Day One and Court Pictures

Good news!! I figured out how to upload the pictures... with the help of Yana:)

Here they are, captions underneath. Be sure to scroll down to the previous post to hear all the exciting details of Ground Hog Day!

Our wonderful, amazing facilitator, Yelena, a.k.a. Helen, the beautiful blonde. Here she is making nice with the 'quiet time' lady, a.k.a. camp director.

The two girls are the youth camp leaders. I can't remember their names, but I was able to spend some time visiting with them and they were very sweet. They like their job and the kids all like them. BoyOne is in his only color, black, and the boy in red is his friend Vlad, from the same orphanage. He seemed to be a good kid.


Here they are, crashed, after their baths, getting some sleep before our court day. Can't wait until this is a permanent scene in our home. Except they will have their own beds and no silky blue sheets or red heart shaped pillow, but you know what I mean...

This is me, Yelena in the background. I felt the need to document what I was feeling like after all of the love the BoyOne was not giving. Thats my 'hope I'm up for this, what the hell' look.

This is documentation of how Huz is feeling during all of this. I'm assuming this is his 'I get to go to work all day hahaha' look:)

This is the blue cage that is in the courtroom. While we were waiting for the judge's assistant to track him down and sign the court decree, the boys kept themselves entertained by playing in this cage for 3 minutes.

BoyOne sitting in the judge's seat. I'm hoping that this court hearing is the only one we will have to go to with him... Really, he is a great kid. He is very smart and kind (even though I'm not seeing a lot of it right now) and I know he has a good heart. Unfortunately, his life up until now has required much of him and trapped in his 13, almost 14 year old body is still a little boy who needs a mom and a grown up child who had to be the mom.

I love these boys so much and am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for leading us to them. I'm so grateful to my biological daughters who have had to sacrifice much in order for this adoption to happen. I am grateful that this adoption is something that they want just as badly as we do and that they have enough of a relationship with the Lord to know that this is what our family needs to do. I am amazed and filled with gratitude every time I drive through this country. To see it is to know and feel God's love for all of His children. I am grateful to Him for allowing me the opportunity to catch many glimpses of the potential these children have and for blessing me with the knowledge of His love for them and for me. Something like this could not be done without Heavenly Father or Jesus. I used to wonder why God allowed so many terrible things to happen, why so many people were allowed to suffer and why so many had so little. I wondered why He didn't do anything about it. Then, I realized He was probably going to ask me the same thing some day. I find myself quick to judge this society who continues to live life as if there were not thousands of children sitting in orphanages on the outskirts of every city, how they could know this and know what they themselves have, and still go on with life. I realized that this was what we were doing. Certainly there are not orphanages in all of our cities in America, but there will always be a need in every city. We also know of places foreign that struggle and live in desperation every second of every day, yet we continue to go on with our lives, waiting for someone else to fix it, or for God to intervene and make it all go away. I understand now, for me, that God will not take it all away. He will intervene, but not in the way we picture things happening in our minds. He will intervene in our hearts and our very souls. The change that is needed most will be made there, in the hearts of His children. In turn we will be the ones to make the changes, because of His love for us. He loves us enough to allow us to make our own decisions, and in turn, loves us enough to allow us to experience the consequences. He loves us enough to have the self control to sit back and watch and wait for the change of heart to take place in each one of us so that His love can heal all the world. I have begun to understand that it is not He that we are waiting for to bring the change the world so badly needs, but it is He who is waiting for us to allow Him to change our hearts so that the world will be changed. I pray that I will always be open enough to His love that I may allow Him to work inside of me.