What Did We Sign Up For? Part 1

These are the boys we *thought* we were signing up for, Dima and Vlad, our Ukrainian host boys of summer 2011.  Even though signing up to adopt these boys was quite a surprise to us after the summer of ‘11, we felt their transition into our family was very doable.  We’d gotten the surprise privilege of hosting these boys in our home for five weeks, and we truly fell in love with both of them.  They were so smart, so tender, so compassionate, so fun, so loving…so, well…perfect!

Their transition to our family and home would be quite simple.  Both boys were learning English in their schooling in Ukraine, Vlad was a little pantomime translator who we could communicate quite well with because he was such a confident, quick thinker and learner.  Neither boy had any health issues, and both boys were great helpers who enjoyed doing chores alongside our family, helping care for Kiefer and Selah, and joyfully pitching in when they saw a need that they could help meet.  Yep, perfect.

Both boys had good appetites, could feed themselves, and were really good eaters.  Meal times would be simple.  We’d just  need to fix a little extra food, the same food that the rest of us would be eating, serve it on a plate, the same plates the rest of us eat from, and we already had chairs at our table, so no big changes would occur at meal time.  Except there would be extra smiles and full bellies. Blessings.  Perfect.

And their room was already ready for them both.  No changes at all in that department.  And we already had clothes and shoes for both boys, too, so that would be a simple transition as well.  Perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both boys were quite adventurous, typical boys.  They loved being outdoors, running, swimming, riding horses, hunting for critters, fishing, riding bikes, riding 4-wheelers, playing, and enjoying outdoor ranch life in a large family.  Not much would change about our lives around here, except there’d be more fun, more smiles, more laughter, more hugs, and more love.  Perfect.

Good friends.  Yep, these boys would not only be our new brothers, they would be forever friends.  Good friends.  Fun friends.  Perfect.

 

However, what we *thought* we were signing up for was not AT ALL what God was busy drawing the contract up for.  He had something so much different in mind.  Radically different.  Back in December 2011, when we shockingly discovered that God planned to place Vlad and Dima with their biological aunt in Ukraine, we began the search for whom it was who God wanted us to adopt.  After all, He’d clearly led us to Ukraine to adopt someone, but who?

 

In our search, we were looking for easy, doable, simple, perfect.  We were looking for mere substitutions for Vlad and Dima, the boys we’d fallen in love with.  The ones we’d signed up for.

 

In that search, God began to change our hearts and lead us to the boys He intended us to adopt all along.  Only this transition would be anything BUT simple.

 

…to be continued