From a broken heart...

Today was a very hard day.  My heart is broken right now and I can't put into words the loss I am feeling.  I have pretty much lost a child.  Let me start from the beginning of my day.

I had been trying to contact the girl who was going to help tutor Sasha and had no luck.  Finally this morning, the mom of the family she was staying with called me and told me she went back to Germany today.  Wow!  That was a huge blessing for us to have someone to help tutor him and someone we could call in case we were struggling with something he is trying to tell us....just call Dina, put Sasha on the phone & she'll translate.  Now that is not going to happen since she is back in Germany.  That was hard to take but not as hard as the second call I had to take 2 hours later.  New Horizons called and told me that Sasha would not be coming.  He and 12 other children from his orphanage did not show up to get their Visas.  When New Horizons called the orphanage to find out what happened, the orphanage told them the children are not coming.  No reason, they are just refusing to send them.

Wow!  I can only say that receiving that news was like if you'd have told me something happened to Coby. However, I have to rest on the fact that God loves this child more than we do.
And he is in control.

Matthew 6:26. Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap It store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

I have to rest in that fact because I know with every fiber of being within me that God didn't open door after door to turn around and slam them all shut...permanently. He is very clear in His word that we are to take care of the orphans....be a father to the fatherless. Show them the love of Christ. And that's what we intend to do. We just don't know how or when but we will not be defeated.

My heart just breaks for a little boy on the other side of the world who won't have a family to love on him this Christmas. My heart also breaks for a nine year old little boy who wanted Sasha to come more than me and Danny combined. I pray that we can remain strong for him and I pray that he realizes that God is in control, even when things don't go our way. His ways are not our ways. Please pray for us as we share the news with Coby and as we have an empty place in our hearts this Christmas for Sasha. We love that little boy and haven't even met him yet.