Summer Time!

Guess where we've been??? We started our summer off with a BANG and went to see Mickey Mouse! We had a GREAT time (of course). The girls have officially finished the school year and we will start in the Fall with a SEVENTH grader!!!! a third grader and our 'baby' goes to Kindergarten. (When did this happen?????)

Here's a recap of what we have done so far with our summer. (And yes, it did just start 3 weeks ago)
-Went to Disneyworld
-Had our first limo ride!
-Got out our waterslide (We've been waiting)
-Completed TWO Vacation Bible Schools (In the same week)
-Swam at the YMCA
-Emma started Summer Camp
-Ellie had a week of Youth VBS (including a trip to the water park, bowling, and a concert)
-Chipper got a haircut (He looks so cute!!!)
-I completed my Hepatitis A shot (why not?)
-The girls participated in the Walk for Life
-We hosted Ellie's youth group for an overnighter
-Completed a preproject work day for our upcoming World Changers Mission Trip
-Finished up some final details for the ABCH (Foster care stuff)
-Attended Todd's 20 year class reunion
-Signed up for the summer reading program
-And the other boring stuff like work...103.8 fevers/ Dr visits... Todd's running irrigation... etc...

No wonder I'm tired!! Hopefully we can slow down (a little) now! I LOVE life even when it's this crazy--

What we are doing now...

One of the verses I have found that I love the most is Psalm 127:1
"Unless the Lord builds a home, the work of the builder is useless." Isn't that an AWESOME thought! You have probably figured out from the picture that we are (almost) a foster care family through the Alabama Baptist Children's Home. I'm officially back to being "giddy" about the thought of a child or children coming into our home---maybe even soon????? It feels SO GOOD to be where you are supposed to be. I struggled (even when things were going great with our Ukraine adoption) if we were doing what we had been called by God to do. God closed doors and opened others, in His perfect timing-and although I would have loved to have the cash back- Ha Ha- other than that it seems like all is working out perfectly according to His will!! Doesn't He mention something about that in the Bible???
I still check in on all my Ukraine friends every now and again and I still pray for you. I still pray for the children of Ukraine. I still pray that doors will be opened, laws will be changed, and children will find HOMES!!! God works ALL over this world and we are so blessed that He has chosen us to be a part of His plans!!!!

The News

We are putting our Ukrainian adoption on hold. It sounds like such a simple statement, I know. Believe me when I tell you that it has come from A LOT of prayer, thoughts, discussions between Todd and I, etc. Don't think we are giving up because of the mix up with our paperwork. We have spent a lot of time praying that God would lead us in the right direction and we have to pay attention when he speaks. It is so easy to assume that the need for adoptive families in foreign countries is so much greater than the needs here in the states, but it simply isn't true. Now, don't misunderstand what I am saying. We are not talking about number of children. We are talking about number of children who are free to adopt. We have realized that the children of Ukraine get hung up in the system just like the children of the US get hung up in foster care.
Somewhere along the way, this adoption changed. It has become about "getting a good referral" and how many people are waiting. It is a competition to see who is going to go to Ukraine and come home with a "good" kid ( or even a kid at all). This adoption is not now, nor was it ever, about what "we" were gonna get.
My head is so full of things I would love to share with you, but I can't find the words. Our 171H is good for another year or so. God may turn us around tomorrow and send us back, but right now, we are no longer pursuing an adoption through Ukraine.
I will continue to pray for all of you out there. I KNOW you are going to come home from Ukraine with the child you are supposed to have. I KNOW that you will be blessed because of your faithfulness. I also know, too- that MY family has a blessing and a child in store for it. I'm not sure when, but hey- that's no different than before!
I've enjoyed this journey. Todd and I have talked about it, and there is NOTHING that we would have changed. We have grown as individuals, we have grown as a family, and we have come full circle with our desire to "care for orphans in their distress".
"God places the lonely in families" and He has a child for our family. We are thankful for that.

With a little sadness, but a lot of FAITH- We say "Good-bye"
Melinda
toddmelinda@bellsouth.net

Answered prayers...

