A reason to rejoice

I am feeling particularly sentimental tonight for two reasons. One, a year ago today is the first time we sat in the SDA office in Ukraine and burst into tears at the newborn picture we were given from an SDA orphan file....the file of orphanAlina Dmitri Leonova. :)

Two, I have been following the blog of a couple who are adopting from Ava's orphanage.

You probably didn't know this, most people didn't, but when we were in the adoption process, we submitted a request to adopt two children. We had fallen in love with another little boy from Reece's Rainbow named Roman, who happened to be Ava's cribmate. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, and he had cerebral palsy, making him at risk for being sent, at the age of 4, to the same institution where Ava would have gone had she not been adopted. We had every intention of bringing him home with us last year.

However, we later we found out that Roman had two other brothers, a younger in the baby orphanage, and an older one who had aged out to an older orphanage. We also learned that Ukraine's adoption policy does not allow siblings to be separated for adoption. It was all or nothing. We knew we could not adopt them all, so with many tears shed, we left Roman behind, praying that another family would be brave enough to adopt three children at once, and one with a handicap at that.

That seemed like too great a request to ask the Lord but we asked Him many times anyway.

God does answer prayers! Here I am with Roman below.....And now, the answer to my prayers.....the new mother of Roman and his two brothers!!!! Isn't God good? And the best part....Today is Roman's birthday. He is 4. God's timing is so amazing.