Waiting on His perfect timing!

Wednesday, August 31 (Day 19)

The last few days have been a time of up and down emotions.

We were assigned a judge for our court date on Monday morning and have been waiting and hoping to get a court date assigned the last two days.  We were hoping and praying for a court date for this week.  At this time, we have heard nothing except that our judge is the head of all the courts in our region of Odessa.  Wonder what God wants to do with that.

Our girls are very ready for us to come home and that makes it harder to wait....

We have had some really good days with Vitya.  Monday, the kids left and moved back to the orphanage.  Thursday, they will start back to school along with all of the other kids in Odessa.  During our times with Vitya, we have been playing cards, basketball and hackey sack and taking him special snacks each day.  He seems to be pretty comfortable with us now and us with him.  Communication is still hard, but we are learning more Russian and him more English.  He constantly calls us Mom and Dad now.  Uncle Vlad continues to visit every day, too, so we don't know what that means.

We are getting more used to Odessa and feeling that we can get around pretty good now on the bus system.  During our free time, we have been checking out some of the city.  Yesterday, we walked 5 miles to the beach and swam in the Black Sea and saw the Veteran's Memorial.  Today, we think we will walk down to the docks and check out all of the ships.  And maybe tomorrow, we will check out the big Farmer's Market that takes up several blocks.  If LL is still here over the weekend, we have been invited to a Ukrainian wedding and will plan to go.

As we have been struggling with the whole process and having to wait so much, we felt the Lord put something on our hearts that we would like to share with you.  It was very freeing for us.

A friend had sent me an email that said, "I have run out of things to tell God to do for you, so I am just praying in the Spirit."
And God said to me, " That is where I want you to be.  To run out of things to tell Me to do!  To be at the end of yourself.

SURRENDER IS THE KEY THAT UNLOCKS THE DOOR TO PEACE! 

This is Laura Lynn speaking:
" This morning, he convicted me that I have not been surrendering. I have wanted my time, my way in this adoption court date and it needs to be His time, His way, His everything. He sees the bigger picture. He knows the perfect timing. 

I think that I felt that if I surrendered everything, God would allow the process to go longer. The irony is that it will be His timing anyway, whether I surrender or not.  But surrendering will bring me peace.


So, we area choosing to try and do this and give it all to Him!!!!  His way and time are perfect!


Will write again when we know anything!!

Finally some pictures

We have posted some pictures of Vitya on my FB book, Laura Lynn Connor Stout.  You will find them under photos in the album, Ukraine Adoption pictures 1.

Had an awesome visit with Vitya today.  We laughed so much together and had a great time!!

Will find out court date tomorrow.  Will let you know....

More Miracles and Answered Prayer

We think we have had an answer to prayer about the great Uncle.  We spent those two days with him and Natalia, our facilitator  and his translator and him asking alot of questions, but we were super nice and said we wanted to have Vitya keep in touch with hiim and we had lots of people praying. At the end of the second day, he said he was willing to do whatever Vitya wanted to do and Vitya told him he wanted to be adopted.  After that, we weren't sure if he would keep fighting things or not.  We figured we would just have to wait and see.  At this point, it seems God did a total miracle in his heart.  Yesterday and today, he came to visit when we were visiting Vitya, but both days he treated us like family and we all had a good time.  The first two days with the translators, Vitya was very tense and disturbed, but this last two, we came early and had some good time with Vitya before Uncle  got there and Vitya seemed much more relaxed.  Also, when Vitya saw we were relaxed with the Uncle and not threatened, he seemed to feel relaxed, too.  Uncle Vlad has also invited us to bring our family back to Ukraine and stay with him. Although we are glad for his apparent heart change, we are also still very cautious and we will wait and see if he has any ulterior motives.


We turned  in all our papers to the court on Friday (with no interference from Uncle) and saw some miracles in that process, too.  Natalia will check with the court on Monday to see if they have assigned us a court date.  We are hoping and praying for a court date sometime next week. After the court date, LauraLynn will go home to be Mom to our girls and David will stay with Vitya for the rest of the process.

There is supposed to be a ten day waiting period after the court to give the family time to change their mind, but we are praying for a miracle for the court to waive this 10 day time.  It has happened occasionally.  After that, David has to take care of Vitya's legal stuff before they can come home.  Without a miracle, he could be there another 17 days after the court date.

We praise the Lord that he provided another caregiver for our children as soon as the other lady had to leave.  She is a missionary from Odessa who is learning Russian at CIU in Columbia and needed  a place to stay.  This was an answer to prayer for us and for her.  The girls will enjoy talking with her about Ukraine and learning some Russian.

Please continue to be in prayer for our finances for the adoption.  We still need $4000 in the next week for the first half payment to our facilitaor and a plane ticket for LL to come home.  After that, we will need about another $10,000.

Will write again when we hear something Monday.

Man's Opposition, God's Opportunity

Wednesday, August 24


We are sorry we have not sent out an update in a few days.  We have been so busy. In the last few days, we have had an interesting turn of events.

