Leap of Faith

We have been persuaded to keep our adoption appointment on November 21st. We bought our airline tickets last night. We were able to get such a sweet deal!! So, we are leaving on November 19th, just 9 short days away!! International adoption is surely not for the faint of heart. It is a faith walk all the way. I know this is how the Lord wants us to live but it is just hard. Last night I got to sleep at 4 am. My mind will not shut off. All I do is make lists and more lists of things to do, things I absolutely cannot forget about. It's exciting to think of traveling so soon to complete an adoption we've been working on for a year but it's overwhelming at the same time. Today we had a picnic for the kids special olympic team. It was a perfect day for a picnic. The kids spent their afternoon eating and playing. It is our Jack's birthday today. He is sixteen! We got him from his orphanage just days before his fourth birthday. He is still just as sweet as he was then. My husband was on a humanitarian aid missions trip and took a video of Jack in his orphanage. When I saw that video and Jack looked up and smiled that smile I knew he belonged with us. We traveled to Ukraine to do our first international adoption to get Jack. Because of a paperwork error he was not ready but we adopted our Anya instead and told Jack we'd be back. We kept our promise. Nine months later he got to walk out of that orphange, his life forever changed. We are glad we were here today to celebrate Jack's sixteenth birthday with him. My dad shares this birthday with our Jack. Dad died years ago and never met Jack but I'm sure he would've loved to share his day with this sweet young man. Happy Birthday to my dad and to my Jack! You've both changed my life. I will never be the same.

This is Jack's old home.

And now he has a new home and a new family. Happy Birthday Jack!