Birthday's and other momentus occasions

Well, it has been an interesting week to say the least...
From celebrating my nephew's birthday, to formally saying "goodbye" to the ukraine adoption route, to my son ending up in emergency and my daughter almost knocking out her front tooth the day before her third bday.

WOW,
but since we are focusing on the adoption in this blog, I will fill you in on Feb 25th..the day our papers would have been submitted to the Ukrainian government for review and then acceptance/referral of a child. The day was met with mixed emotion, on the one hand, relieved that we didn't have to endure more paperwork,( which I found out later that day, could easily have been rejected once again, since the requirements changed at the end of January)....to second guessing our decision. The main thought that remained with me however at the end of that long day, was that I have two beautiful children who have been given to me as gifts...that I have the NOW to invest in their lives and that I must live for the moment and not for some imagined future that was mistakenly seem "greener"
Overall, a sobering day (in a good way)

thanks for reading..
more later

New Perspective

Though I have heard this so often "God is the perfect gift-giver", I was reminded of this Truth by a friend who has adopted 2 children, each with their unique story..at exactly the right time.
God knows why we started our journey two years ago with Ukraine and had to come to a decision a few months ago to change tracks. Now we are excited about the prospect of welcoming a child from BC in to our home. I have had many days of peace knowing that God's wisdom is SO beyond my human understanding and that He has given me 2 precious gifts (and their Papa!!) right here...for today, to love.

NEWSFLASH:
We will be having a fundraiser coffeehouse where my band "Gardom's Guest" as well as "the Cats and the fiddle will be performing. There will be a number of pieces of art, created by local artist for sale also, by silent auction. We are so looking forward to a fun night of music, art, food and fun.

Mark MAY 2ND in your calendars and tell your neighbours!!

A new Year

Well, just incase you think we've fallen off the planet...nope, not quite. An update on our adoption status. We have discussed with our British Columbia agency regarding our international adoption and after doing the requirements necessary , have officially switched to "domestic"..meaning that now we "actively" wait for a birthmother to choose our family. What a great day that will be.

Happy New Year

News

Well, for those who have been following our story, we have been pursuing our Ukraine adoption for almost 2 years. We found out several weeks ago that the two kids we had met and grown so fond of in our hearts, were not available for adoption. This, along with some other pretty big factors that we have been wrestling with over the months, has caused us to officially cut our ties with Ukraine. We still are very passionate about adoption and will pursue a canadian adoption through the government (usually some higher needs kids). It has been one of the hardest decisions to make.

On a more happy note, we have gone ahead with our fundraiser (since this whole adventure is quite expensive) and have recorded and produced a CHRISTMAS CD. "Peas on Earth" (we always referred to our kids as our "sweet peas")
Fun songs for the family. $10. SO if you are out there and would like one...let us know. It costs $2 to ship up to 3 cds to you. WE'd be happy to do so.

Asking for Prayer

As we start our 4th round of paperwork, in hopes of a submission date in the spring, I am asking you to Pray for us..that we will be faithful to God, that we will love each other in this process.(.that I find quite stressful) It has been quite a ride over these past 2 years..with I'm sure more adventures to come. I believe it to be a miracle that we are still on the road to adoption. I praise God for that. We are trusting God to provide for us, in every way as we seek him out in these days.
Thanks,
monika

we're registered

AFter 18 months and 3 sets of dossiers, we are now registered, the first of 3 steps in our Ukrainian ADoption. We are thankful and now must work on our papers again (hopefully for the last time) until our submission day in February 2010. That's the latest.

the countdown is on....

...not exactly the way you think. We have about 6 weeks left until our papers once again expire. They have not yet made it back to the embassy so it will be interesting to see what happens. We have decided that after 18 months of doing the same paper work only for them to expire or requirements to change from the Ukrainian side, that after this deadline, we will reconsider the whole Ukraine route. This is hard to write as we have invested alot...especially emotionally into this. It seems to be like a cat chasing it's tail as it would appear next to impossible for us to get our papers processed in time for them to make it alive to Ukraine. Praying for God's Will to be done and for us to have a peace and Hope in that.