The days and weeks rolled by and our thoughts occasionally tuned to Edgars and wondered how things were going for him and his new family. Lana and I would sometime talk about what if’s, and felt that even though James had a severe reticence about adoption he has such a big heart that once a new child would join our family everything would work out. We both agreed maybe it was for the best, we such a wonderful family and the relationships between the 3 of us were just right. An additional child might mess that up and I don’t want to do anything that would cost me my relationship with my son.
February 1st came and went, and we normally purchase our plane tickets to Ukraine for James’ 2-month summer vacation and Lana’s mission work in Ukraine. In the last 2 years, I had been unable to go visit and this year I was going to be able to get the time off work and go also. Lana’s Grandmother was getting up there and had had a tough winter and we desperately wanted to see her again. She was such a special person and who knows how many years she was going to have left. But in spite of all this we just never got around to purchasing our plane tickets.
Then it happened. On a peaceful Saturday morning, I received an email from Jennifer about Edgars that ROCKED my world. I happened to be talking to a friend right after I received the email and in hopes of any ideas on how to break this to my wife. It took me until Sunday afternoon to tell her. She was laying out in the yard reading on a blanket when I just went over to her and told her about the email.
She took the news much better than I had hoped. She immediately was open to moving forward again but in a much different manner. The first time there was a fire, a desire to have this boy, almost like a possession; this time there was a much different drive in her. This time it is about a little boy who needed a mom, a child that needed a family, and a mom who needed another child to smother with love. Me being the know-it-all that I am had to tell Lana, I told you so, if God intended us to have this boy in our family we would. :) Lana was much more reserved about moving forward this time. She said we need to meet with three Spirit-filled people we trust. We met with two of the couples and got a great deal of guidance and advice and Lana needed to speak with one of her spiritual mentors. Again, I felt completely at peace with the path we were on. Generally, I see things very clearly, and once I make a decision, I move forward with confidence but rarely do I feel the peace and inexorable pull I have felt with Edgars’ situation. It will not be easy, and there are many challenges I am not sure how we will overcome but we are moving in the right direction. Lana began to pray many times each day looking for a sign, but there wasn’t any. Finally, she prayed one big prayer and was waiting for the Word or sign from the Lord.

Then Thursday came. (I cannot remember if I have mentioned, Edgars wants to sound more American in his name, so he calls himself Eddie). Thursday morning’s Lana goes to a woman’s Bible study and on this particular day, they had a guest who is one of our closest friends. He works with a ministry called Sav-A-Life and travels all over the country and world with the founder Wales Goebels. Wales and he just returned from Africa where they had spent a great deal of time ministering and exploring mission needs. They had taken clothes and other items to give out to the needy there and of course they took many pictures. Well on this Thursday, our friend came to share with the Women what they had seen and done. He passed around many pictures and as Lana looked through them, she was thunderstruck! On one particular photo there were many people gathered under a tree in the shade. The picture was truly way too dark; you couldn’t make out the details at all. Some of the faces were barely visible but you really had to look closely. There was a small part of this photo that stood out. One of the people held a white plastic bag like you get from the upscale retail stores with their name printed on it. Now, I have traveled quite a bit, but I have never heard of a store by the name printed on that bag that showed up so bright and clear. The name on that bag was ”Edgars”, and the name of the man who brought those pictures was Eddie. This was the sign Lana needed in God’s perfect timing. She had her sign, it felt right, we were at peace with the feeling this was the direction God was leading us. So, we moved forward.
The next step was to meet with Jennifer and Joel to get to know them and them to get to know us. We wanted all of the information we could before we officially moved forward with hosting. The meeting was both momentous and anti-climactic. Lana and I felt at ease with Joel and Jennifer, we covered all of the issues surrounding any child that would be coming to visit. There were no big problems we felt would be too difficult to overcome and we started to get so excited. The 2 largest problems we faced were this mission was totally out of the blue for us and we were not prepared financially and Lana’s Grandmother was ill and this would be our last summer to go see her. Through the generous help of Friends and people who were touched by Edgars' story we were able to come up with the support we needed to be able to host him. Lana’s Grandmother passed away followed very quickly by her Grandfather. We were all devastated by this but God was taking them home and removed all of the obstacles and guilt we might have felt.
The days and weeks have gone by, James' heart has been changing towards Edgars specifically and hosting in general. Lana and I are moving forward knowing we don’t know anything for sure except we are supposed to host this little boy. Only God knows what the future truly holds.
Please tune in for further updates on our journey.