I believe God answers prayers. I wish every answer He gave was what I wanted to hear, but it is not. It turns out we were NOT submitted on October 15th like we have thought for the past two months. Turns out we were NOT submitted at all.
It is what it is. I would LOVE to tell you what now, but I don't know. I am discouraged, but that is OK. I still believe God has a plan for our child/ my family, but it doesn't make this setback any less painful. I've gotta give myself a little bit of time to process all of this and then we go again. That's what you do for your children. You grieve your losses, celebrate your blessings, and get up and keep going.

Our Christmas Elves!!!

Click on this website to see our little "elves"!! It is TOO FUNNY!!
It takes a minute or two for it to load, but it is worth the wait!

Merry Christmas from all of us!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1730490495

All I want for Christmas...

O.K. I've held out long enough, I will now torture you with my 'latest' song!!!
(Sung to the tune of "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth")

All I want for Christmas is our travel date,
our travel date,
oh our travel date.
All I want for Christmas is our travel date,
so we can plan our trip to Ukraine.

It's been so long, since we turned in-
our dos-ee-aa to the country Ukraine,
gosh oh gee, how happy I WILL be,
to get our in-vi-tation!!!

All I want for Christmas is our travel date,
our travel date,
oh our travel date.
All I want for Christmas is our travel date,
so we can plan our trip to Ukraine!!

(Everyone please hold your applause). It looks like I'm not getting my Christmas wish since Christmas is in a few days, but that's OK. I actually spoke to our social worker and she says that it should be "soon". Some of the other Lifeline families that were submitted in October have gotten March appointments.
I put a link to the Rahn family on the right. They are from Virginia ( I think)- and we don't personally know them, but I have fallen in love with their blog. They are adopting two older girls. It tugs on my heart to hear them talk about their "girls" and all the others who are there in the orphanages. I know God is preparing me for whatever age referrel we are going to receive. I want them ALL!!!!! I want to look each and every child there in the eyes and tell them they are loved, wanted, cared about, prayed for.
I am excited! I'm ready to GO!!!

A journey of Faith and Worship

OK, so I've been a little bummed because we've not heard anything about our date and because of that I have not really felt like posting anything lately, but I want to share with all of you out there a little bit of Sunday nights message from our pastor. (I hope that's ok, Bro. Dwight- I'll try not to mess it up too much).
Bro. D was preaching on the Magi (wise men) and the journey they took to Bethlehem. Todd and I got tickled because he said -can't you imagine the conversation the wise men had with their friends...
"where are you going?"
"we don't know"

"How long will you be gone?"
"we don't know"

"When will you be home?"
"we don't know"

"what will you find when you get there?"
"we don't know"

But then (Bro. D) said "All the wise men knew was that they were doing what God had told them to do!! It was a journey of faith!" (Sound familiar to anyone else other than us??)

Bro. Dwight went on to talk about the wise men's journey also being one of worship. That in everything they did, they worshipped God. Their purpose was to worship, they sought out the joys and blessings that God had waiting for them at the end of their journey. They had NO details, only a promise from God that something wonderful would be waiting for them when they reached the place where they were headed. And they WORSHIPPED while they were going. My prayer is that those of us on this "journey" whether it's paperwork or plane tickets right now, will see God in EVERYTHING. May we look around and see God in EVERY STEP, even if it is waiting!! Todd and I have never really been lacking in faith for this adoption, but maybe God is waiting on me to worship him and give him the honor and glory that he deserves.