On Monday, after much waiting, we  were finally able to get Vitya's medical records and take them to the orphanage.  While were at the orphanage, we found out that a man who is claiming to be Vitya's grandfather's brother had been calling the orphanage and was very angry that Vitya was being adopted.  It was not on his record that he had any relatives. That afternoon, we went with our translator and talked to Vitya and he said that this man had been coming to see him about twice a month for about 1 year.  Our facilitator was concerned.  We do not know if he is really Vitya's relative or what his motive is. 

On Tueday, we were able to get the last of our paperwork in to the regional inspector, but while we were there, we found out that this supposed great uncle had been stirring up trouble all day.  He had been to the orphanage and yelled at the director and had done the same thing with the regional director.  They were not very impressed with him.  Tuesday, afternoon, we met with him at the orphanage, along with Vitya.  Vitya was very uncomfortable.  "Great Uncle" brought  along his own translator and had page after page of questions for us.  He seemed very concerned about Vitya's welfare and  how we would treat him in the US.  We answered questions politely, but were guarded.  We did much praying silently.  After we left, we still were not sure if he was being honest or just deceiving us.  We sensed that we should be nice but be very careful in giving him information. 

Today, we went early to the orphanage to see Vitya and he was at the beach.  We went down to spend time with him and  he was very withdrawn and  seemed disturbed.  Our facilitator thinks he may have been angry at his "Great Uncle".  When we all got back to the camp, the "Great Uncle was there again and more questions.  David and I didn't understand much of it, but our facilitator talked for us and she is great.  We tried to be very polite and honor him.  Finally, he said whatever Vitya wanted he would agree with.  He asked Vitya and Vitya said he wanted him to stop making trouble and he wanted to be adopted by us.  Vitya again was very uncomfortable.  We exchanged email addresses and took some pictures and assured him we would let Vitya stay in contact with him.  We still do not know if he is genuine or not, but only time will tell.  We will see in the next few days if he will back off or continue to make trouble.

We know that God has told us that Vitya will be a part of our family, so we are trusting Him and praying that if this man is not sincere, then he would be exposed.  We are sensing from the Lord that we are in a spiritual battle for Vitya's life and the enemy is about to lose and he doesn't like it!  God has given us a verse in Exodus that he gave to the Moses and the Israelites when they were facing the Red Sea and the Eqyptians were pursuing them.  He said,  "The enemies you see today you will not see again....Stand firm.  The Lord will fight for you.  You need only be still."

This afternoon, we went to visit with Ron Winkler, an American missionary, who has been here for 5 years.  We really had an enjoyable time with him.  Today, is Independence Day in Ukraine, so we didn't do any government business.

Tomorrow, we will go and see if the Regional Director has our papers ready.  If she has and "Great Uncle"  has caused no more trouble, then our facilitator, Nataliya,  will take them to the court and leave them. Nataliya will go home to Kiev for the weekend to be with her husband and 8 mth. old baby.  She will return on Sunday night and will then check with the court on Monday to see if they have set us a court date.

We will let you know what happens in the next few days.  Thank you so much for all your prayers - they make a HUGE impact on what is going on here!

Need some miracles this week!

We need two big miracles in this next week.

1.  Tomorrow, we are going to try and meet with the regional director.  He is out of the office  Tuesday - Friday, so if he doesn't see us tomorrow, nothing else can proceed until the next week.  Please pray that he will let us see him.

2.  In the last few months, the Ukrainian court system has decided to put all of the court cases together, instead of keeping the adoption separate, so we will be put in a stack with criminal cases, civil cases, etc.  Whoever is on top, gets to go first, so Natalia says it could take up to 2 weeks to even get a court date and once, we do, we have no idea what kind of judge we will get. We are not guaranteed a judge who specializes in adoptions.  In the Dossier process, we saw God bring us documents in three days that we were told would take six weeks, so we are asking God for a miracle to get us an early court date.  He can put our papers right on top if he wants to!!!

3.  Also, our children are really struggling and missing us right now - would you please pray for them as well!!


Thanks you so much for your prayers and support!

David and Laura Lynn

PS: We have been having some great times with Vitya.  He always calls us Mom and Dad now.

We have made it one week!!

We have now been in away from home from one week and in Ukraine for 6 days. It is amazing how much we have experienced in those 6 days and the run of emotions we have felt.

We are just about done with the paperwork stage here in Odessa.  Monday, we will get Vitya's medical records and give everything to the regional director.  She will will make a report for the court and then they will set us a court date to make the adoption legal.  WE are praying that the date will be next week, but Wednesday is a national holiday, so they don't work on Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Vitya wrote a paper yesterday stating that he did want to be adopted by us, so that part is official.  PTL  We have been given amazing favor in the time that we have been allowed to spend with him.  Yesterday, we were able to take him away from the orphanage and out to get pizza.  We enjoy so much being with him, but yesterday, we did not have a translator, so communication was very frustrating, especially for him and Laura Lynn, as they are both communicators.  The first hour, we used a dictionary and kept pointing to words, but that got tiring after a while.  Right now, Vitya is not interested in learning too much Enlgish because he is still in a Russian speaking country. He thinks that we need to study more Russian.  We are trying, but it is a difficult language.

