Mountain tops and valleys

Well, so much has happened, I don't even know where to begin.


We received confirmation from Open Arms Adoption that we have been approved for their services. Open Arms Adoption is a ministry from a church in Columbia, South Carolina.  They accept donations on behalf of adoptive parents to help them fund the adoption expenses.  This is a service that gives tax deductions for people who donate to help fund adoptions. When a donation is submitted, 100% of the donation directly contributes to our adoption fund.  If you are interested in helping fund our adoption and help us bring our daughter home you can send a check made payable to Christian Life and write Open Arms-Tygart Family in the memo line to the following address.

Christian Life

1722 Denny Rd.

Columbia, SC 29203

Sad to say, but we still have not sent our application to our translator.  Fortunately, we did get the approval from immigration services.  As we were doing a final check of documents and getting them ready to scan in and send to our translator, Vernon noticed that the addendum to our home study was signed and notarized the day after their license expired.  We asked if they could just back date the letter by a day or so.  They said they could not.  Even though we had been discussing it for weeks, I did not know that I was supposed to officially request an addendum in writing.  I sent the official request in writing on the first of February, so that is the earliest date they can put on the addendum.  You guessed it, their license expired the 31st of January.  So, we have been waiting for the agency's license renewal for two weeks.  Vernon got the call this morning that the license has finally been signed.  Now the agency has to update the addendum and call us so we can go pick it up with a notarized copy of the agency's license.  We should be able to get the apostille very quickly after we pick up the addendum and license.  When we have that we can send our application to our translator.  I am hopeful, once again, that we can do that within the next few days.


We had originally hoped to have our application done and in the hands of our translator when the agency in Ukraine opened for business on February 1.  We are now not going to have in our translator's hands by the first of March.  We had hoped to be traveling by mid-March, but it is now looking more likely going to be mid-April.


It seems that we go from a mountain top of excitement with another completed document to a valley of oh-no, I can't believe we have another glitch.  This roller coaster ride is dizzying.  I keep telling myself, and my friends keep telling me, it will all happen in God's perfect timing.  We know this with 100% certainty.  When we were preparing to adopt our son we had delay after delay.  We were denied adoption by the Ukraine agency because of a couple of glitches in our paperwork.  Then Ukraine quit allowing international adoptions.  We questioned if we had misunderstood God's calling.  Door after door seemed to be closing in our face.  We still knew that our call was certain, but the obstacles seemed insurmountable.  We rode the roller coaster of mountain top to valley many times.  We waited a while to see if we could confirm deep in our hearts that we were absolutely, beyond any doubt hearing from God.  We were still certain.  I went to Ukraine with my daughter and a friend in 2008.  We went to the orphanage where Josh was at with a missionary friend that we were staying at her house.  The director allowed her to take our son Josh, my friend's future son Grisha, and two other boys to her house for the weekend so we could spend some time with them.  It was amazing to meet the boy I knew God was calling me to adopt and raise as my son.  So, as you can imagine, I talked with Vernon when I got home and we prayed even more to confirm God's calling.  We decided to start the paperwork a second time, following what we knew was God's calling.  We completed the document trail and went to Ukraine to adopt Josh.  We had several mountain top moments and several valley moments, but we made it through.  It wasn't until after the adoption was complete and Josh had been home that we realized the role that each delay had played in the completion of God's plan.  Josh told us that, if we had completed the adoption paperwork the first time he would not have agreed to come home with us.  Josh was still young enough at that time to have been too afraid to come.  He would have been too young to have proven to his family that adoption was what he wanted.  We had discussed the possibility of him not agreeing to be adopted and had decided that we would choose another child in that situation.  But, we would not have Josh with us.  I can't imagine life without Josh.  He is my son in every way.  I don't want to imagine life without him.


Now, here we are again riding the roller coaster of adoption.  Mountain top to valley.  With each turn of events we may be dancing with joy or fighting off frustration and disappointment.  But each turn of events just confirms even more how much we need God's mighty hand directing our paths.  Whether it is a mountain top kind of day or a valley kind of day.  It will all fall into place in just the right spot on God's timeline.  One day we will be able to see how it all fits and can praise God specifically for each delay and each victory as they helped bring God's plan to fruition in our lives.


Have a great week.  I will post again when we get our last documents pulled together and have sent the application to Ukraine.  Thank you so much for the encouragement in this process.  Friends and family are true blessings.  

EVEN BETTER NEWS!!!

I received word this afternoon that we are approved by immigration to adopt.  They will be mailing the form out this weekend.  We should be able to send our application to our translator next week!!

