come to the US for 3 weeks in hopes that an American family would hear about him and would choose to make him part of their forever family. Brandon and I have heard his cry and we are responding with a burning desire to bring him into our family Forever!
Some of you may have known about our desire to adopt and our initial plan to adopt from the American foster system. We made several calls and sent plenty of e-mails and no one replied. After 3 weeks we were feeling very discouraged. Then we received an e-mail from a friend about a group of kids from Redline's hosting program that didn't have anyone looking to adopt them. Vitali was one of the kids from that e-mail. Out of curiosity I e-mailed back how to get more information about these kids. Within 3 hours I got a phone call from the lady in charge of the hosting program she said she was passing on my information to the agency that works with getting these kids adopted. I expected several days to pass but 1 hour after I hung up the phone I got the call from the agency! Brandon and I took that as a clear open door from the Lord.
Adopting from the Ukraine is very expensive so this blog will also serve as a progress to see how the Lord will move in providing the funds to bring our son home. We have some creative ideas for getting the funds we need and I will post them soon, very soon because some expenses are due now. If all the paperwork and funds are acquired in a timely manner we could possibly have Vitali in our home as early as March!
Please join with us in prayer and support on redeeming this boy who has no future where his is. We have some specific prayer request that you can present to the Lord with us.
1. We are asking for wisdom. To understand the legal process that must take place
2. We are asking for a softening of hearts, our own hearts, Grace and Hanna's and for Vitali too. This is going to be a big transition and we are asking for Jesus to prepare our hearts for the changes and challenges ahead. We, of course, are asking for the Holy Spirit to reveal himself to Vitali so that he comes to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
3. We are asking for protection of Vitali's heart, mind, and body. He has been in the orphanage for 3 years and as of yet he hasn't lost his hope for a forever family. We are praying that the Holy Spirit will increase his hope as our adoption of him draws nearer. He is one of the younger and smaller boys in the orphanage and is at the mercy of the older boys who have lost hope and have hardened hearts. We are asking that the Holy Spirit be his comforter and protector until we can save him from that place. The orphanage is nice and the workers are nice but they can never take the place of a family. He needs a forever family.
4. There are mounds of documents and paperwork that needs to be done perfectly in order to move from one step to the next. We are dealing with 4 countries. U.S, Italy, Ukraine, and South Korea (we need a certified copy of our marriage license). There is red tape and ignored in-boxes everywhere on this journey but we know that the Lord is more than able to make our paths straight. Please pray for the paperwork process. This is definitely a deal breaker if an issue comes up.
5. And finally, we are asking for creative miracles so that the finances will be available for each step along the way. If we break down it down into 8 steps, each step costs about $5,000. We know that the Lord is able to do exceedingly more than we can ask or think. If you have a fund-raising idea we would LOVE to hear it.
Our dearest friends and family please join with us in bringing our son home. You will take part in an incredible miracle of God's saving grace.
