checking the calendar - God's plan

A year ago today, I posted THIS. 

It is hard to believe that was a year ago. But then, it seems like an eternity ago.

On Jan 15th last year, we held a concert to raise funds for the adoption.  The concert was great.  There were hundreds of people that came to Goshen, Indiana on a snowy winters day to support us. 

Since my hubby is a musician, it made sense to get some of his buddies together and hold a concert.  I had no idea how great the benefits were of having friends with talent!

Yes, we hoped that Anya's story would touch people.  We planned a truly entertaining night of great music...music that would bring you to tears, and rock the house!  We did everything we could to build a buzz, called in all of our friends in media to help us promote the event.  We sold tickets, passed out flyers, and talked about the concert to anyone who would listen. 

The best part...God showed up.


Our financial situation was bleak...we needed to come up with thousands and THOUSANDS of dollars to travel to Russia and live there for 2 months. Taking into account not working for that period of time, and the very real bottom line that was in our checking account...well, it wasn't good at all.

At the time, we laughed that OF COURSE we would get a court date NOW that we are broke.  NOW that the economy had  fallen apart and our income sliced in half.  I was debating between buying a plane ticket for one of us to go...or to pay the mortgage for Jan 2010. 

I had tried to micromanage every facet of the adoption to control it.  I did that for 6 years.  In January 2010, I was exhausted and spent (in more ways than one!).  Trying to keep our businesses going to bring some money into our home, trying to keep the adoption going (which of course required money) I felt completely pushed to the edge.

 And God knew all that.  He knew our financial situation.  He knew how we were going to get to Russia.  He knew how freaked out I would get.  He knew it would be taken care of.  ...but I didn't know it.  Now, a year later, I will admit that my Faith was tested.  I will admit there was a little part of my heart that was MAD at God.  Just really irritated that we had to go through ALL of this to bring Anya home.  It wasn't fair.  I didn't get it. I started questioning every single thing I had ever done in my life to be sure I had adequately asked for forgiveness and/or repented. I couldn't understand WHY HE would let Anya suffer another minute without us.  And why now?  Now that we have to be embarrassed to the entire community about needing money to bring her home. To say having Fund Raisers is humbling is an understatement. 

On January 18, 2010 we had the money to go to Russia.  We had airline tickets in the works and the mortgage got paid.  God had a plan.  As if I needed any further proof of God's hand in this adoption (apparently I did).






He had a plan, and He worked it out for HIS glory.

I had lost sight of what this was all about.  It wasn't about me, it never was.  It wasn't even about Anya.  It was always about God - about HIM...and giving others a glimpse into the true test of Faith. 



Thanks to Brittani Renee for being the BEST photographer EVER.  See the rest of the photos from this great concert here

Christmas part 4 - the snow storm

Of course on Christmas we had no snow...but the weeks before Christmas we had a fair amount of the white stuff.  Anya was so excited to go outside and play...and she did...for HOURS!  Yep, she is definitely from Siberia! She never gets cold outside.  When my hands are FREEEEZING and I can't feel my toes, she is sweating to death.

Here is our little Russian Princess enjoying the snow:

Christmas - part 3 - the cards

I was a little late on Christmas cards this year.  I can remember way back when...ok, maybe 5 years ago, when we would send out hundreds of cards. 

For the past 2 years I have been on another planet or planning a trip to another planet (called Russia) so me and the holiday card thing kinda parted ways.  Since this year is a special year I have every intention of sending out a Lot of cards with the highly interesting Friend-family-update. 

Instead it was a week before Christmas and we hadn't even taken any kind of Christmas-y pictures that I thought were worthy enough of a card.  Thank goodness my talented husband has camera equipment at home so we can pull together a rather lame photo-shoot at the last minute.


...and then when I got to figuring out which photos I wanted to use on the holiday cards, I didn't want to use the Christmas ones.  But, I did...in order to save the peace :)

So here is what we ended up with.  In case you didn't get a holiday card from us this year, it wasn't because we forgot you, it is because I ran out of stamps...and now they should be Valentine cards. 

Christmas Part 2 - Christmas Eve, in Syracuse

Christmas Eve was the beginning of our weekend holiday celebration.  We had the Friend family get-together at my sister-in-laws.  We ate WAY too much, but had a great time.  Anya was really getting into the Christmas Spirit...that I affectionately have dubbed "the season for over-stimulation". Too much excitement, too much sugar, too many fun things to do and people to see...all can be just too much for a little girl to deal with.  And, really, who can blame her?

I can tell when Anya feels safe and loved - and that is how she feels at Lori and Rocky's house.  She gets so excited when she knows she might see Aunt Lori.  It is pretty cute...she always wants to sit by Aunt Lori, and when we leave their house, about the first thing out of Anya's mouth is "I just love Aunt Lori.  Bryce and Lucas are fun too. And Mr Aunt Lori is OK too".