Adoption: Another Step Forward

This is an exciting week for us in our process!  We will meet with our social worker on Friday and on Saturday we will attend our adoption course.  We look forward to meeting other families that are also working on adopting.  So this meeting is the start of our home study which will consist of four 2 hour meetings with at least one taking place in our home.  The social worker will present our home study to Child and Family Services and they will grant us the go ahead to adopt.  So they could decline us, but the board of our agency has screened us and said that they don't for see any issues.  So this is kind of like the first trimester of pregnancy for us. 
So here are the facts that we know so far.
We plan to adopt 2 children from Ukraine.  They would be siblings between the ages of 2-8 and they are living in an orphanage or orphanages.  They may have no living parents, have been abandoned by one or both parents,  or they have been removed from their parent (s) because of neglect or abuse.  They would speak either Ukrainian or Russian or both.  The adoption takes about 1 year to complete and so the plan could be to travel to Ukraine January 2014.  In adoption, times can change at the drop of a hat but these are the guidelines we have been given at this moment. We know that this is in the Lord's hands and we will rest in his time.
Please pray for us this weekend as we take this next step!  Also pray for our 5 children and us as we experience the lessons of sacrifice, to put orphan's lives ahead of our own comfort and hobbies.  Our family has a lot to learn in this area and we need much grace to see it through.

 Bryer (10 yrs old)

Bryer is an easy going guy who is peace loving compassionate.  If any of his younger siblings need something he is the first to be sought out.  He also loves sports and specifically riding his dirt bike.  Travis has built a nice track on our yard and many evenings in the summer are spent with our family out on the track riding bikes (me watching, biting my nails and trying to keep my heart pumping.)  It is something everyone in our family enjoys. Each kid has a dirt bike and Travis usually does too unless he is in between buying and selling them.  This is not a cheap hobby to have but the boys love the thrill and it is making little daring men out of them which in our books is a good thing. However this is something we have chosen to give up in order to pay for 2 more children.  This week another young boy came and was the recipient of Bryer's dirt bike.  We knew this would be VERY hard for Bryer as he is proud of his riding and his bike.  But he walked right into the shop and introduced himself to the boy and showed such a joyful attitude.  It is hard to watch your child give things up.  I want to give him what he desires but he willingly laid his wants down.  What an example to me and we pray that his character will be molded and his heart turned toward the things that are eternal.  Maybe one day the Lord will bless him with a bike again.

This is hard stuff, it is hard for us and it is hard for the kids.  I wish I could say this is all no problem for us and we love giving up our stuff for a greater cause. 
Mold us Lord.
It's all Yours anyway.

Here is our families theme song for this year...