Hello Again Everyone!
After the last post on September 12, several weeks went by and we did not hear anything else from our adoption agency, or our Latvian attorney. We were praying about if there was anything else we should do next. Back at the beginning of all of this process we felt God wanted us to share the blessing of our home and family with an orphan. Okay, we did that and attempted to adopt them, but sadly that did not appear to be working out. So what to do next, if at all was heavily on our hearts. Then after several more weeks went by, we got an email from our agency which told us that after checking in again with Eduards & Helena, there was a slightly different answer. Eduards said yes, he would like to be adopted, but Helena said no still. Wow, I wonder if this came between them, I hope not. The agency said that the Orphan Court in Latvia would not separate them, and I can understand that. At this point, we just feel that we will continue to be in touch through email, and pray for them knowing God is with them. I'm sad, but peaceful about it.
As weeks passed after that last information came, I considered several other "options" about answering this call to share our blessing with an orphan. Since nothing was clearly jumping out, and Mike was very involved in planning a trip to India for October, I was just in the waiting mode. Waiting and wondering. As Mike was getting ready to leave on his trip, I read an email from the director of New Horizons for Children describing the need for more families to host for the winter hosting period, Dec. 17 - Jan 17. I thought about it, prayed about it, wondered about it . . . mentioned it to Mike . . . he said I should look into it! So, I did that, but now he was away across the world, and communicating was very difficult and minimal. I thought maybe the Lord was just keeping this from happening right now for a couple of reasons. But then toward the end of Mike's trip, God impressed on his heart that we should try to host again, try to adopt again! When he told me this, there were only a few days left before it was the deadline to sign up to host for the winter. By the time he got home, we were up against a very close time frame, but God made it very clear in our hearts, individually what we should do, and who we should pick. It's so confirming when two people are praying about something, and come up with the same answer separately!
So now I am happy to announce that we are planning to host an 11 year old girl from Latvia named Vita beginning December 17, for four weeks! I'm thinking of things we can do, here's what I've got so far: baking, ping pong, Christmas music, Christmas light shows, ice skating show, playing in the snow (hopefully we get some!), visits to see family, play cards, make gingerbread houses, take a cooking class, take a dance class (she says she loves to dance), walks/hikes in the woods, bowling, live nativity, knitting class. If you have any suggestions, PLEASE let me know!
Most of all, would you pray for this girl, that God would be preparing her heart? And pray that God will give us the grace and creativity we need to be excellent host parents for her. One of my last posts said we felt as if we were just riding a wave that God has set in motion. Continuing with that metaphor, as waves come in and drift back out, another one can appear very suddenly - Watch Out! It might be a BIG one!
