About us

Where to begin???  How about the beginning!!!  It’s been over a year since we started this endeavor, and we are now at a point where maybe, just maybe, we can get this done.

Not too long ago, I summarized 20 years of my life with the passage:

            ‘…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to    be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.’                                                                                                                                                                                           (Phillipians 4:11a-13)

We have everything we need, plus a few things we probably don’t, and we are happy.

We have two grown children of our own, and for the longest time, it has been just the four of us.  We had talked of adopting several years ago, but finances and/or timing just didn’t seem to cooperate.  More likely, it just wasn’t in the Master’s plan for us…  until Mari was talking to a co-worker about it.  Mari brought home a picture of a young lady with physical and facial features that hit us in such a way that we both thought she looked like she belonged with us, and we agreed to start the adoption process.  Here’s where this story begins (condensed version)

Vera has been in the system for what we understand to be several years, although she was not ‘registered’ until early 2007 and would not be available for adoption by ‘foreigners’ until 2008.  Also, because of her age, we had to play ‘beat the clock’ to ensure our paperwork was filed before she turned 16.  Now we have to wait and see if the adoption can actually be completed.

With the help from some new friends and acquaintances who have already gone through the adoption process or were several months ahead of us in the planning stages, we met Vera (We’ve been told several times “She’s a sweet girl!”).  And she is…

The past 15 months have not been without challenges:  The dossier, and its subsequent updates, the frustration of policy changes, the expenses, and the wait.  We were told this would be a long drawn out process, but somehow I don’t know if we were ready for this long of a wait… Our patience was starting to wear thin because we had some expectation that we would have already been and gone from Ukraine early in the summer.   Unfortunately that was not to be.  Just not part of the plan.  We received word that the SDA would (possibly) be accepting dossiers this month, so over the past 30 days or so, we have been diligently updating our dossier and shipped it off last Friday (Oct. 10)

That’s it in a nutshell…  Our last parting thought…  We actually found this verse while Mari was putting our daughter’s graduation scrapbook together: 

            “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;   in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”                                                                                                                                     (Proverbs 3:5-6)

This is what we intend to do for the next few weeks.