A Vision of Hope

On June 6, 1998, I stood hand in hand with the man of my dreams, hoping for a white picket fence in our future. And in the years to come, that is precisely what I got. God provided us with two articulate and handsome boys. They are healthy and happy. My husband has a job which allows me to remain at home with them. We've even been blessed to enjoy three years of home schooling. But my vision has been altered in the last two years. It all began with this picture...



After reconnecting with my husbands college roommate on Facebook, we learned about a wonderful opportunity to share what God had given us. Andrew told us about his work in Ukraine. Jeremiah’s Hope seeks to provide God’s hope, healing and practical help to the orphans and at-risk youth of Ukraine. By ministering to their spiritual, emotional and physical needs, they seek to guide these youth to become productive, Christian citizens in their own country. We decided to sponsor one child. Ruslan was fourteen. He was a nice looking kid who needed our help. We were happy to send money. Shortly after sending our payment, we received our first letter from Ruslan. Who knew we'd get a pen-pal out of this deal? The boys made drawings and wrote letters back. I did, too. Something kept tugging at my heart. But for the grace of God go MY boys...

On a drive to Texas, my husband announced that he thought we should go to Ukraine and work at the summer camp with Andrew. Pardon me? It's one thing for us to send a check- quite another to travel internationally...with two children. But I had been praying for my husband to lead us spiritually...and wasn't this a step in that direction? A year later, I found myself boarding a plane to Europe. Josh would teach art. I would cook and teach piano lessons. Originally, we were planning to go early in the summer and work with younger orphans. But Josh's boss needed him to go later in the summer, and much to our surprise, this meant we would be at camp during the week that Ruslan would attend. We were going to get to meet the boy we had been writing for a year now. We saw that as a coincidence then...but now we see the hand of God moving in our lives.

I was working in the kitchen, chopping something, no doubt. I looked up and saw a group of teenagers filling the meeting hall. A lady walked over to my five year old and pointed to a boy across the way. She said, "Noah- orange shirt. Ruslan- orange shirt." I followed her gaze. The little sailor boy in the picture was not so flat anymore. He walked over to Noah and they hugged. There was a bond that had been created through those letters. I didn't expect it to overwhelm me the way that it did. Over the next few days, we all got to know Ruslan and his younger brother Andrey. The boys played soccer together. We gave them money on a sight-seeing trip to Kiev and they used it to buy a keychain for OUR boys. You read that right. We took them to buy school shoes. We played Farkle with them and laughed at their "game faces." Ruslan ate more than anyone at camp and helped put the plates out everyday. I felt a sense of pride in those boys. Suddenly, they weren't just someone elses problem. Saying good-bye was a very emotional experience...and it caught us all by surprise.



There are so many things I could say about that trip. But the thing I remember most was going to bed in tears every night. After weeks of interacting with these amazing kids, I had to do something. I began to pray about adoption. I had prayed about it before. But after that trip, it became a running dialogue between God and I. It was always on my mind and never left my heart. Josh began to respond to that calling, too. I was overwhelmed when he handed me a note in the middle of church. "I think we should go for it."

A few months later, we were filling out paperwork to become a Chickasaw fost-adopt family. I wanted to adopt from Ukraine, but we were convinced that it wasn't financially possible for us. Couples all around us were doing it- fund raising and making it happen. Why not us? But I was submissive.

Letters from Ruslan became a whole lot more exciting after we meet he and Andrey. He wasn't just a face in a picture. He was a person. And now that we knew Andrey, we began to see them as a family. We couldn't wait to hear from them and to share with them all of our news. We sent pictures and Christmas gifts. We began to save letters.

It's funny how God moves in your heart. Sometimes it's a slow crawl...sometimes it's a lightning bolt. Sometimes it's a slow crawl followed by a lightning bolt. But once He gets in there, you almost feel harassed. Ruslan's letters began to take a different turn. He had been taken out of the home he was in and put back in the orphanage. His grades were down. His behavior was not good. This was the best behaved kid at camp! What was happening to him. And why was he telling us this? He could've skipped all of that. But he didn't. I began to look up bible verses to encourage him. Josh wrote him letters about becoming a young man- the trials and tribulations of his own youth. And then one day he sent a small card. It was to celebrate Women's Day. The poem on the card was about a mother. He said, "I am sending this to you, Mika, because you all have become like a family to me and my brother." Right through the heart.

And so began our journey of hope. If we were "like a family" to he and Andrey, then why shouldn't we BE a family to them? Now that we had met them, could we just allow them to age out of the system and pray that God would take care of them? Prayer is powerful and affective, but aren't we called to be the hands and feet of Jesus? How could we walk away? We couldn't.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

We had fear that this journey might be harmful to us, financially or emotionally. It might "mess up our kids." It might break us. It might stress us out. But if God put it on our hearts, then His plan is to prosper us, not to harm us. He has a hope for us. He has a hope for those boys. And we believe the future he has planned for us on earth is a future that brings us together.

Join us in prayer about this adoption.