The Williams Adoption

A Long overdue Post: Almost a Year!

2011-08-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

I wanted to thank each and everyone of you for your continual prayers, encouraging words, emails, messages, and patience. It is surreal to think that we are coming up on being home for almost a year. I will try my hardest to update you with as much information as I can without making this a post that will take you an hour to read.

We have been overwhelmingly blessed by our daughter and find ourselves learning each day how to become a better family to both of our girls. The transition into our home was for the most part smooth and we have seen her grow so much since her homecoming last October. Some of the hurdles that we have had to help Ayla get through has primarily been her understanding of the English language (which she is fluent in now), her natural instinct to manipulate a situation to obtain attention (which is natural to any 9 y/o), her struggle with jealousy, her understanding our unconditional love for her, her gratefulness for what she has and distinguishing between what she wants and what she needs, and her acknowledgment of what is considered to be disrespectful. She is not perfect and there have been many battles that we have fought with her but that wasn't a surprise to us and is just part of becoming a family. She is and has been a trooper through this whole process and is an amazing little girl who has completely taken on her place in our family. Ayla is tremendously funny and quite sarcastic, sometimes getting her in trouble, and it is amazing to see how a little girl born halfway across the world could fit so perfectly into our family. Someone responded to her sarcastic comment the other day with, "Whoa, your a funny girl huh? Where did you learn how to be sarcastic?" Without hesitation she pointed at me and said, "Daddy!" There is no doubt that she is not a Williams girl and has adapted to wholly to Kate's and My personalities. We call back to Ukraine every once and a while to talk with the director and her friends via skype.

She has officially started 4th grade this week and is extremely excited about her new school. She is extremely compassionate and is aware of those who are not as blessed as many and prays that they will be okay, constantly. Ayla has a servants heart and loves to help out in anyway whether it be at the house, at church, at school, or with her baby sister. She has commented several times how thankful she is that she has a big family now, and loves her grandparents, cousins, and friends.

We have been very patient and protective over her personal decision of faith. Ayla for the longest time just wanted to be baptized, I think she just wanted to swim at the church. She is starting to understand more and more about the Christian faith but still understands that she doesn't believe in Jesus fully but hopes to one day. We are walking her through "The Jesus Storybook Bible" and she has truly enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about God. We will ask her questions and she always responds with very pointed answers. We pray constantly for the salvation of both Ayla and Chandler, and that they to will understand that they are adopted into God's family.

All in all this year has flown by and our hearts are overwhelmed by the blessing it has been to be a family. We pray constantly for those who are thinking, processing, or pursuing adoptions and have seen the joy it has brought us and the lives it has changed and wish that upon all those in the trench. If anyone ever says adoption is easy have no idea on the warring it has on your soul. But the joy that comes through it and the Glory that God receives is worth every paper signed, dollar spent, miles traveled, sleepless nights, negative skeptic, hurtful words, condescending comments, malicious attitudes, and the battle for that child's future. One of the reasons I know this to be true is when I hear my daughter sing these words in our living room after church yesterday.

"Oh, my God, He will not delay, My refuge and strength always, I will not fear, His promise is true, My God will come through always, I lift my eyes up, my help comes from the Lord"

A year ago to date she had no idea of many things: who we were, the hope that Christ has for her, the feeling of belonging to a family, a mother and fathers love for her, and what it felt like to have a home. 10 months later, none of those things are questions anymore, Praise God!

For those of you who are in the process, Keep it up! Know that it's not easy but it's worth it!

Home!

2010-10-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

We are officially home! It was an amazing feeling to have our family and friends anxiously awaiting Ayla's arrival, we are truly blessed by an amazing support group here.

What a great feeling to have our daughter under the same roof with us, and to spend time with her apart from an orphanage. We are all doing great, Ayla is starting to acclimate to her new US lifestyle and is still fighting against the Ukrainian to US time change. We make her go to bed around 8:30 and tends to awake about 4 or 5 am, so yesterday as I was watching Sportscenter at 5 she walks in and informs me, "Papa, this no good!" So she curled up on the couch with me as we watched Tinkerbell instead. Oh the joys of having a daughter. Yesterday, Samantha Boatman reporter KNOE came by to do a follow up to our adoption story, I am posting it below so you can enjoy it for yourself. I will post more later about the homecoming but for now I wanted you to know we are all doing good.

A surreal reality

2010-10-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that in 10 hours we will be flying out of Ukraine, and three stops away from having our house become a home for 4. I am so excited to be back home and am so thankful for all the prayers and support we have gotten throughout this whole process. We have met some truly incredible people along the way and made some lifelong partners in the fight for the fatherless. Everything is packed up and our clothes for tomorrow are already laid out. Ayla is taking a bath, as I sit here and reminisce on how huge our God is and how he calls us and carries us through situations that none of us ever thought possible. Soli Deo Gloria has been my mantra for this whole adoption, because truth be told we deserve no credit at all, and to be honest neither does anyone else, because God alone is the one who orchestrated this adoption and we will forever direct all glory to him and him alone.

It has been a fun journey for our family, and though Ayla is adopted, no one should ever question the pure and holy love that we have for this child. We will look at her the same way we look at our Chandler. Speaking of, I can't wait to hold my daughter who will be 7 months old tomorrow, 7 has been my number for years and it is just an added bonus, plus Kate and I have been together for 7 years, wow I am not one for superstition but you have to admit that it is kinda cool, or providential for you reformers.

I am going to sum up our Kievan experience in one paragraph, or at least try. We left for Kiev late tuesday night after getting Ayla's new passport and riding an express train ride from Dnipropetrovsk and immediately engaged in a craving I have had since I arrived in Nikopol: McDonalds! We went to our apartment then passed out, to quickly awaken for our 10 a.m. Embassy appointment. For the most part it was uneventful to just turn in all of our papers and pay $400 for her visa. We were able to meet a beautiful 4 year old boy Ivan who was being adopted by a couple from California through Reece's Rainbow. We then went to the Immigration Office of Medicine and received the clearing on Ayla's health and a packet to turn into the Embassy the next day. We came back to the house then went to Solo pizza with a fellow youth minister from Illinois who was here to adopt a little boy who was blind, Mark, Joni and their son Jimmie. Great talks about the ministry, the opposition to adoption, but most of all the glory God gets through the Gospel fight. Next day we went back to the Embassy, swore that all my information was accurate, signed some papers, then waited to pick up the passport with her new US Visa printed in it. Today we went to Hillsong and picked three CD's of kids music in Russian, which she loves, ate some pizza for the third time, then bought some memorabilia then came back to watch a couple movies we bought also in russian. Done!

Tomorrow we fly and face the amazing group of people who have supported us in prayer and encouragement at the airport along with the local news and the students who I love ministering too. I plan on kissing my wife in front of everyone, holding my daughter for a good while, then taking my family home for good. I get the awesome opportunity to join with our faith family Sunday morning and worship then it is off to lunch at the park with my entire family. So "Do Svidaniya Ukraine." It's been a joyous ride but it's back to living my faith at home with my family and faith community.

Facing the Nikopol finale!

2010-10-11T00:33:00.000-07:00

As I am getting ready this morning, I am extremely excited in knowing that this is our last full day in Nikopol, because tomorrow we will be leaving here for Kiev. It is surreal and yet very refreshing to know that after tonight I will no longer have to walk away from my daughter knowing she is falling asleep in an orphanage. Personally, I am ecstatic to leave Nikopol because I have fallen into a routine that is drab and mundane due to my limitations. Truly the only exciting things I have going for me is I get to go see my sweet Ayla Marina everyday and I get to skype back home to my lovely wife Kate and beautiful baby girl Chandler. For the most part I walk about 30 minutes in the cold, and rain sometimes, stopping off at the supermarket Billa to pick up 3 pork meatballs, a Fanta, and some candy for her groupa. I hang out with all of the kids, spending a good bit of my time with my daughter and picking her up to hold her, then head back to the apartment around 5, stopping off at one of two resturants, Palermo's for pizza or Cafe Penguin for palmeni. Yesterday I made my own Ukrainian salad at home from crab, corn, salt, pepper and mayonnaise just to break the cycle.

Yesterday was a fun filled day, I got to the orphanage around 10:30 and at 11 they held a orphanage wide Fiesta, singing, dancing, acting, then afterward they all went upstairs to the indoor play area and had tons of food that the kids were able to buy with the paper money they earned from working and participating. They had music, everyone was dancing, some of the food was really good, some not so much, they sold second hand clothes/purses/dresses/shoes for really cheap to the kids. You know it is not a true Ukrainian party until a group of all boys end up wearing the heels and dresses they bought over their clothes. Akward, yet very funny.

Tomorrow we will say goodbye to all of the caregivers that have taken great care of Ayla for the last 2 and a half years, to all the kids who have become her family, to the instructors who have cultivated her gifts in singing and dance, to all the people who run the orphanage and make it a great place for a child that has no family feel like they belong. I pray for all the kids in Ayla Marina's group that they will experience love and the hope of the Gospel very soon, that they will family will be restored or renewed through adoption. I pray for Marianna, Olya, Anastia, Amalia, Katya, Dasha, Leina, Julia, Dianna, Zenya, Dennis, Sasha, and Angelo. They are truly great kids and a couple of them will be adopted soon by Spanish families but the others are left wondering if the next 8 years will entail them being raised by caregivers in the only home they have ever known.

Praying for safe travels to Dnipropetrovsk tomorrow, praying our Embassy and medical visits go through without delay, praying that our travels to Amsterdam/Memphis/Monroe will all pass by quickly, and praying that when I tuck my children into bed on Oct 16 that the peace of God and the hope of the gospel will begin to live through our family. I love you Lord, I love you Kate, and I love my precious daughters Ayla and Chandler. After 9 years and now three weeks apart, we will soon be a family of four, 5 days! All praise, honor, and glory to the one who deserves it, thank you Abba Father.

Click the picture below to see it Full Size.

3 steps away

2010-10-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

We are getting closer and closer to having our girl home for good. These past two days have been tiring but extremely productive and getting us that much closer to taking her away from the orphanage forever. Luba had a fever and was feeling immensely sick so she sent her sister Lena who has worked with adoptions for the past 10 years. Lena arrived Tuesday morning and went to get our Court decree declaring that we were officially the legal parents of Ayla Marina, then went onto the the Certificate office to get her new name on her birth certificate. After that Lena called and came to pick me up at the orphanage and we chased the adoption rabbit all across Nikopol. We were able to get her Passport packet ready for Dnipropetrovsk, her birth certificate that has Ayla Marina Williams on it, her tax id number changed over, then signed off all the papers needed for the orphanage to release her.

Wednesday we woke up early and went to pick up Ayla Marina at the orphanage. They evidently did not inform her caregivers that we were coming early because she was sound asleep. So we went up to her room and woke her and every other girl in her groupa, she has the same "wide eyed/where am I" look that her mother has in the morning time. It should result in some fun mornings in the Williams house for years to come. She literally skipped around for a little while getting all of her things then we jumped in the taxi and headed to Dnipropetrovsk, about an hour and a half drive. When we arrived Lena went into the Regional certificate to get her Birth Certificate legalized, then went to the Passport office to submit all of her paperwork. After all the papers were submitted we went to grab something to eat at a Ukrainian Restaurant and had some conversations about Ayla's school, church, how her dad will beat up any boys that tries to talk to her. You know, normal father daughter lunch conversations. We are so ready to get her home and now that all these papers are done all we have left is pick up her Passport, Medical conclusion in Kiev, then interview for her visa. Our Oct 16 flight looks like it will meet us at the perfect time to leave Ukraine and bring her home for the first and last time.

