Alyona -Part 2!

Wow!! Some of you just didn't like that 'cliffhanger':)!  I even got a phone call saying: MORE! OK...IF YOU DIDN'T READ :  Part 1  , THEN SPOILER ALERT: what's to come will be like reading the end of the book;)


If you’ve made it this far, you’ll see it’s worth it:)  Later the next week we got word from the Orphanage Director's visit with Alyona.  Not only did she want to come back to be hosted by this potential family for Christmas, but she was saying YES to ADOPTION! DID YOU HEAR ME? SHE SAID YES!

Now, where would that leave you? Skeptical? Excited? Thrilled? Hopeful? Well that’s where it left us and the ‘other family’..because only the Lord can move and change HEARTS and did we really believe He would?! Of course we hoped and prayed for this, but REALLY??? Oh my!

So friends, that’s where we ARE NOW!! I can’t wait to tell you who this family is!!! The Schwarzes got to begin unfolding Alyona’s story.  Now, her forever family gets to help write it:) !!! They need your encouragement and support like you gave us!! Even more so ..for the long haul!  They are stepping in faith and moving forward NOW with their home study and hosting Alyona at Christmas.  After her visit, they’ll be a few months closer to bringing her home.  Did they see this coming? Were they thinking of bringing in a teenager into their current family of 5 is something they should consider? NO! But when God moved, stirred and reminded them of His love, I believe they had no other choice but to say YES!

I will be updating VERY SHORTLY with a word from them, but please pray.  As you pray, PRAISE GOD for his goodness and work in many hearts!  The verse I claimed early on for Alyona was:

Eph 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

May we all have expectant hearts for HE WHO IS ABLE!!!

Alyona update - PART 1 ;)

Well HELLO there!!

As we’re finishing our first real week of everyone finally being in school and activities, my heart and mind are soooo eager to revisit where I left off here!!!

WONDER WHAT HAPPENED? THOUGHT I WAS TOO BUSY? DID I LEAVE YOU HANGING?  Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t even know how to say “I’ve got to push PAUSE on discussing Alyona”.  I should have, but I just couldn’t have folks asking me why are you pushing PAUSE.  It was too raw in it.  In the Lord’s goodness and timing, I’m back to share:)

Funny how my eyes are tearing up to remember the eagerness I sat down to share with y’all about Alyona.  The Lord was giving us so much, so fast of this precious one’s world.  I was honored to be able to share glimpses of that.  I was confident the Lord had led her here, as we prayed before being ‘chosen’ to host her, to find her forever family.  Little did I know how much I!!! was to learn in the process.  I’ll get to that in another post!

Without boring you of the details, I had to stop rousing interest in Alyona!!! We had several interested families that lived close and even more families via the internet world inquire about how to move forward in considering Alyona in their family.  A good ‘dilemma’ to have!   Interestingly, not a common one.  At the time I stopped ‘sharing’ here, the Orphanage Director from Ukraine had a conversation with Alyona about how she was enjoying the families she was meeting.  Alyona responded in her gleeful way.  What she wasn’t responding to was the idea of adoption being mentioned as part of this inquiry.  Alyona was confused.  Because the translator was hard to connect with, we were left trying to discern the source of her confusion and resistance that ensued.  Not sure we even understand still!  Suffice to say, this sweet child did not know what her future held, or even that there wasn’t hope for reunification with family that she thought she would see again.  Those crushes to her world began while she was here.  It was heartbreaking and hard with the language barriers.  Thankfully, the Lord provided a couple through our church that just opened the doors and could talk, hug and love her.  We were thankful!!

So there she was, a precious child facing what most adults never face, with less than a couple weeks left to her stay.  In the meantime, the agency selected the family to move forward and the Orphanage Director finally had another conversation about what was unfolding.  She asked her if she wanted to spend time with them in her last 5 days here, alongside us, and she did!  We were hopeful!!! Unfortunately, those 5 days did not show Alyona had really warmed to the idea of adoption and our hearts were BREAKING!! It was a gift to me to watch this family walk alongside her, being rejected, praying and trusting the Lord was at work. 

Every night Alyona loved bedtime.  Although initially Alyona would just go to bed when she was tired, she came to love our bedtime routines.  If Andy was putting Aliza down (remember all 3 girls shared a room), Alyona would get ready for bed and join alongside.  People asked why she was on Aliza’s ‘schedule’ and not the older kids and now I see she ‘chose’ it.  I share this because the last night was a heart wrencher.  She got ready for bed way before any of us did and just crawled into bed:(.  When I went to snuggle with her she pushed me away.  I tried and prayed, but nothing.  I can’t tell you how quickly I felt like it all was ‘a bomb’.  Oh the temptations abounded to unbelief ...of all that had been ‘wasted’ and not seeing what the Lord had been doing.  Thankfully, we were reminded the work and fruit from our hosting was NOT ours, but the Lord’s to produce. Oh did we see fruit...just how she changed and blessed us!  But we wanted more...and are still asking:)

So the next morning, the Lord settled some things between Alyona and us.  Andy and I had some one on one time and... she received.  She received that we had been blessed by her being with us and knew Jesus was going back with her.  She agreed:)  It was no longer my ‘agenda’ (and probably never should have been) to push her to be adopted.  Oh I longed, but I had to let go.  I had to believe God’s heart was FOR her and if not to be adopted, then my goodness, it must be grand.  I just was going to miss ‘our girl’. Oh the language barrier was tough, but not tough enough to keep us from learning to love.  I learned a lot about love that is shown in the unspoken ways.  How much I rely on words given and received to communicate love. In all the busyness there was a familiar ‘be still’ to loving Alyona.  A ‘be still and know that I am God’ kind of love doesn’t require an agenda or getting our way, but one that RESTS in HIS GOODNESS and LOVE.  Oh friends, I wouldn’t have written the story the way it went, but He did. 

As we loaded her into the van, I had asked to be brave and joyful.  Oh I tried, but the ache welled up and before I knew it, the girls and I were...get this..RUNNING AND WAVING alongside the van at equal pace down the road.  I finally stopped but kept waving until she was out of sight.  My girls kept running;p  I was glad b/c it gave me time to weep.  YES...I wept.  The ache I felt was so great.  I still can’t say much about it.  I hurt more than when we left OUR BOYS in Ethiopia after court.  You see, I KNEW THIS GIRL!!! I KNEW what she was headed back to and was frightened.  I KNEW only God could redeem the past and unknowns.  So I kept aching.  With our boys, we knew they were OURS and would be coming home.

For some strange reason, there was no ‘relief’ in our time being over.  There was so much ‘pouring out’, I thought we’d be excited.  Instead, I actually think we were sad.  Nothing about the next few days ‘flowed’.  It took a while to work through our ‘funk’.  We had another date to hook into though: when the Orphanage Director would visit Alyona at her orphanage to follow up...Sept 6.  So the day came and went and let me tell you we prayed some more:) ...alongside this family wondering what locomotive they had just hopped on and off of. 


Part 2 VERY SOON:)!!!