Maybe some, of you.... that is assuming there is even one of you... are wondering why we have chosen to adopt a child or children from Ukraine.  If you are not wondering that at all, then you may skip this post :).

The long story goes like this:

When we were in high-school and started dating, way back in 1885, err, uh, 1985, Valerie informed me that she was not getting married until she was 40 and was not having children.  She had aspirations of being a high-powered attorney -- which she totally could have done.  At that time, marriage and children were not quite my focus, so I said, and I quote, "O.K."  After a year or so of dating she informed me that she could see that I would make a great father (her words) and she had decided that she would have one child, one of mine.  Of course, this was still not my focus in this relationship, so I responded, "O.K."  Some time later, she informed me that she had considered this one child issue and had decided that we could not have just one child.  She recalled that she has and had a wonderful relationship with her brother and would want the same type of sibling relationship for our child, so we would have to have two.  My response?  "O.K."  After we were married, she asked me, as if I had any say in the matter, how many kids I would like to have.  I responded that I had always thought I'd like to have three kids.  She said, "Oh, no, we cannot have three kids.  That would always leave an odd man out.  We would have to have four.  After Valerie became pregnant with Keeley, I asked her if she still wanted four kids.  She said, "let's just see how this one goes."  After Keeley's delivery, she said, and I really am quoting this, "If they are all this easy, we should have five."  I think there may have been some drugs in the IV?  So, she gets pregnant with Noble.  Her response this time?... definitively... "WE ARE DONE!"  It took me a few years to convince her, but she became pregnant with Levi.  Even before I could ask, she stated that SHE would NOT have another baby, no matter what I thought about it.  She stated that her body would NOT ever go through that again.  In fact, she informed me that I HAD TO go to the Dr. to ensure that her body never went through that again.  So, we had our three children. We would casually discuss another child and she softened a little, saying as long as she did not have to have it.

Now that is the true, yet humorous (if only to me) story.  The back story of it all was God's perfect plan and God's perfect timing.  My cousin Teresa was/is involved with an organization out of Ukraine.  She invited me on a mission trip with her and I was ready to go, but the timing did not work out for me, but this put me on the mailing list or Facebook list or email list or something.  One day, I got something that announced some pending changes in the laws concerning adoption from Ukraine.  Apparently, the government was dramatically changing the orphanage situation which would make it more difficult for the children to be adopted.  Reading something like this:

Foreign Adoption laws in Ukraine have changed.  At the present, children are being moved from the state run orphanages, to foster care homes.  Unless they are diagnosed invalids, which then they will be moved to ONE central regional (oblast) invalid home.   Orphanages ARE closing, and children are being placed in foster care homes, where the foster parents will have a ‘voice’ in and IF the child is adopted; and it will become harder and harder to adopt any child from Ukraine, with the government moving to this system.

Further, the laws are changing in the US making it more difficult, time consuming and more expensive for international adoption, reading something like this:

This change WILL cause a domino effect, and unfortunately, the cost of international adoption WILL rise.  Thus, understanding that cost is prohibitive for some people to even consider adoption, Cornerstone Adoption Services, has drastically reduced their fees, in order to place as many children as possible before these laws come into effect. 

So, the agency decided to drop their fee in half to help get these kids out of this system, to give them some hope of a future that they would not have if left in this system.  We had discussed to possibility of adoption, but had very few serious discussions about the possibility.  We had discussed foster adoption, domestic adoption and foreign adoption, but just light discussion.  When we read this we felt like this was God calling us to adopt from Ukraine.  Stop thinking about it and start doing something about it.  

We have been so blessed in so many ways and we have the ability to give a child or children some hope for a brighter future.  This was over two years ago.  God has lead us and directed us and shoved us a little, even stopped us cold in a few situations to make ready the perfect time for the perfect plan.  Maybe at some point in this blog we will share the things that have happened to allow these event to transpire.  It is definitely beyond us and we are anxious to see how God orchestrates the rest of the journey.  It is remarkable.