Thank you so much for the Prayers and Support we have received through the blog and in person. It is extremely refreshing to hear all of the comments and to know that God is using this journey for his glory, even when we are half a world away right now. Ayla and I are ready to step off of that plane at 8:30 pm in the Monroe "Airport," and hug and kiss Kate and Chandler. This journey has truly drained us emotionally but we know that once we are home and starting to live life as a family, we will look back and just rejoice at how God carried us all through it. We pray for safe travel and that God will use the story of this little girl to share the gospel, to soften the hearts of the hardened, and to bring light to the darkness of the orphan epidemic in the world.

167 million orphans, minus one!
Soli Deo Gloria!

Cold days, warm hearts!

2010-10-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

Though the weather in Ukraine has taken a turn for the cold, our heart for our daughter is warm with love. It is crazy to think that though this beautiful child has been fatherless for her whole life and living without a loving and nurturing mother, she is completely grafted into the heart of our family. It is so amazing to watch first hand how she longs and desires to be apart of our family, yesterday she looked at me and said, "Papa! Telephone Mama, Now!" All she wanted to do was hear her mama's voice, she just laughed cause she couldn't understand anything Kate was saying and mumbled like she was speaking english back to her, but once she heard that voice she knew it was Mama.

I have literally spent each day walking half way across this city to spend time with a little girl who just love to be around family. She said yesterday that she is ready to hold Chan Chan and is going to be a great big sister. When all the kids were going crazy with energy all she wanted to do was sit and watch TV on the couch and hold Papa's hand. During they're orphanage wide dance program when she sang the song that proclaims the desire for a mother, her eyes were warm with joy cause she knew she had one. It is such a blessing to see a beautiful picture of the gospel embrace through the life of this 9 year old girl. She has no idea of where she is going but can't wait to be there, she knows there are going to be barriers but she's ready to tackle them, and she is proclaiming with joy that she is apart of the family.

We are so close to bringing her home so that she can wake up and see her Mama and Papa and Chan Chan everyday. Tomorrow will be the last day of our 10 day waiting period, and starting Tuesday we will begin to change her new name on her birth certificate, her tax code number, her passport, and after that's done we will ride to Kiev to the US Embassy and get her visa and final medical conclusion. Then... we come home! Prayerfully we can get all this done by OCT 16 so we can fly on the tickets we already have bought and arrive in Monroe at 8:30 pm. I want you to all hear this though, I spent some time this weekend listening in on the live stream from the Together For Adoption Conference in Austin, TX and heard Dr. Karyn Purvis say something so true, "Taking care of orphans does not end when you bring them home, it only begins." Yes we will have our daughter home, and she no longer has to fall asleep at night wondering if she has a Mom and Dad who love her, but it is then that we, the church, have to engage her with the Gospel through family, the Gospel through hope, and the Gospel of Christ.

I pray that we will all cling to the hope that we have been grafted into the kingdom of God, and that though the road is hard there is no other option. If you do not know this to be true in your own life, I pray that you will cry out to God, beg him to forgive you for ignoring His presence and living your life away for him, plead with him to forgive you of all the wrong and selfish things that you have done, ask him to create in you a new heart one that focuses on His desire, surrender your life to the Lord and pray that he will guide you for the rest of your life. If you have done that now or years ago you need to know that you have been grafted into the family of God, you were once apart from God and now you are heirs with Christ. Embrace this calling, allow it to move you away from ritualistic church attendance and dive into the relational walk the scripture calls faith. May it move you to a passion for God and a compassion to those whom were created in His own image. The poor, the sick, the orphaned, the widowed, the oppressed, the hurting, and the lost.

Clarification on Ukrainian Stats

2010-10-01T00:10:00.001-07:00

I have found that most stats online were probably true at one point but have been drastically changed so I am posting a link to a post that better clarifies what the orphan status is in Ukraine by someone who serves and lives here. Please check it out!

Karen, thank you for all the work you do in Ukraine and keep fighting for the fatherless!

http://karensprings.blogspot.com/2010/09/some-stats-on-ukrainian-orphans.html

Breaking through the darkness

2010-09-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

So we have officially met the halfway point in our 10 day waiting period and it gives a hope for the week ahead. This week has been refreshing yet heart wrenching in the same moments. We have been blessed to spend time with Ayla Marina and her precious groupa but are broken to think that many if not most of these children will never have the chance at a real family. As we hold our daughter I see the envy of the other children well in their eyes wishing they had a Mama and Papa to hold them. There is a definite peace in knowing that our daughter finally has a home and that the sense of loneliness will prayerfully cease.

The past few days we have gone to see Ayla Marina around 2 o'clock, which is usually the time they get back from their school and are working on homework. It thrills our heart to know each new day brings us closer to the day we take our girl home. Tuesday we spent some time with her and her groupa, then Kate had to come back and fly home to take care of Chandler and get back to work. So around 8 pm our taxi driver Kolya, who does not speak english, picked Kate up and drove her about an hour and a half to Dnipropetrovsk and got her on an over night train to Kiev. Restless, stressed, and worrisome could all be attributed to how I felt that night since Kate had no phone and no way to get in touch with me to tell me she made it safely. Needless to say I slept about 3 hours the whole night but then called Kostya around 7 am and Kate answered, praise the Lord. About the time I was talking to Kate, Luba texted me and told me she made it to the train, some information I could have used the night before to ease my mind. She went to the US Embassy to hand in some paperwork then enjoyed the great food that Kiev had to offer. Kate fly's out today at 12:55pm and arrives in Shreveport around 10:30 pm.

So the next few (16) days will be just me and my daughter, Kostya asked do we think she will do okay with just me cause some girls are intimidated by men, that might be true for most cases but Marina is a daddy's girl and loves to be held in my arms at almost all times, so we think she's good. I went to the orphanage around 1pm on Wednesday and spent most of the day helping her with her homework, when she finished we walked outside, I picked her up and just told her, "Soon you won't have to study anymore Ukrainian," she smiled and said, "Yes," but then I said, "Soon you will have to study in America," she quickly made an Ugh face. She is such a beautiful and precious little girl, to think that this girl has yet to have a father and to have her embrace me in such a short time is beyond me. At the end of the 10 days (Monday) we will have them legalize a new birth certificate, submit her passports in Dnipropetrovsk and once that's completed (3-5 days), we will head to Kiev to meet with the Embassy to get her Visa and Medical Diagnosis. Then it is home sweet home!

A little background: Marina was born Aug 18, 2001, and because her mother was legally single never wrote the name of the true father. For most of her life she has been taken care of by other family members, her mother had a little boy when Marina was about 5 years old but he was already adopted by a Ukrainian Couple. So for the past 2 years she has been raised by the orphanage since her mothers rights were terminated by the state due to excessive alcohol abuse. The moment I saw the light break through the darkness was when we were in court and the Judge asked if anyone from the family objects this adoption, and the director just stated, "Her mother has never came by the orphanage since she has been there." My heart just sank as I saw a small tear well up in my daughter's eye, to think that her birth mother couldn't walk across town to see, to hold, to kiss, to hug this amazing little girl was beyond me. But then the judge ruled that she is our daughter, and a smile stretched across her face. It was at that moment that I knew the enemy had lost because true her birth mother skipped out on an amazing blessing but her real mother and father were not going to let those moments pass. I pray our daughter will know how much we love her, that before we ever knew her we did everything we could to come and get her. Risking doubters, nay-sayers, financial burdens, and flat resistance we pushed through those peoples darkness and saw her glowing face that first day and just as much as we knew Chandler was our child when we saw her, Marina had the same feeling. We will never stop hugging her, kissing her, loving her, and as long as I physically can pick her up, I will. We are so blessed to have found our daughter and there is no question in our minds that she is truly ours. As of now our family is almost complete, we just have to get our girl home and then as she holds her little sister we will know that all the pain and ridicule was well worth the reward of seeing our daughter, no longer an orphan, one less trapped in the enemies snare, truly home!

Letter of Hope!

2010-09-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

We sent Ayla Marina a letter along with some goodies once we got back to the states. We were so excited to see that she got it, and when we asked her if she read the note she just smiled. I wanted to share this note with you to know where our hearts were when we left our daughter on an overnight train, knowing we were coming back for yet she still didn't know for sure.

"Marina, I want you to know that your Papa and Mama love you very much. Our prayer for over 4 years was that God would send us to you, and now that we have found you there is nothing that will keep us away. You are so beautiful, and so smart, but your Mama and Papa need you to be strong and not lose hope. We are going to come and get you because without Marina our family can never be complete. When this whole process is over and Papa and Marina fly back to America together there will be so many people who will rejoice that you are home, including Mama and Chan Chan. Marina you are our daughter and nothing can ever change that, when you say to us that you are Marina Williams we can't help but to smile. We miss you so much, but please trust us that no matter what it takes we will come get you. Then the Williams family can all be together forever, Papa, Mama, Marina, Chan Chan, and Elliot. Your Papa and Mama love you so much and you never need to doubt that, just a few more days so don't give up."

The best part about this letter is that we were able to show her our love more than say it. We are so blessed to have such an amazing family and we pray that Ayla Marina and Chandler Grace both experience the love and hope in Christ that their Mama and Papa have. We pray that they too will take up the call to take care of the orphans of the world, and that they can experience the same joy we have in being their parents.

Hold onto the hope of a better day!

2010-09-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

I am about to do something that Kate and I have both longed for years to do, we want to introduce to you our daughter, Ayla Marina Williams.

At around 1:00 p.m. we were asked what we wanted from the Nikopol Court, Kate and I both responded without hesitation yet almost in tears, "To allow Marina to be our daughter." The Judge and Jurors walked out to deliberate, and in about 5 minutes came back into the court room and declared us as the rightful parents of beautiful 9 year old girl. The Judge was extremely kind and was very sensitive to Marina's circumstance. When it was all over you could see the sheer joy in her face as she told the Judge as he was leaving, "My name is Marina Williams." He just smiled and told us congratulations as he walked away and all we could do in that moment was thank him for blessing us with the desire of our heart.

I will blog more later about how the day unfolded but wanted to show you all the face of our daughter! We still have a 10 day waiting period until the paperwork is official and we can begin the process of bringing her home. Interesting side note, I said her full name and immediately she perked up when I said Ayla. She asked Luba if that was also her name, and she told her yes. It was at that point that Marina said, "I have been Marina for 9 years, I'm tired of Marina, I love the name Ayla, so from now on I want to be called Ayla!" Wow, how does a child go from being one person for so many years and immediately embrace her new status as a part her new and legal family.

