Bringing Sasha Home - James 1:27

Well, most of you are probably wondering what in the world this is all about.  So, I will do my best to explain without writing a book.  Please join my blog and follow us on this journey that The Lord is leading us on.


On Friday, October 22nd, I attended a women's retreat at our church.  Well gosh, let me back up just a bit.  On Oct 3rd, we were at our Sunday School Class at church and I had realized that we had not been getting any emails.  So, I wrote our email down with a note to please add us.  On Oct 13th, I received an email (via our Sunday School Class) from one of the ladies in our class that could not attend the retreat and wanted to give it away to someone else!  Well, I had wanted to go but we decided that it would be better for us to save the money, so I wasn't planning on going.  However, God had other plans!  I took her up on her offer and got to attend the retreat at not cost to me!  Keep in mind that I would have never gotten that email had I not asked to be added to the email list just a week and a half earlier!

That's where it all started.  On that Friday, at the retreat, a lady there was explaining that she was hosting a child for the holidays through New Horizon's for Children.  There was a book that she printed out with all the children available for hosting.  I immediately found a child that caught my eye and my heart...his name is Kirill and he is from Estonia.  I called Danny with the thought of hosting him for Christmas and he said, "Let's pray about it".  Well, I thought about him throughout much of the weekend and Danny finally said, "Let's do it".

As soon as Monday came around, I called New Horizons for Children and left a message with two different ladies.  On Tuesday, I didn't get a call back, so I called one of those ladies again.  She informed me that they had to pull Estonia from the Hosting Program, so none of the children from Estonia are available for hosting.  Oh, my heart broke!  So, Danny had mentioned that if it was the Lord's Will, that we not give up.  We really hadn't talked about it too much more that week, though.  But I did receive many, many confirmations (did I say many?) in just the past 3 weeks, so I knew with every fiber of being within me that this is something that we needed to do.

Then, on Monday, November 1st, Danny decided to go onto the picture page for New Horizons (on his own accord) and look at the children that were still available for hosting.  That's when he stumbled (ok, not sure that he actually stumbled) upon Sasha.  He read Sasha's profile and called me into the room and said, "Honey, what about this little boy?"  My heart melted that he was even looking at the site!  So, I read the profile and thought "sure...why not".  But I must admit, that my heart was still a little saddened at the loss of Kirill.

Well, Danny goes into the bedroom to lay down and I got on my computer.  I decided to do a cut and paste, side by side that picture of Sasha next to Coby because I thought they definitely could pass as brothers.  I emailed that to Danny (Yes, he was just in the other room!) and he emailed me back saying, "Let's do it!".  I emailed him back that I would call New Horizon's the next morning and he emailed me back saying, "Let's pray".  Yes, we are a couple of dorks emailing when we are almost touching distance from each other!  Sixteen minutes after Danny sent me the email about praying, my phone rings.  Keep in mind that it is now almost nine o'clock at night.  I answered my phone and it was a lady from New Horizons.  Also keep in mind that I had already spoken to someone from New Horizons, so there should have been no reason for them to be calling me.  And, the lady that was calling was neither of the lady's I had originally left a message for!  Coincidence?  Surely not...our God is greater than a coincidence!  By the end of the call, we had put Sasha on hold for hosting and were working to print out our 22 page application to send in.

Since November 1st, we have contacted a couple of adoption agencies to find out about possibly adopting Sasha.  Come to find out, this country is one of the most difficult countries to adopt a child from.  It is one of the most expensive (between $45k and $60k...yikes!!!), requires the most paperwork and is the most difficult to deal with.  However, when I told Danny that, his response was..............well, maybe I will have him tell his side of the story.

Needless to say, we are bringing Sasha here on December 13th for almost 5 weeks to love on him, give him Hope and show him Jesus Christ!  We are going to pursue adopting him and if that is the Lord's Will, then we will welcome him into our home and give him that "forever family" that he so greatly deserves. 

James 1:27  Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and windows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.