Welcome to Ukraine

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.