My friends this is the Gospel. When we receive salvation that comes alone from Christ, we are given a new name, new family, new hope, new home, and a new Father. So many of us cling to the life that we once lived but what God desires is for us to no longer embrace that old life and take upon ourselves the name that is above all names.

Lord, we thank you so much for our precious daughter Ayla Marina Williams, we know the process has been tiring and at times we questioned you, but Lord you are sovereign and you have orchestrated this whole process from start to finish. May we all embrace the hope that comes through your Son Jesus Christ, that you were willing to sacrifice so that we may be Adopted as your sons and daughters. Thank you Father! May all the glory, honor, and praise be unto your name forever.

Another Day in Ukraine

2010-09-23T11:46:00.001-07:00

It was so good to hug M today. We had a pretty uneventful flight. We arrived in Kiev around 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Kostya picked us up and we stopped to get something to eat. Then it was off to the train depot to wait for our night train to her region. The train left at 11 p.m. and we shared the compartment with an older lady. We arrived in the region at 6 a.m. and took a taxi two hours to her town.

Thinking that our court date would be today (silly us), we immediately went to the apartment to shower and get dressed. Luba went to the inspector’s office to see when court would be. Unfortunately, they said maybe tomorrow. While Luba was there she ran into the director of the orphanage who was a little upset that we weren’t staying at her sister’s place, and she also wanted high donation for the orphanage. She threaten to tell the judge that we are not fit to be parents and didn’t even want to spend time with her, of course leaving out the fact that we called her everyday that we were gone and sent her a package and letter. In her defense, when the government only gives you a small amount per child, and they have no corporate sponsors, she needs money from somewhere. It’s not that we don’t want to give her money, it’s just we don’t want to give it to her before the court; she can always go back on her word.

We are adopting from the hardest region in Ukraine and our court visit will not be merely a formality, it will be a little more intense. The Judge will ask M questions on why she wants to be adopted and particularly why she wants us to be her parents. We anticipate the Judge and Prosecutor asking Casey and I questions about family and why we want to adopt M among many others. We desperately want M to be our legal daughter as soon as possible and are ready to have both our children in the same country!

As soon as we found out we weren’t having court today, we hurried and got dressed to go to visit her. I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled we were to hold her! When we arrived she was in dance class. A young girl took us to her class and M ran up to me and gave me a big hug and then ran to Casey. All the other children in her group were happy to see us as well and eager to show off their dances. These dances were more like Ukrainian folk type dances and some had a little Latin flare. While dancing M continued to look over at us to see if we were watching her. In between every song M would come and give one of us a hug.

After dance it was homework time and she showed us her princess coloring book and gifts we sent her. I would not be surprised at all if these girls had low grades on homework, because homework time is very chaotic. After homework her group went to singing class. They sang a few songs, which we videoed. The last song was a song about orphans wanting a mama and being sad because they don’t have one. At the end of the second song they would point at me every time they said mama. We video taped the first song and will post it tomorrow. I am so glad I didn’t realize what the song was about, or I would have been crying. These children are so precious, it’s hard to know that most of them will never go back to their parents, and because their rights are not legally separated, they can never be adopted, and worse they don’t know they are not legally adoptable, all they know is that M is being adopted and they are not!

We brought two sizes of clothes for M to try on and she was extremely excited. They only have two pairs of clothes and they are heavily worn out, so new clothes are a big deal. We tried on the size 7-8 jeans on first, which were extremely tight. I told her no and handed her the size 10-11. The 7-8 was so tight I had to help her pull them off! The size 10-11 were a little loose-fitting on her and she wanted the extremely tight jeans but that was definitely a no go for us, I can already tell her teenage years are going to be fun! I am thinking that she would fit in a size 9-10 jeans, but we didn’t find any at Target. M also tried on her shirts, and loved them she wears a size medium and large. Every time she would try on an outfit she would look it over in the mirror and then go show it off to her caregiver and friends. She tried on the purple hooded Jackie and zipped it up, put the hood on and preceded to act like a rapper, she is a character!

Then we took pictures together, which we will post tomorrow and she wanted to take a picture of her “mama and papa”. I packed up all the clothes except what she will be wearing for court tomorrow. We can’t leave the clothes there because they will disappear. I said court tomorrow, and she said “da/yes”, and walked up to her caregiver saying “tomorrow I official M… Williams”! I don’t know if she understands that she will have to stay in the orphanage another ten days after she is legally a Williams, but that would have been too confusing to try to explain without a translator. She told us she is very happy.

I can’t begin to express to you how much we love this little girl and absolutely hate all the US and Ukraine red tape we have gone through, but it is worth everything. At the end of the day, we know that our God is bigger than any government and so we trust in him and just have to be patient. We are praying fervently for the Director, Judge and Prosecutor that their hearts will be soften and they will declare us her parents tomorrow. Also we are praying that the prosecutor will be respectful and kind when talking with M and that M remains strong.

An emotional roller coaster

2010-09-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

Around 11:30 this morning I recieved an email from Kostya saying that we needed to be ready for court by Thursday so we should try to be in M's region by Thursday. I immediately thought there wasn't anyway since the trip literally takes about 18 hours to fly, then a 10 hour train ride to Dnipropertrovsk, then a 2 hour car ride to M's city. For those of you who can do the math, that means we would need to get to her region by Thursday while overcoming the 30 hour obstacle of traveling. The Lord truly had this orchestrated long before and in the midst of our panic. We are sitting on the floor of the Shreveport Regional Airport in Gate 9 waiting to board our flight to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Amersterdam, then Amersterdam to Kiev. We will grab something to eat in Kiev then turn around a jump on an overnight Train, hop in a taxi and arrive in our daughters hometown by 9am Thursday morning. How about cutting it close! There is no doubt that God has worked his hand in guiding us through this process and is evident in this moment. Our prayer is that the Judge will see our case possibly Thursday afternoon and we can announce to the world that our daughter is no longer an orphan.

Now that the great news is out of the way let me tell you how God has placed people in our paths to make today portray His Glory. This morning I went to Trinity Methodist for the FCA breakfast for our students and recieved a phone call from Kate, a local Ukrainian high schooler who called to translate for me on the phone while talking to M. Kate did a great job talking with M and helped me ask M some questions. M said that she was excited to be adopted, that she was ready to move to America, she was excited that her room was ready, and that she loved Mama, Papa, Chan Chan, and Gato. It was so refreshing to talk to her this morning and I assured her we would talk soon, who knew it would be face to face in 36 hours. After receiving the email while at work, I finalized everything that would need to covered in my absence after booking our flight (thanks to my parents). Kate dropped her wallet in Monroe at our daycare, so I headed that way to pick up her wallet then needed to sing by Target to get some clothes for M and Luba's daughter. We were unable to get sizes off of her clothes so got two sets of outfits in two different sizes. We are so blessed to have Kate's sister available for us to keep Chandler and even moreso that she was willing to drive 5 hours to pick her up with all of Kate's family. Our faith family in Ruston has been so supportive and Ginger Walpole was willing to keep Chandler for us until Theresa arrived in Ruston. God knew exactly the community we needed to be in to the family who has adopted us as their own, and we will forever be grateful for those blessings God has poured out on us.

So please pray we make it safetly and that we will be able to announce our daughter to you as the newest member of our Family in 48 hours. Thank you all so much for the encouragement you have given us and the blessing it is to have you share this journey with us. May God be glorified and may the Hope Christ continue to move us all to fight for the faith.

Hurry up and wait

2010-09-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

We are so ready to be back in Ukraine, with our beautiful 9 year old daughter to our side, dressed in our church clothes, having no idea what a Ukrainian Judge is saying other than a gavel falling and our daughter legally ours. We feel the consistent cycle that most adoptive families feel when the process slows the passion. We know we are getting closer but it still does not speed the process up any. Our prayer is that I get an email in the next few hours that will tell us when our court date is and we can go ahead and book our flights to reunite with our daughter for the last time.

We have talked with M almost everyday, only missing her a few times. She can say her American name at ease now and is learning new phrases constantly. We have been praying so hard for her, that she will not forget our love or devotion to her, and that though we are thousands of miles away she is still a crucial part of our family. She has been excited at times in our conversations, we have shared our heartaches through tears, and we have encouraged each other with constant "Love you, Love you's!"

It has been such a struggle, fighting off the nay-sayers, those who are not supportive, and the critical. Truth is adoption doesn't make sense for those who can't see the bigger picture. That's why there are over a billion Christians who have been adopted into God's kingdom but 143 million orphans still left alone in the world. To most people adopting is nothing more than just buying a kid, so it is no surprise to face those people because they can't see the forest because of the tree. Yes adoption is non-conventional but so was our Lord, so my prayer is that those people will catch the vision of our adoption as a God sized calling not a families personal choice. We knew the risk that adoption would involve and have been encouraged amidst resistance that this is what God desires for us and gives us understanding why so many have been critical of us. The truth is that every dollar, every tear, every sacrifice, every mile, every sleepless night, every layover, every hurtful words behind our back will be well worth it when I see the face of our daughter filled with Love and not hopelessness. I am so thankful to have so many people in our lives who have constantly encouraged us, told us they have been praying for us, poured out the spirit of hope and inspiration to us. My prayer is that all of those people who are not bought into what GOD is doing through Adoption will either come to us and allow us to share the vision of what God is and has done, or they repent of their inward focused Christianity that only affects their schedule and not their lives.

Lord may you be the light into the darkness, may you be the hope in injustice, may you be the victor! Thank you so much for your prayers and support, this fight is not over so keep praying.

Half a world away

2010-09-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

It has been 4 days, 11 hours, 55 minutes since we last saw our precious M. Each day has been a painful reminder from when we last saw our daughter crying because the closest chance at a true family was walking away, but it is also a step closer to the day when we will reunite with her and show her more than tell her how deep our love for her truly runs. We have talked to her each day since we left and love to hear her boldly proclaim her last name as Williams and to hear her say in English, "Love you, Love you!" We pray hard that she will trust us and that the Lord will comfort her in this process. Also pray that some issues in Ukraine's Parliament will not be used by the enemy to slow our process.

Thank you for all of your support and prayers, here is the letter I wrote on the Train ride back to Kiev that we sent her along with the package full of goodies:

"M..., I want you to know that your Papa and Mama love you very much. Our prayer for over 4 years was that God would send us to you, and now that we have found you there is nothing that will keep us away. You are so beautiful, and so smart, but your Mama and Papa need you to be strong and not lose hope. We are going to come and get you because without M... our family can never be complete. When this whole process is over and Papa and M... fly back to America together there will be so many people who will rejoice that you are home, including Mama and Chan Chan. M... you are our daughter and nothing can ever change that, when you say to us that you are M... Williams I can't help but to smile. We miss you so much, but please trust us that no matter what it takes we will come get you. Then the Williams family can all be together forever, Papa, Mama, M..., Chan Chan, and Elliot. Your Papa and Mama love you so much and you never need to doubt that, just a few more days so don't give up.

Love you, love you!"

Fight through the tears!