Some News!!

I just spoke with immigration on the phone a few minutes ago.  The lady there is pulling our file to see if we are ready to approve and send our I-171H.  If we are ready for approval she said she might be able to get that done today.  However, we only did our FBI finger prints yesterday.  Please pray with us that the FBI will process our finger prints very quickly so the lady at immigration can grant us our approval.  God is a big God and he can make this happen.

Our translator tells us that there is currently no waiting line for older child adoptions.  If we can get this done quickly I may actually be able to travel to Ukraine soon to begin the process there.  I know that a lot of "If" has to fall into place, but I know God can do this. 

Also, please pray for provision.  As we get closer to being able to go we see more urgency in collecting the money to go. 

Pray for our daughter too.  She will have many decisions to make, many fears to overcome, and many adjustments to make.  Please pray that she will be able to recognize our hearts and that in the struggles she will face she will be making her way to becoming the woman God has designed her to be.

Thank you for praying for us.

Still Waiting

Life has been busy.  Vernon and I went on a marriage retreat with our church group.  It was a wonderful vacation that allowed us to focus on us and our relationship while having a fantastic time.  The retreat was on a Caribbean cruise.  We came back relaxed and refreshed.  It was just what we needed.  Vernon and I have not taken a long vacation by ourselves in several years.  We have gone to the coast on long weekends, but we have not taken a whole week and gone out of town like that.  It was wonderful.  I love my family and I love being with my kids.  But I did not realize how much I had missed having my time away with my husband without the responsibility of taking care of everything.

A week after we got back from the cruise was the church’s Revive weekend for the youth groups.  If you aren’t familiar with these I will explain…..Several families in the church offer to host a group of kids at their home for the weekend.  During the weekend the youth are split up by grade and by sex.  Depending on how many kids of each sex and each grade, there may be one house per group or multiple houses per group.  There are planned activities at church that are appropriate for the youth.  The Christian music is upbeat and more to their taste, the lessons are taught to issues the youth face, and the leaders of each group are typically young enough that the kids feel they can relate (mostly college age to 20s with a few others mixed in who are older but work with the youth).  A mission activity is scheduled for Saturday, along with some free time for the kids in the group to decide what to do that is fun for them and encourages building friendships.  Saturday night is usually a concert or show of some type.  The kids are brought to the church with all of their stuff on Sunday morning and the parents get to take home very tired students after the church service is finished.  The purpose of these weekends is to allow the youth to experience a spiritual revival within themselves; hearing what the word says relative to the normal teenager’s struggles with salvation and living according to biblical principles; and helping them build relationships with others their age within the church who are most likely struggling with the same things.  I am sure our youth pastor could explain that a lot better, but you probably get the idea.  Vernon and I hosted the 10^th grade boys.  There were enough boys to have two homes for this group, so Josh got to go to the other home for 10^th grade boys.  We had a wonderful time with the boys.  They were very respectful and sweet.  I hope they enjoyed being here even half as much as I enjoyed having them here.  Mostly, I hope they experienced a personal revival after participating in the events of the weekend.

Not much has happened on the adoption front since I posted last time.  Vernon and I had appointments this morning to have our finger prints done for immigration.  We are now waiting to see how long it will be before we get the I-171H form we need.  Our translator sent us one more form which is now required.  I have to modify it with our personal information and print it out to get notarized tomorrow.  We have received our amendment to the home study that informs immigration that Vernon will not be traveling with me this time.  The process of bringing our daughter into this country is different if both parents are not there for the adoption.  Vernon will have to adopt her after we get home instead of her being a citizen as soon as she arrives in America.  When we adopted Josh we were both there for the adoption so he became an American citizen as soon as he landed in America for the first time.

We have not heard back from Open Arms Adoption after submitting our application.  I will post on here when we hear back with our approval.  We are still trying to come up with more ideas for fundraising.  If you have some good ideas please let me know.  I am really not gifted in fundraising. 

Thank you all for praying with us through this adoption process.  Please continue to pray for our daughter.  It is bitter cold in Eastern Europe.  I pray for her to be warm and healthy during this very difficult winter.  Also be praying that our immigration paper work will come in sooner rather than later.  The sooner we get there the better.  Please pray for provision.  As I have mentioned before, adoption is expensive.  Jehovah Jireh is my provider.  Also pray that we will all have hearts that are open to hearing from the Lord and melding together as a family with a new member amongst us.  Adoption is hard, but God is good and He knows how to make it all fit into his glorious plan. 

Have a great night!!  I will post again when I have some news to share.  I love you all!!