7/29/09

As of this date we are about 40% of our goal of $40,000 needed for our adoption fund. God has supplied our need each step of the way.

Please continue to pray for us, the safety of all our kids and that God will work through each person that touches our file to push the file forward to be accepted in Montgomery first and then at CIS in Atlanta. Please pray for our patience as the time of waiting is upon us.

THANKS, Leslie

7/25/09 Seminar

On Saturday Dan, Jake, Erin and I attended a seminar on international adoption. Jake's thoughts as we walked back to our car: "Ok, so we are adopting Kolya and Christina, who are not siblings, who have lived in an institution (orphange) all their lives, they have no idea what a family is or what parents do. Yet we are going to go tell them (through an interpretor) that we want to take them out of the only world they know, fly across the world to our home where they know no one, can speak to no one AND we want them to be happy about this!"

This is basically what we learned at the seminar - to look at the adoption from their side. Their world is very small and what we know of it is harsh but them it is their lives! Dan and I had already begun to see that international adoption is not just adding 2 kids, another Jake and Erin clone but for at least the first 6 months it will be extremely challenging. These kids will have to learn a new language, to trust exclusively strangers, to live in a foreign culture and to try to put behind them (actually it will be working through) the life they have now.

The seminar also taught us about so many possible health issues but mainly emotional issues that will come with the kids. The whole dynamics of our family will changed - Dan and I knew this but Jake and Erin are now aware of it also. I think the rose colored glasses are not only off but stomped on and thrown out.

This may all sound negative. The motto we are hearing is expect the worse, hope for the best. However God has shown us the path that He has for us and has promised never to leave us! What other path would we choose?!? Our eyes are opened wide, and we continue forward, knowing that we are in the palm of an all powerful God who only works good for His people. With great anticipation we look forward to Christina and Kolya joining our family!

Home Study is complete - 7/29/09

Dan is turning in the last of our documents today so that our home study is complete!! YEAH!!

Home Study includes:
· 8 hour online course completed by each parent individually
· Parents’ individually written autobiography
· Parents’ individually answer questionnaire about adoption
· Parents’ individually answer questionnaire about international adoption
· Read 1.5 hours online information about Ukraine
· Read 1.5 hours online about possible health issues from adoption
· Medical checkups for each family member
· Financial data evaluated
· Interviews: parents together, home with family, individually, parents together, family again.

Week 7/12 - 7/17

We had our last interview of the Home Study!! I can see the end of the tunnel for the Home Study - medical checkups today and tomorrow, all day seminar next Saturday, our background checkups to come in and we are finished!

Then comes the hardest times for me - waiting patiently while the paperwork gets pushed from desk to desk, city to city (Montgomery to Atlanta)!

It has been a busy week for Dan as he has been leading Bonus Days - rising 5th/6th graders week of Bible Study in the mornings and activities in the afternoon. Today he, all the helpers (including high school helpers and adults) and all 40+ kids load up on a bus and travel to Ocoee in Tennessee. They will travel, do a ropes course, sleep there, and tomorrow raft down the Nantahala River, board the bus for the 4+ hour drive back to Birmingham! Doesn't it sound like this man needs more kids at home!! :)

Thanks to all of you who have sent us encouraging comments about this adoption. We are excited and each step closer increases the anticipation! We appreciate the love and support we have received from our family and friends...THANKS! Leslie

Week of 7/4-7/11

Dan and I have spent most of our spare time this week completing requirements: 8 hour online course, required readings, filling our forms, coping certificates (i.e. marriage, birth), individually writing answers to pages of questionnaires, 4 sets of finger prints each taken at the police station, medical checkups (even our dog needed a copy of her rabies certificate), interviews with our case worker - this week were the individual interviews ( we already have been interviewed together at the agency's office, then at our home meeting the family). Next week we are interviewed again together.

We have learned a lot! We have been made aware of lots of possible issues that may appear when raising Kolya and Christina because of having lived in an orpanage. We have come through this tunnel of information even more resolved in our desire to adopt these kids and having them become part of our family!

We are using an adoption agency, Lifeline, to guide us through the labyrinth of forms and deadlines as well as conducting the required home study. We are very grateful for the encouragement, understanding and expertise of our case worker. We are thankful for the agency's experience in past adoptions from Ukraine and feel confident in their hands!