2010-09-07T03:29:00.001-07:00

So today might have been the hardest part of this entire process. But let me rewind before we get to the serious stuff. Today we woke up around 9:30 am, Luba left the apartment around 7:30 to begin getting all the paperwork we needed so we could submit to the SDA on Wednesday and hopefully get a court date around the middle of next week. We heated up some borsch that Luba cooked for us for lunch then headed toward the orphanage. We arrived at the orphanage around 12:30, and as we were walking up we saw M coming back from school. You could see her looking, almost wishing it was us, then I said, “Hola!” and she came running. She jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug then gave Kate a big hug, then we gave Nashta and Olga her friends a hug, and we all walked into the orphanage together.

M told us to take a seat while they changed out of their school clothes, then she came out ready to spend some quality time with her Mama and Papa. She had to work on some homework, so we sat with her as she showed off her Hanna Montana pencil holder, her floating fish ruler, and her workbooks from school. She pulled her workbook away as if she was hiding something, and she was, she had gotten a low grade on a writing assignment and did not want us to see it. Truth is, I didn’t care because I knew she would be starting a new school soon anyway. We worked through her schoolwork with her, and then the group went to eat. As she came back we thumbed through the pictures of yesterdays photo shoot, as she shuffled through them on my iPhone she gave special attention to one picture of a little boy whose name is Nikita. She looked at her Mama and pounded her hand against her chest quickly, that’s right she said her heart races when she sees him. I was really hoping that I wouldn’t have to face that problem for a few more years, but it was very cute, so I picked on her the rest of the day. Then Luba showed up to get us to sign some paperwork and we went back to M. We played tic-tac-toe, some frog game, and checkers on my iPhone, in which M cheated almost every time to beat her Papa, very funny. Then it happened, the phone call that caused a beautiful day with our daughter to become heartbreak.

Kate, M, and myself went downstairs to talk with Luba, and she informed us that the only judge who can see adoption hearings in the entire city is out until the 25^th of September. My heart was just racing as I held my daughter close to my side. The more the conversation went on we knew that it was not possible for us to stay that long because of finances, work, and Chandler. We had to make the hardest decision to leave M in her orphanage until we could come back for court, at which point she would be ours forever. I tried so hard to be the tough Dad that M needed in that moment but to think I had to leave the daughter we have prayed over 4 years for, without her truly trusting that we would come back for her was heart breaking. As I held M tightly I looked her in her beautiful green eyes and told her that Papa Casey and Mama Kate love her very very much, Luba translated for her that we could not do anything about this process, and that as soon as the judge got back we would come back for her. I was hurting so much because all I could think about was this little girl has never had a father, and the first chance for her to have a Papa was just slipping away from her. We sobbed, as we continually told her we loved her, and we were coming back for her. She just cried on our shoulders for about 30 minutes, I continually asked her what was her zavoot, and she would fight through the tears and say, M… Williams, we would ask her what was our names, again through the tears would say Mama and Papa. It must be so hard for her to understand that paperwork and problems are stopping her from being apart of our family. Kate measured her and told her we were going to be getting her new clothes, and we are already getting her room ready for her. We walked upstairs as she began sobbing some more and I sat down as she crawled up in her Papas lap. After felling the weight of a little girls’ heartaches on my soul, Kate showed her on the calendar when we would be back. We looked through the picture book we gave her and asked her who was in the pictures, she replied, “My Mama, My Papa, My sister, my house, my room, my school, my cat.” I know this is hard for her, as it is for us, but I am reminded of our Saviors promise in John 14:13 when he tells his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for us, and that he is coming back for us. I pray that M knows that her Papa and Mama are going to prepare a home for her, and we WILL come back for her. We walked outside, threw the Frisbee a little to lighten the mood, then had to say our goodbyes. She would just hold Kate as Luba talked to her and assured her that she was our daughter, we were her parents, and this whole process would be over before she knows it. She promised she would still love us when we came back, then held her Mama very tight. Luba said she has never seen such a connection between prospective parents and a child, she told that to M… and she just said she doesn’t want us to ever leave and she loved us from our first meeting. She walked to me as I hugged her and told her Papa lublu M.. and we would see her soon, no more tears. She started crying, I started crying, and just picked her up and wrapped her up in the arms of her broken hearted Papa. As we walked away you could hear her crying, I wanted so desperately to run back to her but I knew we had to go. As we walked the emotions were so tense, but the hope of that little girl having a family, and to know that she would soon be no longer an orphan was a joy to our soul. I told Kate the hardest part for me was that this precious child has never known a fathers love before and now has to see it walk away, it must be so hard, but I pray she has seen her fathers heart for her.

In the midst of such heartache, there is much to rejoice in, we have found our daughter, our daughter has fallen in love with the parents who loved her for years, the paperwork is all done and ready for SDA, and the only thing stopping this girl from being an official part of the Williams family is one court date. Please pray that she will be comforted by the spirit that her parents love her and are coming back for her. Pray that she will be strong through these next 3 weeks and her friends will support her. We told her we would call a couple of times through the next few weeks so we hope that will comfort her. Luba saw her crying in the arms of one of her relatives while she waited for the inspectors conclusion, and he told M… you don’t need to cry anymore, they told you that they were going to adopt you so trust them. We praise God for allowing such a tight bond and pray that we will have a speedy court date and a smooth process.

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-09-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today I had the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER, the only thing that could have made today even better is if Chandler would have been with us. I miss our little girl so much! We walked to the orphanage this morning and when we arrived M... ran and gave me a huge hug and then gave a hug to Casey. Casey looked at her and said Mama's birthday.. It took her a few minutes to relize what he was saying but then she gave me a big hug again and ran me upstairs to give me a bracelet she made me, best gift yet. While we were walking around she started singing "happy birthday to me" surprisingly in english! I felt very loved.

When we arrived we walked outside for a little while just talking with M, as we walked around to her groupas garden we wanted to take some pictures. So M jumped up on Casey's lap for a precious photo opp, then Casey handed her the camera and taught her how to take pictures. She wanted a picture of Mama and Papa, so she took a picture of us together. Casey then told her to take pictures of whatever she wanted and so the journey began. We walked all around the orphanage, up to her room, into her bathroom, then finally she looked out of her groups window and saw her friend Anna skating. So we all went downstairs and she quickly switched her little red shoes with Annas skates, but not before she could tell us Annas feet stunk (which they did). We pulled M around the orphanage at least 5 times, all while she held our hands and carried on conversation with us and Anna. We've established that there are not many words that end with an -er ending in russian so M is having problems saying her little sisters name, Chandler, so Casey gave her the right to call her Chan Chan. One of the best parts of this whole trip was when she said, "Before I was M... L... but now

that Mama and Papa have come I am M... Williams!" Amazing! After lap 5, we stopped near the younger children who were playing outside, and spent time with all of them before M had a wonderful idea. "Papa!" She exclaimed and pointed where to stand, Anna would pull M about 20 yards away then turn her around and sling her toward her Papa. yelling at him to catch her, and he would, time after time. Then Casey said, "uno mas, y Mama," thats right he wanted me to catch her, she looked very cautious pointing at her muscles saying Papa strong, Mama nyet. But he assured her I could catch her, and I did, once! It was so much fun seeing all this little kids and how M would interact with them all, one special boy just held onto me, and if the paperwork would have allowed us he would be on the same flight that M will be on to the US with us. We walked some more then had to say goodbye, but only for a little while and assured her we would be back around 2.

We walked a little while and then ate some pizza at a local resturant, then headed back to our little girl. When we showed up her groupa was walking outside yelling to M that her Papa and Mama were here. After we went outside, we followed her group to the play yard next the school, and spent some time playing with M and all her friends. It started to rain and the volunteer took the group inside to a play area where they played some games. M took us up to her room while the other kids did homework and we colored for a while. After her groupa got done we all went outside and threw the frisbee around. M is already a little daddy's girl, anything that Casey would do M would quickly do after him. Casey would fake throw the frisbee, M would fake throw the frisbee, he would set the frisbee on the ground and dare the kids to come get it, M would throw it on the ground and issue the challenge. It is pretty amazing and you can physically see her just wrapping her Papa around her little finger. Like we said she is a very smart girl. We had to leave but not before hugging her neck, then when I hugged her she said in english, "Love You." Talk about melting your heart. It is hard to walk away from her but we know these days are few before she will be ours always.

Please pray that tomorrow the inspector will clear all the documents, the orphanage director will sign off on her part, the local judge will see our case asap, and Luba can rush our documents to the SDA in Kiev. Prayerfully we will find out what our court date will be, and after that you can see her picture and stop refering to her as M.

Adoption: Living in the heart of God

2010-09-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

Today has been a great day! We started the day off with some scrambled eggs and toast in our apartment, which we love! After breakfast we began to walk toward the orphanage, which takes about 25 minutes, Luba stopped a few times to make sure we were on the right track, and we were so we arrived around 11am. When we walked into the orphanage Luba asked the caregiver if M could come around, she went upstairs to where her groupa lives and brought M with her. As soon as M saw me she ran into my arms as I picked her up and held her, these are the moments I hope she never gets to big for, then she jumped to Kate and gave her a big hug. It's hard to see a little girl with so much love to be given up to live in an orphanage, but I am so thankful that the Lord brought us to her and now she has the undying love of her Papa and Mama.

We walked outside and went to her group's garden and talked with her as she enjoyed some chochalate we brought with us. We sat down on the staircase and asked her if she was excited about being apart of our family, and with a huge smile that I will never forget said yes. We have to get her new name settled so we asked her if she like Ayla M.. Williams? She smiled and said yes, I think it is so amazing for a child to feel so at at ease with what most people would think were strangers now giving her a new name, but the Lord has given her a peace and I am sure has assured her that we are her Papa and Mama, and not strangers. We have missed out on so much of M's life that we want to know everything about her: her favorite color is pink and green, her favorite food is spaghetti and pizza, her favorite animals are cats and ponies. We are absolutely in love with this girl and know it is because we overflow with the love that God has given us.

We had to go so M could eat with her groupa, so we assured her we would be back around 2pm and gave her a big hug before we left. We stopped in a little store and bought Kate some shoes, because Toms are not wet street friendly, a coke and a Fanta and we were almost home. After arriving back to our apartment, I called Luba to assure her we made it without any problems, she has been working on getting copies and going over our paperwork all day, trying to stay ahead of the game. Kate took a very short nap while I caught up on some emails, then it was back to see my little girl. When we arrived M came outside and we sat and talked for just a little bit before we decided to go upstairs to draw. She pulled out the ABC's coloring book we bought her and she already had worked on half of it. We went page by page working through the alphabet and the pictures that went along with each letter. She began to show us her skills and without hesitation: Airplane, Boat, Clown, Hippopotamus. She is so smart and is trying so hard to learn her soon to be common language. We wrote her name in the book and she wanted Papa and Mama to write our names. Casey, which in russian looks like "keci," and Kate, which in russian looks like "kat," were written in pink crayon then M grabbed the crayon drew a line from my name and wrote Papa, then wrote Mama next to the line she drew for Kate. I drew a picture on the front cover of the book that was stick figures with our names under each, Papa, Mama, M, and Chandler, she grabbed the crayon then drew a small figure and wrote gato, how could I have forgotten our cat Elliot. After working through each name I wrote, Williams Family, she said, "yes, M Williams." The funniest part was when she wrote 1 over Papa, then a 1 over Mama, M, and Chandler, thats right friends M knows I am outnumbered already, but she has no clue how much Love this Papa has to give to all three of his girls. The way she prided herself in her new family was amazing, I pray that each one of us can pride ourselves in the family we have been adopted into, God's family, like she is in ours.

