We have been asked how we found Olga and what led us to adopt her. When we decided to move forward with our adoption process, we looked at all of our options and decided together that we would proceed with domestic adoption-it seemed as though it would be a good fit for our family. In our minds we pictured us adopting a young boy, maybe five to eight years old, and probably with no physical handicaps because our house isn't wheelchair accessible. That is the list we gave to God. And of course we thought things would go accordingly because we had felt called to do this-we were following His lead, right? Ha! Lesson #1-Don't tell God what you can or cannot do! While in the domestic process, we hit a few speed bumps that slowed us down. Yes, were frustrated and they took us by surprise, but we hadn't given up, we were just in a holding pattern waiting to hear back from the local agencies on a few things...
Fast forward a few weeks to our son's birthday. All of our children had gone to bed after his birthday celebration. I took one last look at my email for the night. I had an email that was an urgent prayer request for a little girl who was about to age out in her country and would be moved to the mental institution because she has cerebral palsy. (First of all, let me explain that this was not the first prayer request like this that I had seen. This was far from the first picture of an orphan needing a family that had crossed my computer screen. Throughout this journey, I had become connected with a group of wonderful families advocating for children and these needs came through from time to time.) I went ahead and opened her picture and I am pretty sure my heart stopped for a moment-I for sure had to catch my breath, and yes, tears filled my eyes. Olga looks so much like our children and particularly like our son-we had just looked at his baby pictures that day. (This is what we do as part of their birthday celebrations.) I then showed Randy the email and he had the same response I did. Those of you that know him realize that it takes quite a bit to render him speechless, but he really was. I could not sleep that night-could not get her sweet face out of my mind, but I tried not to get excited about it because I didn't think the rest of our family would feel the same way I did.
The next morning we shared the picture and urgent need with our children as a prayer request. Again, this is something we had done in the past with other children. They agreed that she was adorable and felt sad for her, but didn't say too much more before they left for school. Throughout the day, I felt like I had to find out more information about Olga. I contacted the appropriate agencies to learn whatever I could about her. I hadn't heard anything back by the time everyone came home from school. However, here was the amazing part. As our children came home at different times, they all had the same response, they all wanted to help her, they all wanted to bring her home, they all wanted to be her family. Immediately we were all on the same page and decided to move forward to find out more. We knew we had to move quickly because of her urgent situation.
Here is a rough timeline of how things went:
Thursday-Saw Olga's picture
Friday thru Sunday-Communicated with so many people who had information about her and knew what agency she was listed with, etc. We even got in touch with the family that had tried to previously adopt Olga and so they had lots of great information. We got all of the application forms filled out and ready so that they could be sent to the agency on Monday morning.
Monday-Called the agency to let them know we were interested and were told that another family had already moved forward for her. We were so happy for her, but disappointed for us.
Tuesday-Tried to get Olga out of our mind, but couldn't do it. We decided to email the agency and let the know that if anything changed, we still wanted more information. We heard back later that day. The agency had received 3 emails that morning. The first was from the other family saying that they had decided not to move forward with her, the second was from an O/T that had just come back from seeing Olga in Russia and wanted to be put in touch with anybody interested in Olga so she could share information, and the third was from us saying we still wanted her. The director said she just couldn't believe the timing (oh, but we totally believed the timing of it!) and asked if we still wanted to submit our application? YES we did!! So, we submitted it that day.
Wednesday-Verbal approval from the agency and international contact. WOOHOO!!!
Thursday-Paperwork Trail and Journey to Olga Begins!!
It was a crazy whirlwind week trying to find out more information and learning what we needed to do, but everything so perfectly fell into place-that is what also sealed the deal for us-we now knew that this was God's plan for our family-no speed bumps, just full speed ahead and He was working out ALL of the details. He was keeping us available for Olga-He knew she was supposed to be our daughter. It has been the most amazing time of our lives. I can't even explain the emotions, but we seriously just look at each other almost every morning in awe of Him and can't believe what He did the day before and look forward to what is going to happen next! Unless you have felt it for yourself, I really can't even explain the peace and joy that a journey like this brings.
Fast forward a few weeks to our son's birthday. All of our children had gone to bed after his birthday celebration. I took one last look at my email for the night. I had an email that was an urgent prayer request for a little girl who was about to age out in her country and would be moved to the mental institution because she has cerebral palsy. (First of all, let me explain that this was not the first prayer request like this that I had seen. This was far from the first picture of an orphan needing a family that had crossed my computer screen. Throughout this journey, I had become connected with a group of wonderful families advocating for children and these needs came through from time to time.) I went ahead and opened her picture and I am pretty sure my heart stopped for a moment-I for sure had to catch my breath, and yes, tears filled my eyes. Olga looks so much like our children and particularly like our son-we had just looked at his baby pictures that day. (This is what we do as part of their birthday celebrations.) I then showed Randy the email and he had the same response I did. Those of you that know him realize that it takes quite a bit to render him speechless, but he really was. I could not sleep that night-could not get her sweet face out of my mind, but I tried not to get excited about it because I didn't think the rest of our family would feel the same way I did.
The next morning we shared the picture and urgent need with our children as a prayer request. Again, this is something we had done in the past with other children. They agreed that she was adorable and felt sad for her, but didn't say too much more before they left for school. Throughout the day, I felt like I had to find out more information about Olga. I contacted the appropriate agencies to learn whatever I could about her. I hadn't heard anything back by the time everyone came home from school. However, here was the amazing part. As our children came home at different times, they all had the same response, they all wanted to help her, they all wanted to bring her home, they all wanted to be her family. Immediately we were all on the same page and decided to move forward to find out more. We knew we had to move quickly because of her urgent situation.
Here is a rough timeline of how things went:
Thursday-Saw Olga's picture
Friday thru Sunday-Communicated with so many people who had information about her and knew what agency she was listed with, etc. We even got in touch with the family that had tried to previously adopt Olga and so they had lots of great information. We got all of the application forms filled out and ready so that they could be sent to the agency on Monday morning.
Monday-Called the agency to let them know we were interested and were told that another family had already moved forward for her. We were so happy for her, but disappointed for us.
Tuesday-Tried to get Olga out of our mind, but couldn't do it. We decided to email the agency and let the know that if anything changed, we still wanted more information. We heard back later that day. The agency had received 3 emails that morning. The first was from the other family saying that they had decided not to move forward with her, the second was from an O/T that had just come back from seeing Olga in Russia and wanted to be put in touch with anybody interested in Olga so she could share information, and the third was from us saying we still wanted her. The director said she just couldn't believe the timing (oh, but we totally believed the timing of it!) and asked if we still wanted to submit our application? YES we did!! So, we submitted it that day.
Wednesday-Verbal approval from the agency and international contact. WOOHOO!!!
Thursday-Paperwork Trail and Journey to Olga Begins!!
It was a crazy whirlwind week trying to find out more information and learning what we needed to do, but everything so perfectly fell into place-that is what also sealed the deal for us-we now knew that this was God's plan for our family-no speed bumps, just full speed ahead and He was working out ALL of the details. He was keeping us available for Olga-He knew she was supposed to be our daughter. It has been the most amazing time of our lives. I can't even explain the emotions, but we seriously just look at each other almost every morning in awe of Him and can't believe what He did the day before and look forward to what is going to happen next! Unless you have felt it for yourself, I really can't even explain the peace and joy that a journey like this brings.
Oh I love this story!! It's so beautiful the way God works. I'm just so excited for you guys. :o)
ReplyDelete(this is Amy's cousin by the way! :o))