On the Road Again

Just can't wait to get on the road (to adoption) again! Sorry for the silence, sometimes it just felt as if we were wandering in the wilderness, not sure where we were going and not able to share where we were either. After many months of waiting on God, He has shown us the direction He would have us go in rescuing older orphans.

And, He used a dear long-time (as opposed to old ;) friend to show us where the road was heading! Amy Post and the Daytons have been friends for about 20 years. Years ago, we attended the same church and had a common love for orphans (still do share that.) It was through Amy that we adopted Daniel, our second son, though he was the first son that we met. She took him in as her foster son for the first 17 months of his life. I learned so much from her during the many hours we spent together commuting to and from Long Beach once a week when our kiddos were little and Daniel was required to go to birth-mother visits.

Amy and I would talk now and then through the years, but always had that "Just as if we'd talked yesterday" feeling to our friendship. Last year, when we started our process to adopt older orphans from the Ukraine, we discovered that Amy and her husband had found their future son in Russia and were also in the process of adopting an older, special needs, orphan. Their process moved right along it's bumpy road as ours stalled due to our girls being adopted by another family.

In October, 2009, Amy called and said, "We're home and Alex is home, too!" Charissa and I went to visit a couple days later, as Mark and the boys were hunting in Idaho, and met Alex for the first time. He is so bright and fun to be around. He has a rare disability called Arthrogryposis, which disables his limbs, but not his mind. The Post's have an older son who also has Arthrogryposis and he began asking for a brother a few years ago, so they searched the world over to find Alex! The orphanage he came from said he was the brightest child in the orphanage! We had a lot of fun playing that day and marveling at the ability that this little guy showed!

About a week later, Amy called to tell us about Jewel, her blog name as she is a precious jewel in God's eyes, and we were so surprised! Amy said that one regret they had in Alex's homecoming was leaving his best friend behind. She explained that Jewel was always with Alex. And that they were brokenhearted to know they would never see one another again. Sure enough, their photos revealed just what they told us. There was Jewel, acting as Alex's arms, when he needed it, but mostly, just being his friend. It was the extreme finances involved in foreign adoption and the strong arm of that government, because of a fluke in their paperwork, that held them back from returning for her. Amy called to see if we'd go get this precious Jewel and bring her home!

So, Russia is our new destination! Jewel is 10 years old which, interestingly enough, puts her smack dab in the middle of the 8 year gap we have between Christian and Charissa! Neat, huh?!? She comes from an institution/orphanage that is set aside for children with special needs of all sorts. When we heard her disability was a seizure disorder, another WOW! Our dear friends have a very sweet 12-year-old daughter that has had a seizure disorder for several years. The girls' given names are nearly the same name! I'm sure that they will become fast friends! The 12 year old's younger sister is our Charissa's best friend and is also 2 years older than Charissa, as the 12 year old is 2 years older than Jewel. So, not only does Jewel have a family and her best friend, Alex, to come home to, she's got a friendship circle ready to embrace her!

So, here we go. Map in hand, destination marked. Won't you join us in prayer during our journey to go get Jewel?