Thank You, Lord, for answering Isaac's prayer to bring an orphan to our doorstep,
for leading Jenny to call and ask us to pray for them as they considered adopting a teen from Ukraine,
for guiding the Houser family to our email address and sharing Luda with us,
for the garage sales and the T-shirts and the hearts that were stirred on our behalf that funded our beginning and inspired our faith in what You could do,
Thank You for Your perfect timing,
for the hiccups that kept us from traveling before we were meant to,
for providing us the opportunity to visit with family we haven't seen in awhile,
for lending us extra time to arrive at this more prepared place in our hearts for what is about to come,
Thank You for our prayer warriors,
for answering their petitions to carry us through the lengthy period of waiting
and through the rushed week of gearing up to go,
for those families who have already been and who took time out of their busy schedules to advise and prepare us so we're able to go "better",
Thank You for providing the perfect school for Luda,
for leading us to a group of educators and peers who see this adoption from Your Perspective as well,
who are willing to go the extra mile just so our daughter will feel instantly welcomed and loved,
and, most importantly, who will guide her alongside of us to come to know You more deeply
Thank You, Father God, for working in my parents' hearts,
for giving them a desire to be more intimately involved,
for arranging their visit when You did, before we even knew our date, so we would have them to pray with us and see us off,
for allowing them to see Your Hand in all of this that we've been witnessing all along,
Thank You for the church,
for the body of people who came together on our behalf to provide all that remained at the EXACT time we needed it,
for fortifying our faith through all of their faithfulness and words of encouragement,
for their support and prayers covering us even now,
and for using even the hearts of believing strangers to speak life into us.
Thank You for showing us Your Sovereignty over the hearts of all men,
whether they reciprocate Your love or not, You've proven that You can still use them while orchestrating Your will,
to support and facilitate the work You're doing with us,
Thank You, Jesus, for all of the miracles,
for Tony's clearance to travel to a country in crisis...a clearance that generally requires at least 30 days to process yet extraordinarily took only 4,
for the gathering of everything we needed in such a small amount of time,
for safely flying out of America despite record-breaking winter storms on our tail,
for safe accommodations while residing in a war-ridden part of the world,
Thank You for this amazing experience,
for allowing us all to live outside of our comfort zone these next few weeks, that we may have a greater understanding of how Luda will initially feel when in America,
for this opportunity to show our boys a world outside of their norm
and for their uncanny ability to acclimate to it all so quickly,
Thank You for carrying us through our first appointment,
for the completeness of Luda's records and for her astounding good health,
for her intake picture from just four years ago that revealed such a pain and loss in her eyes,
as we are even more confident in the healing You're Presence in her life has so obviously accomplished already,
Thank You for Luda,
for her wide-open heart that seems more-than-ready and excited to receive us,
for her story that You'll undoubtedly use for Your glory, to draw more hearts to You,
and for choosing our family and so many others to play a part in it!!!
Most importantly, thank You for You!
for loving us and using us despite the messes we are,
for traversing oceans to give us a daughter and our daughter a family,
and for the hearts that will hopefully be touched to rescue more orphans and to be rescued by You.
<3