We wanted to know how to decorate her room, so after showing her a picture of her new house and her own room, we asked her what color does she want her room to be. She snagged up all 24 crayons, walked us into her bedroom of 12 beds, put the crayons on the bed and preceded to play a russian version of, "eni, meni, miny, mo," eliminating each color. After she ended up with 3 colors she really didn't like she would grab pink and put it back in the mix, hilarious, then ending up with three colors. She grabbed Milly her stuffed cat and proceeded to ask her what she thought. Milly then played the same game ending up with pink, so cute. While we were sitting there her caregiver and M's groupa came into our room and began asking us about ourselves, after playing verbal barrier ping pong, Kate grabbed our photo album and I began to walk her through it. She smiled and was beginning to understand more about who we were. We showed her our house, the school M will be going to and told her it had about 300 students, the church I work at and told her I teach the bible to 70+ teenagers, and then M's new sister Chandler. Her caregiver hopped on M's bed made like a scale and started laughing, I KNOW already I am outnumbered, haha, but I assured her elliot was a boy so I had one cat on my side. We all went outside but not before M could take her crayon and tell her friends that her bed was going to be pink. So Proud!

The girls sang us a song that cheered on Spain in Africa and then we all started throwing the frisbee in a big circle, about 10 of us. After spending 2 hours at the orphanage we had to go, but not before we could hug our sweet daughter. As we left the orphanage, we reminded M we would be back tomorrow, I picked her up and just said, "lublu," which simply means love, and she quickly says it back everytime. We walked away and my heart began to sink, all I could think about was that amazing girl has lived years without a truly loving Mama because alcohol was more important, and has never known the love of a Papa because her mother was single when she had M. Kate and I walked and talked about all the kids there, how sad it was that parents could leave there kids in an orphanage while they lived their own lives, completely free while there child lies in bed at night surrounded by 9 other children, with no chance to be adopted because the parents visit once a year. I told kate that I can not begin to understand how a child so amazing and so kind could never be held and hugged and loved on by her parents for so many years. I plan on taking every moment I can to re-assure M, Chandler, Kate, and however many more children God blesses me with that I desperately love them and would fly to any distance, pay any price, and lay my own life down so they may know how much I truly love them.

Oh God, I am so sorry for taking for granted your Love. You were willing to lay your Son on the cross, pay him the punishment for my sins, just so I may have a life that is forgiven and free. I thank you for showing me what true Love is, and may I show all people the gospel love you have given me.

A special treat!

2010-09-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Ukraine, Good night US. I wanted you to enjoy a little bit of our daughter singing yesterday. I promised her that if she sang I would, so she sang this song about Papa-Mama-and Baby, I sang Amazing Grace and the people in the office and M said Bravo. We hope to go see her in about 30 minutes, so enjoy this little part of our daughter.

When we saw her face!!

2010-09-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

Last night we jumped on an overnight train and arrived around 7:30am at our destination. Then Luba arranged for a driver to pick us up and drive us about 135km (70m) to the orphanage where the director was already waiting for us to meet with her and the child. The whole way in the car I was just praying that the Lord would give us peace, that no matter the outcome we would trust him, that the child would immediately connect, and that the director would approve. My heart was just sinking already and no less than a mile away from the city we saw a man who was killed in a motorcycle accident laying in the street. I prayed that the Lord would be with his family and that this feeling of weight would go away.

We made it to the orphanage after driving around the city for a while and finally pulled into a fairly large complex with separate sections that all attached centrally. We pulled in and immediately I felt a peace over the place, as we walked in and turned to the right we sat at the waiting area for the director to come back. After 4-5 minutes she came in, a very Ukrainian motherly type, who though looked very authoritative yet seemed very friendly. We sat down and she began to ask Luba about the process, after a few minutes she asked us "Why do we want to adopt?" I told her that there are so many children in this world who are in need of a home and a family to love them, that we have a beautiful daughter but know we are missing someone. She seemed pleased with my answer and began to talk about M (we will refer to her as M until she is legally ours.) She bragged about how helpful she was when asked, how she is very patient, and how she is a very good girl, she had some heart issues when she was young but she is better now. Her mothers rights were revoked by the state after she began to abuse alcohol, supposedly her family kept her from most of that and she was raised by outside family until they felt the mother wasn't going to change, that's when they put her in the orphanage about a year and a half ago. We asked about abuse or any other medical or social issues she may have and the director reiterated that she is a great child with no problems nor history of abuse.

Then it happened, this beautiful girl walked through the door, this wasn't the girl in the picture, at least so we thought, this girl had joy written in her eyes. She walked up to the doctor and gave her a big hug, the doctor patted heron the stomach and said as you can see she is healthy, I patted mine and said so am I. When she walked I said, "Hola, Como usted?" She smiled and said "Hola, bien." You see M has spent 3 different trips with a Spanish family, but they felt they were unable to pay to adopt her, though they had a great relationship with her. So we talked for a little while through Luba, I would ask her a few questions in Spanish (Gracias Senora Maqueda), and then Luba asked question. Would you want to be adopted by them and live in america, she smiled and said Da! Luba asked us the same question, and there was no doubt, this is our daughter, so we said, "Uh, Yeah!" Oh yeah her birthday was August 18 and was in Spain so did not get a present, I walked out to the car and came back with a pink cat (now sitting on her bed) and sang a short remix of the happy birthday song.

M showed us around the orphanage by herself, as we tried to converse in Spanish and broken Russian and for the most part could figure out what each other were saying, HUGE BLESSING! She took us to her room, where she and 12 other girls, "nina's." We walked all over that place, and if you threw me back there I would have no clue, but M knew the maze very well. We walked outside and she showed us around the complex, explaining that each little alcove was designated to each groupa, her groupa had some flowers that they all worked on planting and watering, she told me the little groupa wasn't allowed in their garden, very funny. After showing us her school across the street, then sharing that she is learning English at the school, we went back to the front corridor. We bought her a frisbee, so then we threw with her for a little while, she would fake throw it to Kate the whip around and throw it at me, a unaware but very slick ultimate frisbee trick. Kate said she was done and quickly M said no mas. So for all of you who thought I would get a girly girl, your wish came true. Her favorite color is pink, she does not play soccer (subject to change), she does not play basketball, she loves to sing, she loves to dance, and she loves princess stuff, oh yeah and Hannah Montana (subject to change also.) All in all she is precious, we had to leave but knew we were going to do whatever it would take to bring her home. Oh yeah she got her bible out and began to talk about Jesus, uh is this my kid or what. I can't wait for you all to meet her, but for now all you get is vague descriptions. As we walked away she closed her eyes and hugged Kate, then gave me a big hug, though she was sad I told her "hasta minana" I pray she finds peace that we will not stop fighting to make her ours.

Please pray for an expedited process, that the director and inspector are on our team, that M has a reassured peace that she is our child, and that in all this God receives all the Glory.

Leaving on a midnight train . .

2010-09-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Today we slept in, cooked breakfast, and managed to waste away most of the morning. The officials promised to have our paperwork completed by noon so that we could catch the 4 o'clock train. Unfortunately, the paperwork was not ready until 4 o'clock. The lady looked at my (Kate) passport and said something in Russian with a very unhappy face. She was saying I looked too young, we assured her of our age and then she allowed us to sign for our paperwork. Luba checked our paperwork to make sure everything was correct and we were off to the train station office. We will take a 11:21 pm overnight train, arrive arround 7:30 am and from there we will catch a 2 hour car ride to the town that the orphanage is in. This adoption journey is a 26 hour trip; 16 hour plan ride, 8 hour train ride and a 2 hour car ride, simply amazing!

The little girl is older then we were anticipating so we had to make a quick dash to the children's shop in the UYM department store to buy gifts and a frisbee (Casey is getting her ready for frolf). We have our hopes up to meet the girl tomorrow around noon, however if you didn't get the memo, here in Ukraine nothing goes as planned or as promised.

We are excited, anxious and nervous! Please continue to pray that the directors and inspector will allow us to meet her Friday, that the are honest, and that we will know immediately if this child is supposed to be ours.

Excited but Cautious

2010-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Yay, looks like we will be seeing more of Ukraine. We accepted a referral today of a young girl. We are excited but Very Cautious. Ukraine has been known for saying yes then in the same breath saying no. A Ukrainian couple did request this girl for foster care, and she declined them. We are not sure if she said no because she wants to be adopted or because she wants to remain in the orphanage. The Great News is she appears to come from a very good orphanage that has taken care of her.

In Ukraine once they go into foster care they cannot be adopted in till the foster parents put them back in the orphanage and get another child. People have told us they get paid a lot of money and mostly couple's foster for the money. It is encouraging that older children can decide not to go with them, however our hearts go out to those that will not be given the chance at a secure home.

As for now it looks like we will be taking a ten-hour train ride to the orphanage. We hope to see her Friday however; we might have to wait. On Monday we will have an appointment with the inspector, who will quiz us on our family and why we want to visit this child. If the inspector likes us then we will have an appointment with the orphanage director. The director will tell us about the child, ask us questions and if she thinks that we will make a good match for the girl then we will finally be able to meet her.

We are a long way from being in the home stretch. In Ukraine anything can happen at any point. We will only be able to celebrate after the judge has said that she is legally ours!

Здрастуйте Україна, Про розрахунки America! / Hello Ukraine, Goodbye America!

2010-08-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

After spending two weeks here, we were so ready to get home to Chandler. We got some much needed loving from her and then all I (Kate) wanted was to be back in Ukraine to meet our newest member. I can honestly say that we knew the risk of adopting from Ukraine when we started this process, however were thinking that the problems would come after picking a referral. This process, which should have broken us, has just given us more of a heart towards Ukraine and their orphaned/boarding school children. I can't imagine being a child whose parents don't want them, they put them in the orphanage but because they visit them once a year, or the director doesn't fill out the paperwork, the child will never have an opportunity to have a stable living condition.

Well on a lighter note, the flight was long with a special bumpy landing. We waited for an hour for Kostya to meet us in the airport. o glad he came because otherwise we would have had to make phone calls ourselves about renting an apartment, and that would have been "interesting". We drove to our apartment, only for Kostya to realize it was too far to make an emergency dash to the SDA department. He made some phone calls and now are back in the same building as we were the first trip. The apartment is great, it has a unique decor style but that only adds to our experience. After a quick glance at the apartment Kostya, Casey and I were off for some Ukrianian food. Borshch is a hit or miss soup in Ukraine, but it's worth the risk. We love Ukrainian food! Other news from Ukraine is that it's cold! The first trip to Ukraine, I packed for 70-degree weather and it was 99 degrees. This trip I packed for 90-degree weather and it's a rainy 56 degrees. I need to learn to check the weather page.

