An emotional roller coaster

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.