Our translator left yesterday afternoon, so we are on our own for the weekend.  Our friends, the Elliots are here now so it is nice to have their company.  This morning, David and the Elliots have gone to a thrift store to get some clothes for the kids.  This afternoon, we may visit with Vitya at the camp, but this time we will take some activities to do as we will not have a translator. Also, it will be our first attempt on the bus by ourselves.  Ugh!  Tomorrow, we will go to Urainian church, but with some friends of the Ellisors who speak English.  Monday, the Elliots head back to Kiev to start the process for their second child.

This morning, we were talking and just realizing that Vitya has no idea what a mother and father are like because he has never been exposed to any, except what he has seen in very unGodly movies and books.   His birth mother gave him up before he was every born, so he neve knew her.  And all of the women in his life, have been strict, authoritarian leaders who have often physically abused him.  So, it is scary to think that what we show him now is the view that he will develop for always about parents.  It's kind of like when our children are babies.  We are shaping his mindset.  We are so glad we have God's spirit in us and His help.

We write again, probably on Monday, when we have some more details about our court date.  Thank you again so much for your prayers!

Miracles and prayer needs

We rejoice in the Lord greatly! We saw the Lord faithfully bring in $6000.00 in just a few days. Thank you Jesus!
We had an exciting day today! We continue to see the hand of the lord at work in this adoption process, we had great favor today and met Vitya for the first time. It was awesome. He happened to be at the orphanage, not at camp. So we were able to meet him. We spent 30 minutes with him. He stated he does want to be adopted by us. Which is great! He loves basketball, swimming, painting and art, the color yellow, he loves music. They stated he is very responsible, and likes school. It was a dream come true seeing him.
We have continued prayer needs...
The adoption will be more than expected. We will need an additional $2500.00 and the expenses living here will be more than expected.
Currently we need an extra $1250.00 by tomorrow for lodging for one month.
We need an extra $2500.00 by this friday for adoption fees (for a total of $11,000)
And we will be needing about another $8000.00 to come home. We can give a specific breakdown if people are interested.
We believe God is faithful and will provide every dollar needed to bring Vitya home!
Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

We are in Ukraine

We are Ukraine!  We had good plane rides from Charlotte to Munich and Munich to Kiev.  We had amazing favor in customs.  Not even questioned.  Met another couple who was adoptiong and they were grilled.

Arrived very tired.  We spent our first two days in Kiev staying at a church and we walked everywhere we went.  Our translator dropped us off with a cell phone that had her number and we were pretty much on our own except for adoption appointments.  Communication is difficult.

We were staying in the old part of the city, so we were able to walk to many areas and see things and eat, etc.  We have eaten only Ukrainian food so far and loved it!  Borsch is Great!

Monday, we had our SDA appointment and it was very short and simple. We were approved for adoption within 15 minutes.  The rest of the day, we slept and then had dinner at a nice Ukrainian buffet and enjoyed the cool weather in a park.

Monday night, we could not sleep, so we slept half of Tuesday, then we met our translator at the SDA and got our referral documents that afternoon.  Afterwards, we were able to see some of the historic sights, such as St. Micheal's cathedral. It was beautiful, but seemed so dead spiritually.  At 9 pm, we left for the train station.  There we met our new translator, Nataliya and we rode on the train for 8 hours all nite to Odessa.  It was a rough ride and we are very tired.

We have just arrived at our apartment in Odessa.  It is nice.  In one hour, we leave to start all of our appointments, and then this afternoon, we finally meet Vitya.  We are excited, nervous and tired all at the same time.  We have internet now, so we will write when we can. 

Please pray for favor in the next few days.  The timing of the whole process rests in the hands of the people we are meeting with.

We are on our way!!

We are sitting in the Charlotte airport right now, getting ready to board the plane for Munich, Germany.  It all kind of seems surreal.  It is hard to believe that we are actually on our way to get our son.  We have an 8 hour flight to Germany and then a 5 hr. layover in Munich.  We are hoping to leave the airport and see a little of the city.  We leave around 1:00 (Germany time) and arrive in Kiev Sunday at 4:15 Ukraine time (they are 7 hours ahead of us, so that will be around 9:00 am SC time). 

We are really excited but very tired.  It was alot of work getting off, but we had alot of help from alot of great friends! 

PTL!  We needed right at about $6000 to leave on our trip (airfare, plus 1/2 of our adoption fee) and we left with a little over $6100.  God is so good!

We have our appointment in Kiev on Monday, will pick up our referral on Tuesday and will head down to Odessa on the train Tuesday night.  We arrive in Odessa on Wednesday and will hopefully see Vitya the next day. 

We will not be able to update again until we get to Odessa where we will have internet. Thank you for all of your prayers...




W

Countdown Miracles!!

PTL!  The Countdown has begun and the miracles have started.  3 days until we leave for Ukraine to get our precious son.
Yesterday, we only had $500 towards the cost of the trip and no money to get plane tickets.
Today, we recived $2000 in one day and we have purchased our plane tickets. 

God told us He wanted to do BIG miracles with the finances for the trip and He is!!  He is so faithful.
We know He will meet all our needs!!!!

We'll send out our plane schedule and schedule for our time in Ukraine tomorrow....

Until later...