By the end of July we hope to have the home study completed. It will be sent to the CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Service) to be joined with our application - including the certificates and forms. The application was sent this week. Then we wait for it to be accepted. I'll let you know what happens next!! Leslie

7/5/09 LESLIE’S THOUGHTS ABOUT ADOPTING:
After having a hysterectomy in Jan I thought I would not have any more children. It was funny that even though we really were not planning for any more children, I was very sad that that part of my life was over. God must have really been smiling then as he touched Dan’s heart when Dan went to Ukraine in May. I have always been open to adopt but Dan, while not negative, did not express any desire to adopt...UNTIL he saw the kids in the orphanage. He knew that we could make a difference in 2 kids’ lives. We chose Kolya and Christina mainly because we knew that we could handle the health issues part and many people would not even consider them because of it. Jake and I had been to the same orphanage a year ago and met Kolya but Christina had been in the hospital at the time. We discussed it and have prayed and have stepped out in faith that this is what God wants us to do. He has given us the desire to adopt, the desire to adopt Christina and Kolya, and he will provide the way to work out the expenses.
Reservations – Boy, this will rock my world but in a good way. We plan to home school, which I have done with my other children, so the responsibility will be upon my shoulders more than if they went to school. Life will change but we have gone through a similar change when after having 3 children and 10years went by along came Jake. He rocked our world also. The 3 older children were becoming more independent and giving us more time outside of parenting and along comes a great blessing in our life, Jake. I do realize that having 2 instant children will be difficult: health issues, language issues, communication, getting to know who they are, their individual styles of learning and thinking, what they like to do, what their dreams are and most all teaching them about the one true God. Getting to know our other kids as they grew is one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done. Hard, frustrating, stretching, wonderful!

Please continue to pray for God to supply our needs:

1. Paper work completed in a timely manner
2. Complete the reading required
3. Health and safety for Kolya and Christina
4. $40,000 – finances needed to adopt both kids from Ukraine.
   

PRAISE: As of 6/28/090 we have received 25% of the needed funds to adopt Kolya and Christina!!!!!!! We are very thankful!!!

Dear Friend,

Greetings to you from the Edwards’ family! Leslie and I are excited to announce that we have begun the process for the adoption of at least one child from the Ukraine. With this letter we desire to tell you some of our story.

On Friday, our last day in Odessa, Ukraine, I (Dan) was sitting in a hallway of the dormitory at Orphanage 88 among a group of special-needs orphans. It was time for our team (including Amy Johnson and Anya Hall) from Covenant Church to say goodbye after a week of ministry with them. There were tears and a profound sense of quietness and sadness. Orphanage 88 is the orphanage from which Larry and Lauri Taunton (members of Covenant Church) adopted their daughter Sasha. So Sasha had been one of the topics as the children wanted to, through us, tell her hello. The house mother was excited to inform us that Kolya (a boy of 9 who was sitting on the bench next to her) was to be adopted. Kolya was one of two who came to the orphanage with Sasha from the same shelter; so two of the three, she now informed us, had been adopted. The house mother looked further to her right and pointed to little Christina. She made it clear that Christina was the last one left.

I cannot fully describe the weight and impact of that moment; I will never forget it. Time seemed to stop. At that moment I felt God was whispering in my ear to adopt that last child; and I cannot ignore it. While being profoundly moved by this experience, my eyes were opened even further when I arrived back home. I was reminded by Leslie, who has made two trips to the same orphanage, of her heart for the kids in this same orphanage. So, we are of one mind and are completely committed to this calling.

Christina is the cutest little girl one has ever seen. She compares only to our other daughter Erin. Christina is ten years old, knows no parents and has very little hope without a family. She has lived in Orphanage 88 since 2006; I cannot bear for her to spend one more winter there. Since returning home, more information on Kolya has surfaced. It appears that the previously interested family has ceased his adoption. We will be adopting Kolya as well.

I trust that you will join us in the overwhelming joy that we are feeling in the initial stages of this process. We are truly fighting thru (and have to be reminded often of) the idealistic stage of this process. Today we are full of optimism, but we know hard days are ahead. We need our church family and friends to surround us with support.

One part of the process that quickly returned us to reality is the significant cost of the process. According to the Lifeline Adoption Agency the cost is estimated at $32,000. If a second non-sibling child is included another $6,000 is expected. So we are anticipating a need of close to $40,000. Will you consider assisting in this effort? We are using Pathway Orphan Ministries, a 501c3 corporation established by Dr. Langston Haygood and the Covenant Counseling Center for purposes like this. Please send any checks to:

Pathway Orphan Ministries3509 Branch Mill RoadBirmingham, AL 35223

Tricia Mandt Prather will be the administrator of the fund. Other means for raising money are being explored; however, we know that the primary source will come from those individuals and families who partner with us.

Please know that we are well aware that not everyone will be able to assist financially. But more than money we desire to foster a culture that passionately cares for the needs of the orphan. As we covet your unyielding support in the nurture of Christina and Kolya, we most of all desire that you know the heart of God with respect to the orphan. It is our prayer that this culture, as it reflects the gospel, will deliver a profound effect on God’s people. So please partner with us, in any way that you are able, to promote the care of the orphan.

Leslie and I do not know what the days ahead might bring; but we do know that God and his people are with us. So join us in this calling and pray and hope with us, that we might be able to adopt our children before winter.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink,

I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me,

I was sick and you visited me…”