Where it all began.

In July of 2008, while searching some adoption web-sites, I came across David Avilla's web-site, Advocates for Orphans. Being involved in camping ministry to youth I phoned David to share some innovative ideas with him about hosting children from the Ukraine here in the U.S. in a residential camp setting. This started the relationship between David and myself. Even though the camping ministry for the Ukraine orphans did not evolve, we maintained in contact through David's newsletters and email. The following summer I viewed a list of nineteen Ukraine children who were anticipating coming to the United States for two weeks on a hosting program. Families agreeing to host the children were also to be willing to consider adopting.
Feeling totally led by God not only to adopt a child, but following God's direction to a specific child He led us to through prayer has been an exciting and yet emotional adventure. After being assured that God was calling us to adopt Anastasiya we proceeded with completing the hosting application and beginning the adoption process.
I must say David was a God send from the very beginning and a tremendous help every step of the way. Without him we would have had no idea where to even begin. He has patiently led us through each step and continues to do so efficiently and promptly.
The first step, after filling out the hosting application, to begin the adoption process was to begin the adoption process with a home study. We had no idea who to even contact about doing a homestudy. So as always we began to pray for God's direction and help and were led through an Internet search to Families United Network. From the very begining they were easy to work with and I felt like I had known them for a long time, they became like friends to us. Receiving the huge packet of paperwork from them seemed overwelming at first, but I dug in and set a goal to have all the paperwork and documents completed before our homestudy interview which was scheduled 3 weeks away. When Jana, our caseworker arrived for the interview the first thing we did was check of the list of documents we needed for her. With the help of so many people from the family physician, to our banker and accountant and all those who wrote referals for us, we had all the documents we needed completed before the interview. The interview was realxed and went smoothly. Ten days later an email from Jana informed us that our homestudy was on its way to the Ukraine and that we had set the record for the quickest homestudy to ever be completed by them. Praisie God!
Next step was to collect all the documents needed for the Ukraine, again without David we would have been lost. He guided us each step of the way to know what we needed and when. It was so exciting to drop the packet of apostilled documents into the Fed Ex box and know that all our paperwork was complete and on its way to the Ukraine for our Dossier review.
In the midst of all the paperwork, Anastasiya was to come to the United States for a two week visit, but due to the swine flu scare the children were not granted permission to travel. We were so very disappointed not to have the opportunity to meet our little girl. But God is in control, He knew how very hard it would have been to start to develop a relationship with her and then have to send her back to the Ukraine. We moved full speeed ahead with the adoption process even though we had not yet met her and had no information about her other than a picture, her name and age. We knew we would not have said no we did not want to adopt her if she came to be hosted, so we moved ahead without the initial meeting. After all God called us to adopt and led my husband and I each individually to this one specific child.
Now we wait. waiting is hard for me. I am a doer not a waiter. Our review is scheduled for March 10. We eagerly await to hear when we will be granted permission to travel to the Ukraine for our court appearances and to meet our little girl.
Praying for her and preparing for her arrival has brought a bonding and connection between us without even meeting her. We are so eager to include her in our family and shower her with love. We pray God will be close to her, care for her, keep her safe and prepare her and us for our meeting and future together.