Cold days, warm hearts!

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.