Wednesday, our SDA appointment will be at 2pm, that's 6am CST. We will have a meeting with our lawyer and translator at 1pm, 5am CST. Not sure what the meeting will be about, but we shall see. We are eager, excited and nervous all rolled in one. Like the other two visits, we also have a tremendous amount of peace. God is God and God is Faithful, no matter what the outcome is. This process has made our faith and marriage even stronger. At the end of the day, there isn't a better way to spend your money or your time then chasing after God's will for your family!

Ukraine.Yes please!

2010-08-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to head Ukraine….again… We are truly thankful that the Lord allowed for us to come back home for a few weeks to refresh and rejuvenate. Though these two weeks have flown by, we were so blessed to be able to spend them with our friends and community of faith. Kate and I have been able to spend some much-needed time with our daughter and at work. It was such a blessing to get to help our men’s ministry with leading worship at their annual Ironman Retreat, plus I was able to fill in on the 22^nd with leading our contemporary service again. For the last two weeks I was able to preach two sermons on Trust in Tough Times, this is a message I felt God laid on my heart on the way home from Ukraine but truly landed at a time that some of our students desperately needed it.

We are rested and as prepared, as we will ever be to face the final SDA appointment. We fly out tomorrow and will arrive in Ukraine Tuesday just in time to have our big appointment Wednesday 2pm (6 am Central Standard). We are nervous and excited. Please be praying for us. The best outcome is that we will chose a referral, however that still means that we will have to turn down children. We still have very clear imagines, names and sad stories of the other children that we turned down but know that the Lord is guiding us through this entire process. We can’t wait to be back in Ukraine and look forward to the journey he will lead us on. No matter the outcome we truly trust our Lord and know that it is his will above ours.

A new day and new hope!

2010-08-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

First off, thank you so much for all of your prayers and constant support through this whole process. According to one of my friends, "Adoption care is spiritual warfare." I never knew how true that statement was until I found myself in a poorly ventilated and immensely hot second story office in Kiev, Ukraine.

This morning Kate and I woke up around 10:30 am, ate some brunch with what we had left in our fridge, cleaned up the apartment, then began to get ready for our 2nd SDA appointment. Around 1:04 pm we prayed then began to walk to the SDA, and sat outside under a shade tree until Luba and Kostya showed up for our 2 pm appointment. We were able to go inside the office around 2:10 and met with Maria. After some short time of showing new pictures of Chandler and dialoguing with Luba, we were shown two files. The first being a child with cleft pallet and clubbed hands, the second being a file we had already seen of a girl with severe Fetal alcohol syndrome. After looking through our updated addendum to our home study she showed us a file of a boy named Yuri. Kate and I both felt comfortable with his file, he had two older siblings that were about to time out of other orphanages, we inquired but found out that he had already been adopted by a Ukrainian couple. Crazy part is he looked a lot like me, stocky build, and though my heart sunk to my stomach, he was not the child God had planned for us. After seeing a pair of sibling boys we were both stressing, I began to pray as Maria walked out of the room that the Lord would show her the file we needed to see. She showed us a file of a child that we inquired about, Luba found out was in Spain on a hosting program until September 1st. Maria informed us that there were many other files that she had but couldn't show since they were all abroad or at camp. Though exhausted yet still hopeful, Luba and Maria suggested we come back for a 3rd visit around the beginning of September. To be honest, I felt more at peace with this decision for the sheer fact that a child's face was on my mind, and though this is not the process I would have willed for myself, our Lord is mighty to save, and however He choses to do this, I will trust.

So around 7:00 am on Friday we will be flying back home to be with our Chandler, go heal with our community of faith, and serve the church I so love. Our prayer is that on September 1st we will be walking back into that SDA office for the last time, to see the file we were unable to visit, go see this child the Lord has for us, and come home with the newest member to the Williams family. We really do not want to tell you anymore information about this child until they are legally ours. I know how frustrating this is but please respect our decision to hold off on introducing you to the newest Williams child.

Please continue to pray for us, for this process is not even close to over. Most of all pray that God may receive all the glory, honor, and praise. I can't wait to be back in the states to hold my child, hug my amazing youth group, and order some Taco Bell. Ha. See you guys soon.

It all comes down to this!

2010-08-12T01:01:00.000-07:00

Today is the day that Kate and I either see our child and begin to climb this mountain or come home to Ruston and wait for our facilitator to find us a child. It has been a long and treacherous week but we know God is in control. In about 3 hours we will begin to head to the SDA, stand in front of the infamous sign, and anxiously await our names to be called. We will sit with Luba on that L shaped tan couch that thousands have sat on, and pray that Maria (the psychologist) will hand us a file that has our child's picture on it. This whole week we have read that couple after couple have found their children and we believe that God will continue the blessing to us. All last night I was having dreams about our child over and over, I believe that God may have been trying to show me that this journey is worth the cost. I think about Joshua and Moses standing at the edge of the promised land, how God had led them for years and though it would require a fight they knew the reward was worth the cost. I believe whole heartedly that God has led us this far and that the reward is completely worth the anxiety, the money, the heartache, and the pain. So please pray that in 3 hours as we stand on those steps at the SDA we are only moments away from our child's file that before the foundations of the earth God knew we would have to come and get.

On a lighter note, Kate and I had a wonderful day yesterday visiting some more sights. We started our day off at our favorite restaurant, we call the door, with some traditional borsch. We went to see the Chornobyl museum which pays homage to one of the largest accidental nuclear disasters ever, located on the north side of Kiev. The museum was very well done and even had little radioactive gauges that would explain the exhibit to us in english. We hopped on the metro and headed to Independent Square, then walked to the park that gave a beautiful view of Kiev. Walked through the park and played a little while there, then got back on the metro and went to see Volodomyrs Cathedral and a park near by. We went back to the fountain to soak our feet after a long day of walking, and I decided "When in kiev...". Enjoy some of the pictures by clicking on them and we hope to give you some great news this afternoon. We love you all and keep praying.

Hopes the Call thats ringing in my Soul!

2010-08-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

"I'll sing until You're here, Though I'm lost and afraid I can't give up"

These are the words that ring in my head over this whole process. This is from Robbie Seay's song "Stay" which you can watch by clicking here if you want. The truth is that no matter how hard this process may be we trust that our God has yet to leave or forsake us.

So let me fill all of you in on how the Ukrainian life is treating us. One of the positive aspects for us through this excruciating process is that it has allotted us some free time to roam the grandeur that Kiev has to offer. Yesterday, we relaxed along the Dnieper River at Hydropark which is not the French Rivera but is very relaxing and family friendly beach. We payed about 80 grivinas (about $10) to be on a private beach, which had a diving pier, restaurant, and showers. It was very relaxing for us as we stretched out and soaked up some sun and some Ukrainian river water. One of the best parts about Hydropark was the rough/red-neck industrial style workout area which was compiled of metal, chains, and Ukrainian Guidos. When we got back we went to the mediocre and overpriced TGIFridays, to be honest the cheeseburger was good but there is a much better selection of food in Kiev that will run you way less. Then came back to the apartment and saw our little rugrat via skype, she is so cute and lights up when we see her.

Today we decided to be very adventurous and go to Pirogovo aka the Ukraine Museum of Folk Architecture and Life. Though the trip out there only caused us to ride down the metro, jump two buses, then walk about a mile to the entrance, it was well worth the trip there. Next time we know to ride bus 172 after getting off at the Lybidska Metro station. Pirogovo is an open air museum, very similar to Cade's Cove, and shows the rustic side of life around the 17th to 18th century in Ukraine. It is full of old houses, wooden churches, and windmills. Oh yeah a sick mustached man who played a dulcimer like instrument for the kids, who just by chance learned the Chicken Song (Good times). Now the trip back, was interesting to say the least. We got on a trolly, paid our money, and were about 1 mile from the stop we needed to get off when an already shady looking guy walked up and asked us for our tickets flashing his badge. We showed him our tickets and he asked us to step off the trolly, then began to tell us we did not have a stamp from that trolly therefore we were going to get a ticket. I couldn't understand him so I called Kostya and let him to talk to this "cop." He got back on the phone with me and told me the cop said we could pay him 30 grivna or get a ticket (crooked) so I started to go legalist preacher on him. I told him we just wanted to get to the metro, he barked at me in russian for a little bit, I yelled at him saying, "Ne gavaryu pa rooske, I dont speak russian so stop talking to me in russian, give me my ticket, I'll stamp it then we can go on to the metro like we planned." Hindsight, probably not the smartest approach to a foreign cop but I knew he was crooked and trying to take money from me, so I pulled out 2 grivina out of my left pocket told him I don't have any money to give him, which wasn't a lie because the money in my other pocket wasn't for a crooked cop, so then he finally let us go. By this time I just wanted to walk to the Metro and never step foot on a trolly again, problem, we were in a side of Kiev where nobody spoke english and were at least 2 miles from the metro station. I painfully used the little bit of russian I could and pointed to a map we had a ton and guided us to Lybidska. Glad all of that is over.

We met up with the Bollingers, a texan couple who are here for adoption also, at Independence Square and went to a Ukrainian restaurant for some grub. Jason and Holly serve at the River Stone Church, in San Marcos, and go tomorrow for their 3rd SDA appointment with their 7 year old son Jacob. Please pray for them, that God will open the door for them to adopt the children he has for them. We truly enjoyed our time with them, talking the struggles of adoption, the heart for these orphans, the gospel calling for our families, and the provision of our Sovereign God. We look forward to what God has in store for them and are excited to partner with them in fighting for the fatherless for many years to come.

Sorry there isn't any adoption news in this long blog but I did want to keep you in the loop. Kate and I are very hopeful for our SDA appointment Thursday at 2 pm (6 am CST). Kostya was told there are some new files and he felt hopeful we could see some new files, and we are truly hopeful that we will see our child. We do want to give a huge Thank You to Patti and Richard for helping us change some paperwork, get it notarized, apostilled, and fedexed to Ukraine in record time. We are so grateful for you both and thank God for your willingness to help. Please don't stop praying and Love you all.

Enjoying the Sabbath

2010-08-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

This past week has been filled with highs and lows and ultimately has drawn us even closer to our dependency on the guidance of our Savior. So this morning we were in desperate need of some fellowship, worship, and rejuvenation in our souls. We decided to go to Hillsong Kiev, which if you are wondering is nowhere near the position google gives you. You need to get on the blue line of the metro then get off at Petrivka, go northwest and Hillsong meets behind the big green Comfy shopping center in a long yellow building. Here is a map if you want to go.

First of all, I was so impressed at how welcoming the church was to us. As soon as we walked in, which was about 15 minutes late, Sergei opened the door for us wearing his red Hillsong shirt with the hillsong heart all written in Russian, which I wanted. He immediately greeted us, Sdraztvootey, I said hello back and asked if there were any english interpreters. He lit up and said, "Ah yes you speak english, we are so glad you are here follow me and I will get you to your seat." He sat us near the back while the church was worshiping through song, he introduced us to Zura and she interpreted for us the rest of the service. The energy in the room was amazing, after the singing Zhenya Kasevich, the lead pastor got up to share something God laid on his heart, they took up their offering, then encouraged all the children to follow the Cartoon characters (AWESOME!) in the back of the room to their children's service. He preached on Hebrews 11-12, about how we cannot place our trust in "what" but in the "who." He was very passionate, very funny, and very solid. I think God laid that message on his heart knowing that we would be in there desperately needing to be encouraged in our own faith but also our faith in God for this whole adoption. We walked out but wanted to go back and hear more of the worship so we caught the next service, about 30 minutes later, and were extremely blessed to worship with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. All in all, I was so impressed with the way they approached church and left encouraged to see Temple approach each service with the same passion and excitement.

