I talked with Yuri this morning via FB message. Time is dragging for him and he is very down in the dumps. It’s so hard to help him understand this process and how long it takes to get things done. He was happy that the paperwork was in Ukraine and ready to be submitted but can’t understand why it takes 2 months from that point for us to come over.
He just kept saying I miss you, I miss dad, I want to come to America. Why so long?
We can’t even communicate with the girls so who knows what they are thinking.
Adopting like this is hard in so many ways. The money is one thing, the paperwork another and this waiting is the hardest thing of all. Waiting for someone you can’t communicate with to make a decision so you can do the next thing.
People ask me why even bother. If it’s so hard why do it at all?
So does that mean because something is hard you shouldn’t do it? Is that what our culture now believes? Is that why there is a plethora of fast food joints and fewer and fewer people cook real food at home? Is that why we play computer games instead of Monopoly and Sorry? We want fast and easy. Hard and long is not our thing anymore.
That seems sad to me. Because the hard things, the things that take time, are the things that have real meaning and are worthy. I think people miss out on so much wanting the easy and fast answer.
I got an email this morning from one of Vlad’s teachers about his 17th birthday tomorrow. She said he is so excited and animated talking about how we are going to take him rock climbing for his birthday. That he is talking non-stop about it. The vast improvement he has made in speaking English, the coming out of his “hurt” shell and the way he jokes around now instead of being the stoic Russian/Ukraine boy fills our hearts with joy. If we had skipped all of this because it was hard we wouldn’t get to experience these joys.
Hard is good. It teaches us all sorts of great character traits. Patience, kindness and joy in small moments. We don’t need huge wins to make us smile. Vlad coming home and giving me a hug and telling me that the day was good is one of those times. Hard makes us appreciate all the good times. Hard also gives Yahweh more opportunities to show His glory. When things are easy He doesn’t need to be present in our lives. When things are hard we lean on Him – a lot! At least I know I do.
Please think about adoption. Think about taking one of these distressed orphans into your family and doing the hard thing. If not that, think about helping us financially to make the adoption of Yuri, Kristina and Anya happen. It’s a gigantic undertaking this international adoption of three teenagers. We can use all the help you want to give.