How Did This Happen?

Below are a couple of pictures from one of our fun visits with Vitalik and Lera before any of the kids knew of our intention to adopt.  My favorite picture is the one where everyone is going crazy as we TRY to get them to pose.  :o)

Finally, everyone cooperates. :o)

Lest we forget the amazing events of the past month that have brought us from "completely sure that our family was complete" to "eagerly awaiting the arrival of our two new kids," let me attempt to document events as best I can.

8-15-2010 (Sunday)  Woke up expecting another ordinary day.  After church, Eugene mentioned that our friends, Evan and Jack, were playing in a concert at a park in the afternoon.  I had slated the afternoon for much needed rest (the boys had just completed their first week of Kindergarten and 2nd grade, and had been at their cousins' house for a sleepover on Saturday night.  In an uncharacteristic move, I opted to forgo their rest, saying, "What the heck, let's all go, it'll be fun."

We had no idea that the concert was part of a field day for a group of orphans visiting from Ukraine.  When we read the front cover of a flyer for the program (http://www.redlineunited.org/), something unexplainable happened to Eugene and me.  When the concert was over, we couldn't leave; we had to find out more.  We learned that the kids would be returning to Ukraine in just a few days.  We picked up a flyer telling about the kids for whom program sponsors still hoped to find families.  Siblings Lera and Vitalik were on the front page.  We never turned to page 2.

As we drove away from the event, many things were clicking: 
- We recognized Lera as the girl who had been sitting near us at the concert.
- Her name was Lera!  I had planned to have a daughter named Laura (after my mom) since I was a little girl.  Each of our three boys would have been named Laura, had they been a girl. 
- I had always joked that in our next life, we would start earlier, have two kids, wait several years, and then have some more.  (From a distance, families of this design look very appealing to me - in my imagination, the older kisd are SO helpful with the younger siblings!)  Maybe we were actually supposed to have this family make-up in THIS life.  :o) 
- For the past year or so, I had been walking around praying, "Show me something I can fix."  Was this it?
- Eugene, ordinarily a serious planner, provider, and general worrier, looked at me and said, "Well, let's think.  It would wreck our whole plan for retirement - I don't care.  I would never play golf again - I don't care.  I would never go on another trip - I don't care."  We were just seeing the world through a different lense.
- We both knew that we had to meet them. 

8-16-2010:  Monday night, Lera, Vitalik, and their host family (an awesome young couple named Eleni and Adam) came for a cookout at our house.  It was a great night.  Vitalik played soccer in our back yard against a very happy Spencer and Heath.  Lera tried out our hammock and attempted to get a very shy Mason to be her friend.  We enjoyed a nice dinner, followed by a great episode of "Wipeout" on tv.

Although Vitalik and Lera new only a few English phrases, like, "Nice to meet you", "Thank you",  "Good Job" (accompanied by a big thumbs up), it was obvious that they are gorgeous, friendly, bright, generally delightful kids - certainly kids who deserve a break - a chance - a family.  When they left that night, I looked at Eugene and said, "That boy could be the CEO of a company." (Vitalik has as much natural charisma as any person I've ever met.)  And Lera was so sweet and beautiful... could it be that God actually DID have a daughter in store for us afterall?!

So I guess that the rest, as they say, is history.  After meeting them, we spent a couple of days waiting for sanity to set in, and as you can see, it never did.  :o) 

8-17-2010:  We visited on Tuesday in various combinations over a movie, Heath's t-ball game, and Lera/Vitalik's karate class. 

8-18-2010:  Wednesday morning, we decided to stop torturing ourselves and just admit that we were going to do it.  After a fun time at Eleni and Adam's pool, all kids went home and learned of our plans to adopt.  We told the Cline boys, who were immediatly offernig to share their rooms, and their sleeping bags.  Eleni and Adam told Lera and Vitalik, with the help of Google Translator.  The report we heard was that both kids were totally surprised and very happy.  :o)

8-19-2010:  Thursday, Eugene and I hung out at the airport for a couple of hours before the kids departed for Ukraine with all members of their group.  We learned to say, "I love you." in Russian.  As I understand it, every child in the group left the country with a family who hoped to adopt them.  For more details about this wonderful ministry, visit http://www.redlineunited.org/.