Yesterday we were able to meet up with Rick Morton, a former NOBTS prof and friend, he gave us some much needed encouragement and prayed for us on the sidewalk off the main street running through Kiev, Kreshaticks. Then we went to the Rodina Mat, the Park of Glory and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the Holdomor Memorial remembering the millions of people who died due to the famine caused by the Soviets in 1931-32.

Here are some pics from the day. Keep praying only three and a half more days until our 2nd SDA visit.

Kievan Observations

2010-08-06T06:19:00.001-07:00

Since our SDA appointment has been rescheduled to next Thursday we are choosing to occupy our time taking in the sights in Kiev. I read a blog a while ago by Rick Morton (who we are hoping to link up with tonight) regarding a cultural craze that is very prevalent in Ukraine, the mullet! That's right, the mullet is very popular in Ukraine for those of you who do not know what a mullet is it is also referred to as: Mississippi Mud Flap, Kentucky Waterfall, Ape-Drape, Neck Warmer, Camaro cut, Hockey Hair, and Business in the Front party in the back. There are numerous other fashion faux-pauxs that just wouldn't fly in the states, but you know what they say, "When in Ukraine..."

We have decided to go and see one major sight per day for the next 6 days, the Rodina Mat tomorrow, Hillsong Church sunday, and who knows next week. We pushed ourselves Wednesday and walked over 22k steps trying to cram it all in, but since our first SDA appointment was not successful we are going to retrace some of our steps. Today we went to, Бабин Яр (Babi Yar), this might be one of the most heart wrenching sights in all of Ukraine. In two days in 1941 over 33,771 Kievan Jews were massacred then shoved into a ravine. This is the single largest mass murder by the Nazi party in all of history. It is said that over 100,000 Jews, Gypsies, and Roma people were killed at this sight.

In independence square there are numerous fountains, one of them is a set of steps that the water just flows over and kids play in them and young girls practice their modeling poses, VERY FUNNY! There is another fountain that makes a ball with cold water and sprays everywhere, so we went and did our favorite thing, stick our feet in the cold fountain and people watch. We got to talk with a babushka, an old grandmother, she introduced us to her friend who was an ear doctor in Kazakhstan. She informed us that she was 72 years old and had one child, two grand children, and two great grand children. She asked us why we were in Ukraine, and we told her to adopt, in which she responded in amazement. She asked me what I did and I told her I was a christian pastor then she blessed me by making a cross on my head. Oh, did I mention she didn't speak a lick of English, we were able to find out all this information through charades and writing down numbers. She was a sweet old lady and we enjoyed trying to communicate with her.

Kate is taking a nap right now with our Ukrainian AC, a fan, and I am watching BBC and catching you guys up on what is going on. We know God is still at work and we trust that whatever his will is we continue to trust him. Our calling is to take care of these orphans so no matter the outcome our mission is to glorify Him. We firmly believe that the psychologist knows what we are looking for now and our second SDA appointment will introduce us to our child. No matter the outcome I will be flying home with Kate when she comes home, which prayerfully is during the 10 waiting period and I will return for our child if that is what God has in store for us. So be blessed and may God's mercy and peace move you today.

We trust! 1st SDA visit.

2010-08-05T02:32:00.000-07:00

Seeing all those faces and yet still knowing that our Childs picture wasn't there might be one of the hardest parts to this process. After sitting in the office for almost an hour we know that God is still in control and that he has a greater plan. We pray that through all of this God may be glorified more than our story. We pray desperately for the children we saw and that they to may know the love of the ABBA Father.

With all that said, we were shown close to 30 files all being severely developmentally or physically deformed. Their diagnosis ranged from Down Syndrome, Cerebal Palsey, HIV, and much more. Most of these children had numerous rejection stamps on their paperwork. There was a pair of boys both healthy that were presented to us first, one a precious 4 year old brown headed boy and his younger brother a blond hair blue eyed boy about to turn 3 next week. Though these two boys were precious we knew that they were someone else's children and they were not ours. Though many people opt to visit a child at even the slightest interest we felt that it was unfair to the children and ourselves when we knew they were not who we were here for.

The hardest part to all of this, is that we know that in this country there is a child that we are supposed to adopt but we have to trust that no matter how this process plays out we will never give up trying to bring that child home. We encourage you all to pray for our second SDA appointment, that God will show the psychologist the child we need to be with, and that when that picture inside a plastic paper cover is handed to us we know that is our child.

We desperately miss our daughter and wished we could just hold her but for now we trust that this process is where God desires us to be. We are so thankful to Kate's sister and enjoyed seeing our little rugrat smile at us last night while we were on skype. Enjoy.

Welcome to Ukraine

2010-08-03T12:31:00.001-07:00

We want to the thank you all so much for your prayers and support in this process. After some much needed Chandler holding time we headed off to New Orleans to begin this long but worthwhile process. As I let go of that little girl all I could think about was I won't be able to see her for at least a month and what memories will I miss out on, I truly think she will begin crawling by the time I get home, she is already so close. As we pulled up to the New Orleans airport and bid a farewell to the In-Laws, we checked in and spent an hour with some friends who we haven't seen since they got back from China two months ago.

All that said the flight went well, no problems as far as layovers and had numerous opportunities to share the gospel while on the trip. We made it to Kiev around 4:50 Ukraine time and our facilitator Kostya picked us up at the airport. He was very nice and has a great sense of humor so we were able to hit it off well with him. He brought us to our apartment which is a 1 bed/1 bath with a kitchen and a spectacular view (see pic below). We sat down and he walked us through the whole process, what to expect, what to wear, ask questions, just be ourselves, and most of all trust that our child has already been decided for us all we have to do is trust God. He took us to independence square so we could get some money changed over then we went to the grocery store to pick up food for breakfast: brown eggs, butter, 5 pieces of ham, apple juice, a bag of chips, and a family sized water. We said our farewells for the night and planned to meet him Thursday morning in front of our apartment at 9:30 am then we would walk from there to the appointment. We went to the mall below Independence Square and ate dinner sat on the steps and looked at the beautiful fountains and hundreds of people with their families playing in the water steps or just looking at the lit up square.

While on the plane I finished off Russel Moore's book

Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches

and found myself tearing up in the end. Because the only thing that continued to play through my mind was that this time next year I won't be sitting on a plane to go and find my child, wondering what they look like, or where they are, but will be listening to them play in their bedroom while I reminisce on just how Huge our God truly is that he would bless me with MY children. I am not naive enough to think that when we walk into the orphanage I will see a halo over that child's head, and I fully anticipate fighting through all of the demons that have haunted them for so many years, but the truth is that my child might be within a 400 mile radius of me right now, and if came this far to bring them home you better believe we will go through the fire to help them and to show them our love.

I don't see it as Chandler is my real child, and this one is just secondary. I am a father of multiple children, and there are more children that God may have for us to adopt that have been sitting in an orphanage for years or maybe their mother just found out she is pregnant from her teenage boyfriend. But no matter the cost, the pain, the hurdles, the red tape, the trips domestically to our local hospital or flights over seas nothing will ever stop me from being with my children. Thank you ABBA:FATHER for loving us even more than this that you were willing to give your Son for us as a pleasing sacrifice, because we were your children and didn't even know it yet.

Today is the Day

2010-08-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

It is truly hard to believe that this day has finally came. For so many years we have been trudging through this process whether it was prayer, saving money, or a mountain of paperwork. I am beyond myself to think that in 7 hours we will be boarding our plane to Kiev, Ukraine. We are so thankful for the overflow of support that has surrounded us and are so blessed to have a community of people around us that are genuinely excited and anxiously awaiting to see the hope in our child's face.

Though many people still do not understand why we are adopting period but also internationally, I want you to know this is what God has called us to do. My prayer is that instead of criticism you would place compassion on the forefront of your heart behind your patriotism, and know that a child who has no family will no longer have that problem. I also pray that those who question international adoption over domestic will not be the gong but lead the charge to take those US orphans into their own homes. An orphan is an orphan no matter what part of the world you are in.

My prayer beyond all of this process is that You will not miss out on the Gospel that we so desperately want this child and you to hear. Though this child did not know us we loved them so much that we did everything we could to make them our child. But more than that God loves YOU so much that though you did not know him He loved you more than you could ever imagine and sent His son to pay the price for your sins. We are not trying to be an inspiration we are only responding to the one who truly is our inspiration.

Huge thanks to The News Star in Monroe and Stacy Temple for putting our story on the front page of the Sunday Paper! Amazing! Please email her and thank her for sharing this story of the gospel to thousands. Here is the link

Click here to read The News Star Article

MUST READ

2010-07-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Family & Friends,

We are extremely excited to announce that on Thursday, August 5^th at 2 a.m. Central Standard Time we will have our 1 hour visit to choose the child we are going to potentially adopt. We believe whole hearty in the power of prayer, so please continue to pray that God will direct us to the child he desires us to adopt.

Many of our friends and family have been very confused by this choice. Most assumed that we couldn’t have children and when they found out we were expecting Chandler, the questions and concerns started pouring in. God calls every one of his children to care for our brothers in Christ, our enemies, the poor, the sick, the widowed, and the orphaned. We truly feel that God has called our family to this cause through adoption. We have known this for years, and God has confirmed this many times throughout our marriage. Casey and I have been praying for the child’s safety, the orphanage workers, their friends and most of all their salvation for three years now. We have heard all of your concerns; however we know that if God calls us, he will provide the strength and the ability to care for this child.

Another big issue with many has been our decision to adopt from Ukraine. We had been praying about the U.S. foster adoption program for years but we never had a complete peace about starting that process. God may lead us to adopt through the U.S. in the future, but for now, it is very clear that he has lead us to Ukraine. Casey met with a pastor who asked him to look into Ukrainian adoption, I immediately said no to foreign adoption, and then God just started working on my heart. God reminded me that he doesn’t ask us to follow him when it’s convenient for us, he asks us to follow him no matter what. We started the process and God has confirmed many times through his word, prayer, and providence that he is guiding us.

So prayerfully at the end of August we will be bringing our child home with us. There will be some similarities between Chandler’s homecoming and this child’s homecoming. Just like people visited us in the hospital, we welcome visitors at the airport. With older adopted children, there is a tendency to have some form of attachment disorder. Meaning that so many people came in and out of their lives and so many people took care of them on a daily basis, that they cling to everyone but don’t really trust anyone. I know that our friends and family want the best start for our child, so we will let you know what you can do to help. Casey and I will begin to rebuild the attachment bonds and help him/her heal from the emotional wounds of their past. The best way for us to form a parent/child bond is to be the only ones to hold, snuggle, instruct, soothe and feed them. As this cycle is consistent in their life, they will be able to learn that their parents are safe to trust and love them deeply. Once this important bond is established then we can branch out to other healthy relationships with our friends and family.

