THE BEGINNING OF OUR ADOPTION JOURNEY...

Our family has always considered adopting children. Around June of this year, I had come to the realization that with our children almost grown, moving on to marriage and lives of their own, adoption was no longer in our plans. While driving one day, our daughter Megan said, "You know, you're not done, Mom. Our family's not complete." I explained to her that with each of our children getting closer to marriage and kids of their own, we would have grandchildren and we would be fine.

About two months later, on August 6th, a Thursday, a friend of our family called, and in the course of our conversation, it was brought up that she and her husband were hosting orphan children from Ukraine for a summer camp. There were around eleven more children who had come in all and were staying with other host families here in the valley. They asked if I knew of anyone interested in adoption. I told her I thought I knew of someone, then an overwhelming feeling came over me that maybe it was us. The feelings were so strong that I began to cry and could hardly speak to her on the phone. She invited my husband Jay and I to a craft day the children were having on Friday and also a barbecue on Saturday. It was agreed we would come.

We went to a local church for the craft day, and there were three craft tables set up with children surrounding each table. I was instantly drawn to a little girl at one table and a little boy at another table across the room. I mentioned this little girl to my friend and learned that she was already being adopted. She said that the girl had a brother there. I wondered who he was, thinking they would be sitting together. No, he just happened to be the boy across the room that I had also been drawn to. We left feeling confused. Why was I so drawn to these two little children who were already being adopted?

On Saturday morning we went to the barbecue. While watching all the children play, Jay mentioned for the first time that he was also drawn to the same boy and girl. We were disappointed to know they were being adopted. The coordinator of the group told us that there may be another group of children coming around December or January, and asked if we would be interested in hosting at that time. We just figured we had received the message that we were to adopt and maybe our kids would be in the next group.

The particular group of children that we had seen were to return to the Ukraine the following Saturday.

Friday morning we received an unexpected call from the coordinator. She explained that the couple planning to adopt the brother and sister we had been drawn to had just learned that the husband had a brain tumor and were no longer in a position to adopt. We had the call on speakerphone in our home office and as she told us the situation, Jay and I both began to cry. Our hearts went out to that sweet couple, but we also knew without a doubt that they were to be our children! We wished we could see them one more time before they went back to the Ukraine, but knew it was impossible.

Due to a scheduling mix up, the children were unable to fly home and had to wait until Sunday. We got our wish of spending a few hours with them on Saturday.

As you can see from all these incredible experiences, we know without a doubt that these children are meant to be in our family. The cost of having children is high, and due to the economy and how it has affected our income, we have to seek out other ways of finding the funds necessary to bring our boy and girl home. We hope our experience has touched your heart and that you've been able to feel even a portion of the amazing feelings we've had over the past four months.

Below, we have set up a raffle fundraiser to help raise the funds needed. You are invited to enter to win a Vizio 40" HDTV! All donations are very much appreciated as we have a long way to go until our journey is complete. Please share our story with everyone you know so that hopefully we can bring our children home that much sooner!! Thank you for taking the time to read our story. May God bless you on your own journey!