Our Christmas letter

I mailed my Christmas cards today, so it's time to give a little "recap" of this website. I put our blog address on our cards thinking we would have great news to share with everyone on our mailing list about our upcoming adoption, but it looks like that is not going to be the case. For those of you out there whose mouths are hanging open right now, yes, we are trying to adopt internationally from the country of Ukraine. (Not THE Ukraine, just Ukraine). We have spent the last year or so doing paperwork, getting fingerprinted, writing checks, etc. and have prepared what is known as a dossier (pronounced dos-e-ay). This bundle of paperwork which requests permission from the country of Ukraine to adopt an orphan child/children has already been submitted to the SDA (the DHR of Ukraine). We are now waiting on an invitation from Ukraine to travel to the country to view files of children available for adoption. This is where the hang up comes in. Because of a lot of stuff I can't comprehend, the number of younger, healthy children that the SDA is allowing to be adopted by American families is not so great. There are THOUSANDS of children in the orphanages of Ukraine, but because of paperwork, etc. not all of them are AVAILABLE for adoption. Now before you get all worked up thinking, "man that's wrong" just let me tell you that it is no different than the way the children of the US get hung up in the system. It is a flawed world we live in. If it were a perfect world, there would be no orphans. When Todd and I decided to adopt, we wanted to adopt a child that might not otherwise be wanted and/or cared for. We are in NO WAY close to being great parents, but we love our children, we love each other, we have a beautiful home with more than enough "stuff" than we could ever need. We have been given the forgiveness of God, and there is no greater joy than to be able to model that and share that with our girls. We love FAMILY and we are pretty good at it. We did not start out with any preconceived ideas of the age, sex, whatever of the child we hope to adopt. We started out and are still at a place now (most of the time anyway), where we are 100% trusting God to bring us the child He has for us. The waiting is hard, the journey is hard, the details are WAY too many to even try to give you. The latest estimate for when we might travel to Ukraine is sometime in the Spring. We will use this website to 'communicate' back and forth between home. (And we are taking the girls with us.) Don't stress out over all the details- I figured out pretty quickly it doesn't do any good! Thanks to all of our friends out there who love on our family! We are so blessed and maybe next year our Christmas card will have an extra kid or two on it!!

Merry Christmas!!
Todd, Melinda, Ellie, Emma, and Avery

Look at all these Rumors...

Our agency sent us a little info yesterday about the SDA that I thought I would pass along. As always, it's "Ukrainian truth" so don't go writing anything in stone. The news is that there is a director in place at the SDA, which has gotta help. It is also rumored that the SDA is looking to change the way they are accepting dossiers, and that they will not be accepting new dossiers for healthy kids under the age of 5 until Feb 08. It seems like the SDA is going to limit the number of dossiers it will accept for 'healthy, under 5' kids. I'm not sure if those of us waiting on appointments are gonna get caught up in these changes, or if they will apply to future submissions. I would love to know if anyone with an October submission has gotten a travel date yet. I don't think any of our Lifeline families from October have heard any thing yet.
Our agency has two families in Ukraine right now! I put a link to FINDING ZOE on the right. This families appointment is TODAY! Like right now! I pray that all is going great for them. They posted a great entry which made me feel really good about how our facilitators were helping. Todd and I met this couple in B'ham and I know their hearts are truly in this adoption. They have opened themselves up to be used by God in a mighty way, and I feel confident that God will bless them for it. I can't wait to see the child God has for them!!

(for the children of the 80's/early 90's, let me get a song stuck in your head today-Come on now, sing with me, don't be shy....... look at all these rumors, surrounding me everyday, just need some time, some time to get away from, from all these rumors, can't take it no more....)

Now for the adult of 2007, I've gotta go load the dishwasher! BUMMER!!!

Those who love our babies

I attended a funeral today for a dear lady who was probably my mom's best friend. Her name was Ms. Jo and what I will always remember about her was the way she loved my children. My girls will probably never remember who she was, but I will. I will be able to tell them about her every now and then when something happens that sparks her memory. It made me wonder about those 'people' in our child's life in Ukraine. Right from the start, I confess that I have not prayed about details, paperwork, timing, whatever--I have prayed that someone has touched our child today, shown him or her some attention, smiled at them, loved on them. I believe that God gives us special "grandmothers" that love our children just because they can. I wonder if there is someone "loving" our child right now. I will never know them, I will not be able to tell stories about them to my child, I will not ever be able to look them in the eyes and tell them how much it means to me that they were there. I am so grateful to the men and women who stand in the gap for our children.
It seem like there is good and bad news coming out of Ukraine. What else is new, huh? Our agency has two families traveling this week. One family is adopting an older child, and the other family is adopting a special needs child. (or special knees as Avery called it- FUNNY story, by the way). It seems like things are speeding back up as far as time in country, but it also seems as if the referrals are not going so well. We started this thing out to adopt the child God had for us and we have to trust that now. It's so easy to let the world change your desires and motives.
Anyway, thats my rambling for the night. The good news is, It's Christmas time!!! Our girls got to open their first Christmas gift today (long story). There is so much to keep me busy for the next month that I won't have as much time to think about our travel date.