You can help us by setting physical boundaries and limiting what is considered normal physical contact. This will require, for a while, refraining from holding, hugging and kissing. Children in orphanages have learned to be overly charming to adults, to get their basic needs meet and this hinders the necessary child to parent bonding. Waving, blowing kisses and high fives are perfectly appropriate and very much welcomed because we do want our child to know that people love them. Our adopted child will have much more structure, boundaries and close proximity to us then Chandler has had. Please know that these decisions are made after a tremendous amount of research and we are not doing this to hurt our friends and family.

God Bless,

Casey & Kate Williams

God's Story not ours.

2010-07-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

This morning KNOE showed a follow up to the story they broadcasted last night. We are so thankful to have people in the media who are excited about the story of hope through adoption. We pray that this story will inspire many others to begin to invest in and support the calling for adoption. We truly can not wait to bring our child home to be apart of a community that has been so supportive.

It's becoming surreal now that we will be traveling in a few days and that in 7 days and 16 hours we may see the face of our child for the first time. My prayer this morning was that through this process and despite the resistance, that God reigns as Victor over a child's life that had no idea that hope was on the way. That her story of adoption becomes her story of faith, that she too will become a child of God through his catalyst of grace and her response in faith. God this adoption story is yours not ours, may all people hear of the grace and the mercy you have given us through your Son.

My song for the radiance of hope that will be breaking through the oppresion of an orphan is this: So let hope rise, And darkness tremble, In Your holy light,And every eye will see Jesus, our God, Great and mighty to be praised. God of all days, Glorious in all of Your ways. Your majesty, the wonder and grace, In the light of Your name. With everything, We will shout for your glory.
Click here

Spreading the Word

2010-07-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

Samantha Boatman from KNOE came over today did an interview about our adoption. You can watch it below. Our hope is that the Gospel will be shared through this process and that more couples will be inspired to support and invest in adoption.

Click the link below to view the first story showed

KNOE Link to Both Stories

15 днів до України

2010-07-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

Translation: 15 days until Ukraine. It is official, we will be boarding our flight to Kiev, Ukraine on August 2 at 11:30 am out of New Orleans, LA. It's surreal to think that over a year ago we began this journey to follow after God's will to have pure and undefiled religion through adoption and in 18 days we may see the face of the child/children in a picture that he as preordained for us to adopt long before we ever knew we would. We truly pray that God will gives us peace and clarity in this process. We truly know this is one of the largest steps of faith that we can take but have complete comfort in how sovereign our God truly is.

I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and support and for the continuing encouragement that you have all bestowed on our family. The adoption process brings out the best and the worst in people, it has been a long road filled with plenty of doubters, skeptics, and even those encouraging us not to adopt, but thankfully we serve a God who is bigger than those nay-sayers. Our prayer is that God will soften their hearts and when they see the hope and the joy in that child's face, that they are no longer orphaned but have a family who loves them and show them what the Gospel looks like more than just tell them, they will embrace the gospel calling to care for those 143 million orphans in the world.

So pray, pray, pray that there will be a clear connection between us and the child and that the Love that we have for them, which is truly an effect of the love God has given us, will be clear. Even more so, pray that in a month and a half from now we will be landing in Monroe, LA with a child that gets to come home to their family for the first time. In which at the airport you are all invited to celebrate with us this amazing culmination of the Gospel calling for our family.

May God be glorified in all of this for it is He who is the one who is truly inspirational, not us.

SDA appointment! AMEN!

2010-07-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

These past few days have felt like weeks with the anticipation of our email from Kostya our translator/facilitator that would tell us what day we had to be in Ukraine. I woke up around 4:30 this morning and immediately checked Kate's email and began praying that we would find out our SDA appointment date today. After checking her email at least every 30 minutes this entire day we received the email we have been waiting for:

Hello Kate,
I just got letter of invitation for you.
The appointment August 5th.

Kind wishes,
Kostya

Can you believe it! It's hard to believe that last year this time we were just beginning this process and now we actually have a target date to be in Ukraine. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Pray harder than you have for us, because this is where we truly have to rely on God to guide us to the child/children that he desires for us to make apart of our family. Please pray that the appointment goes smoothly, we find a child, and that everyone involved feels sure that we are supposed to Adopt this child and give them a family.

Its only 26 Days or 631 hours until we will be at the SDA in Ukraine!

Rounding Third

2010-07-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't heard our paperwork was submitted successfully to Ukraine and we are now waiting to hear when our State Department of Adoption (SDA) appointment will be. So the next step in this process is actually going to Ukraine to find our child. We are anticipating this date to land somewhere between the last week of July to the First few weeks of August. We encourage you all to pray that God will lead us to the child he has for us, that the SDA therapist will deem us suitable to adopt, that the Orphanage director will see our hearts and allow us to adopt the child in their orphanage, and that the child will have an instant connection with us and will decide to come home with us. This whole process has taught us that no matter the cost we must follow God's call, that no matter the negative resistance we have a God who is stronger than our ability, that despite the doubters the Gospel through adoption is worth the sacrifice, and that through the struggle our Gods sovereignty is at work in his children.

Father, thank you for adopting us as your children! We did not know you and were fatherless but you loved us enough to send your Son to pay the debt owed to our sins, so that we may be your children. Sola Deo Gloria! To you alone be all the glory!

We are still missing a part of our family and can't wait for the day we can take a picture of all of us together.

More Paperwork

2010-06-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

On May 30^th, we received an email from Konstantin stating there was an issue with our marriage license. Our good friend Richard Harbison picked up a copy form Purvis courthouse and met Casey in Magee, MS. Casey rushed to get it notarized, apostilled and mailed to Ukraine. Then on June 11^th, another email from Konstantin stating there was yet another issues with one of our clearance papers. One of the documents had blue ink on it. We received the email at 11 p.m. and were in Jackson with the corrected documents notarized and apostilled by 4 p.m. It takes 7 days to fedex and 7 days to translate the paperwork. We have 14 days till the court date, no rush!

We have trusted God during his calling for us to adopt, we have trusted God when he chose Ukraine, and we can remain calm because we know that God is in control. Praise God for the comfort of our heavenly father.

Very Blessed

2010-05-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

Much has happen since December! God blessed us with a beautiful little girl, Chandler Grace Williams. She was born on March 16th and was 6 pounds 15 ounces, and 191/2 inches long. She had phenomena and stayed in the NICU for seven days but now she doing great. We absolutely love being parents.

Starting in April began our frustrating long journey to collect our dossier (paperwork). Our dossier can only be six months old so we had to update everything. In the middle of all the excitement of having Chandler home, we were back and forth to various offices getting our blood work done, tax assessor letter, employee letters, petition to adopt, obligation to adopt, power of attorney, criminal background checks, well you get the point a lot of documents.

After collecting all these documents we turned them in to be reviewed. I can’t tell you how many times we heard “everything’s perfect but…”. It was a mad rush, which lasted well over a month with many trips down to Baton Rouge and to Jackson. We finally sent our dossier off May 20th to our Ukrainian translator/facilitator.

On June 24th our facilitator will present our dossier to the Ukrainian Courts. If all goes well we should receive a date to fly to Ukraine within 20 days. If any of our dossier has any errors then we will be rejected and could have to wait up to a year to reapply. We are praying that God will be over this whole process.

Two or Three more months and we should be in Ukraine to meet our second child. Going from diapers to T-Ball in six months. Very Exciting.

Winter Update

2009-12-22T13:53:00.000-08:00

So we are in the idle period of the adoption right now, we have to wait and fill out our papers for Ukraine later because when you turn everything it can not be more than 6 months from due date. We are still trying to raise money and pray you will continue to pray for provision. We received a email today informing us that we were not approved for our loan through abba fund, which gives us another road bump, but we know in who we believed in and know he will continue to work a way for us to adopt our child. In other news we have been informed that our newborn due in April will be a girl, so Chandler Grace will be apart of our family this upcoming april, then our adopted child will be apart of our family the end of August, prayerfully. We know that this adoption is not just a preference or a phase it is a calling from God to our family to take care of the orphans in the world. So we hope you will join with us whether it be financially, prayerfully, or any other way you decide. Thank you all so much, and may God bless you and may you celebrate in his coming for our adoption into the family of God this Christmas Season.

Quick Update

2009-11-03T08:43:00.001-08:00

We have been approved to adopt from Kiev Ukraine by the United States Government. We also submitted some papers to Ukraine. We have to have our papers submitted by June 24, which means that we should go to Ukraine 30 days after our submittal date which means we should bring home our daughter in August of 2010. Add that to our newborn coming in April and we will be he parents of two in the matter of 9 months.

Adopt Ukraine Promo Video

2009-10-28T13:55:00.001-07:00

Adopt Ukraine from casey williams on Vimeo.

2009-10-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was able to shoot a Promo Video that we are going to send out to churches to see if we can raise support our Mission to Adopt. Be on the look out it will be on Vimeo, Youtube, and Facebook. Ben Boutwell, an extremely talented videographer is helping me put it together and I am extremely thankful for his willingness, you can see his portfolio and some of the outstanding videos he has done at his website benboutwell.com. We shot the video at Rumo's a local barbershop in Ruston, and I am so thankful to Russell and Morgan for letting us use their shop.

Here are some awesome videos about the truths of the orphans in the world. I hope you check them out.

October Update

2009-10-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

This month has been extremely busy for the Casey and I. We received a letter stating that the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) could not approve our adoption. Evidently, we forgot to add information about the room that the adopted child would live in and a complete breakdown off all finances. The main problem being that they thought we lived in Mississippi since we still own a home there. We corrected our home study and wrote a letter explaining that we do reside in Louisiana. We are praying that we will get our approval letter in November.

We also gathered and filled out roughly 17 documents and took all of our blood test, TB screen and drug test. After completing all this work, we were told to wait on those documents and just send our Home study, and 3 power of attorneys to Ukraine immediately. We got everything notarized, drove to Baton Rouge and had everything apostatized (state seal proving that the notary is certified).

We were introduced to our Ukrainian translator Konstantin Nikitin, via email. Then the shocking email came. The email stated that we would most likely pick up our child/ren in May 2010. For those of you who have forgotten, I am pregnant and due April 3! Also, Casey is a youth minister and June and July is very crazy for us with camps and weekend retreats etc. So on October 16^th I mailed our documents, checks and a letter begging for an August date. Hopefully, we will find out in November or December whether our request/begging attempt was accepted. We are praying hard that our meet and pickup date will be in August.

We were also blessed by two Sunday school classes in our church that put together a catfish dinner to help raise money for our adoption. When we first started this journey the Type A personality in me, said we don’t have the money we just can’t start the process yet, the other part of me said if God has given us a burden, a desire and compete peace about adopting and the timing of this adoption, how can I say that my God is too small to provide the means. So with COMPLETE faith that he would provide not only the means but the ability to take care of a child, we proceeded. I can honestly say that we have been completely humbled by how God is providing and who he is using. This has also strengthen my faith that when God calls us to do things or make hard decisions, he will provide.

We have been the receipts of God’s people sowing generously, “ ¹²This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9: 12-15