Summer Hosting

Those of you that have been reading this a while will know that summer hosting has been a topic with some consternation.  This is because we have choices but in the end the outcome is mostly out of our control.  I've gotten really used to having no control and completely relying on God the last few months... obviously one of the lessons I was supposed to exercise through all of this.  My wife could go into my "evil plans" that I'm always hatching and that I like to be in control... so let's just say I'm sure I need some practice.

Anyways, no surprise... we want Snezhana to change her mind and come be our daughter.  After she said no, she and the Director gave the "host me again" line.  At the time it was a tough topic for us with a lot of hurt but we did decide we needed to even if just for the sake of Dennis.  When Melissa left the orphanage for the last time with Dennis, Snezhana did say wholeheartedly that she wanted to go for summer hosting but then 4 days later she said she did not with the same "brainwashed" words she SMS'd us about Dennis the day Melissa picked him up ("No want to go to America").  So we've been praying a lot over her and Dennis has been excited to do so also... he smiles so big as he lays there when we get to pray for the people on his list -- which he adds to nightly and tonight we added Ksenia.

Soon after Snezhana said no, we found out about another young teenage girl and both Melissa and I were drawn to her.  Ironically Melissa got to meet her in Ukraine the same night Snezhana said she didn't want to be hosted for the summer.  We had actually already been talking... do we want to adopt two teenagers, what if, what if, what if...

  At this point I'd learned the lesson well that God has been teaching me... we both desire to grow our family through adoption, know that God instructs us to take care of orphans, have adoption mirrored in our salvation, are able to adopt, and this girl is placed in our path who we are both drawn to... so basically keep moving forward until all the doors are closed or we cross the goal line.  So it was pretty easy for me to decide to just move forward and let God work out the details... Melissa followed shortly after.  We actually had this topic come up in our Sunday school class but I was a bit too choked up just asking to pray about Snezhana's hosting decision on Monday to speak up in class.

... so back to the other girl.  She got along great with Dennis and was very sweet, amazing considering she had probably been awake for over 24hrs traveling.  Everything we have been told is she is a sweetheart and would be a very good fit for out family -- with or without Snezhana.

Monday was Snezhana's day to decide... I honestly was completely prepared and expected her to say no.  Suddenly we heard she probably said yes and it was confirmed later.  I will now stand up as a man and say I wept like a baby.  Ok... so enough of that... she was told clearly by the director and translator that her decision must be final whichever way she answered.  Still, lots of pressures before she leaves and we'll be continuing to pray for her every day.  We haven't fully told the kids yet but we'll have to make sure they aren't to badger Snezhana about being adopted.  But anyways... great news... and certainly a necessary step to maintain the relationship with Dennis and leave open the possibility to be adopted.

So with the other girl who I'll just refer to as "H" since "other girl" is starting to bother me.  She was asked today or yesterday (it's a blur) and she said she wanted to come too.  So this is double great.  We will start sending her packages like we do S soon so she can get to know the family.

Now we have a bunch of problems I am happy to have...
* How do we deal with the room situation... I'll just leave it that we have a 5 bedroom 4.5 bath house with a guest room but it's more complicated than you'd think.
* Do we get the new used van, rent a van, or deal with two cars... I'm thinking getting the new van despite the pocketbook pain.
* When do we start the new homestudy, when do we submit the dossier... a million questions here.
* One of the hard parts is the interesting dynamic... H wants to be adopted but doesn't know us except for a brief time at the train station with Melissa, S has said no to adoption, D is S' brother, S knows the family already... we will have to make sure no one feels left out or at odds as best we can... there is enough of us to go around :)
* We have to communicate something before hosting and early in hosting to both S and H to make sure they aren't surprised by each other.  We aren't supposed to talk about adoption to H.  Everyone here knows... our intention is to adopt both so there is no competition here.  That will be an evolving topic.
* We plan to attend the "local" Russian speaking Christian church in the afternoon after our home church in the morning (church, lunch, church).  Will make for a long Sunday but we think that for the teenagers the social aspects and realizing they aren't "alone" in America is key.
* S will have some friends in the East coast of the US that we'd like to be able to visit -- again not "alone" -- so that will take some arranging.

I think this is enough for now :)