A Dozen!!!

It is so hard to believe, but my oldest child turns 12 today! Happy birthday, Shana! We are so thankful that God has blessed our lives with you - you are a beautiful girl, inside and out. In honor of this special day, here is a walk down memory lane:

Whew - time flies! We love you so much, Shana, and hope you have a wonderful 12th birthday! 

For all you are, and all you'll be

For everything you mean to me

Though I don't understand

I know you're from the Father's hand.

How can it be, that you are you?

He thought you up and so you grew

Because you're mine, it must be true

That He was thinking of me too.

-Michael Card 

There Is a Family I'd Like You to Meet......Vitaly's!!!

Ok, so you all remember this little guy, right?

And how he came to us for Christmas and stayed for a month and blessed us and changed our lives and became a part of our family and then went back to his orphanage in Ukraine? Well, as I mentioned before, Vitaly has a family! (Even though he doesn't know it yet). Today, I am honored to introduce you to them.....please meet the Selman family! Here is what April, Vitaly's mom, has to say:

Well....we are adopting again.  Two precious boys who live in Ukraine.  They are 10 and 11 years old and they stole our hearts 15 months ago.  In December, 2011, we had started the process to adopt them just days before I got my diagnosis of stage 3 metastatic melanoma.  That was such a shock to us and we put the adoption on hold to give us time to get our bearings and to get me through my surgery and the 12 months of treatment.  In anticipation of me finishing up the treatment this month, we restarted the process a while ago.  We felt and still feel that God is calling us to adopt the boys and are stepping out in faith and welcoming the boys into our family.  We know many people will think we are crazy.  Melanoma is a scary and unpredictable cancer.  I know of people who have only lived for a few months after diagnosis and I know of people who are alive years after their diagnosis.  But, really, none of us knows how long we have on this earth.  We do know, if these boys are not adopted, that they will face a very bleak future.  For now, I am NED (no evidence of disease) and we feel like we are the family for them.  We do not know how it will all work out, but we do not have to know.  Please pray for us and for the boys as we move forward.

Now let me back us with our story for those of you who do not know us well.  Scott and I have been married for more than 20 years.  We have four biological kids, ages 18, 19, 20, and 24.  We homeschooled all of them and loved most every minute of it.  In 2009, Scott and I began to feel called to more than what we were doing.  We prayed and sought God's will and felt led to fostering children.  We have since decided God only gives you tidbits of His plan at a time, probably because we can not handle the entire picture all at once!  So our plan was to foster, loving and caring for the children until their families were prepared to take them back.  NO intentions of adopting and starting over!  In February, 2010, we got the call about Jocelyn and Ellie Grace.  They came to us at 3 1/2 years and 5 days old.  In July, 2012, we finalized their adoption.  They have truly been such a blessing to our family.

We are nervous and excited at the same time at the prospect of adding two more children...but mostly excited.  They will make 8 children for us, hence the name of the blog (onourwayto8).  Pictures are coming - when I figure out this whole blogging thing.  Thanks for your prayers for us and for the boys.

To those of you who have followed Vitaly's story, could you do me a favor? Could you head on over to the Selman family's blog (click here) and leave them a comment of encouragement? I'm sure they would appreciate it, and I know that some day Vitaly will love looking back and reading messages from people who loved him and enjoyed following his story. Thank you so much! Let's keep them in our prayers as they work to bring these dear boys home!!!

Want to Be a Part of the Bigger Picture?

Many of you followed our story of Vitaly, the orphan boy from Ukraine that we hosted over Christmas. And many of you read of the ripple effect that his visit had, and how God was using it all to help create the bigger story. Because he came to us, at least 2 more orphans will find their forever families. Read the story of Garth and Crystal, a family that we met while Vitaly was here, who have decided to adopt a child from Ukraine:

Garth and I have been married for 12 years this June. We have three wonderful children, aged 8, 6 and 4, plus some great relationships with exchange students that we have hosted. I have wanted to adopt my whole life, I have always felt God’s calling for adoption. Whenever I spoke to Garth about it he was never very interested. I prayed to God to change Garth’s heart. I was so convicted of the call, but God wasn’t changing Garth’s mind! There were literally nights in the last five years where I would wake up with tears trailing down my face, climb out of bed, prostrate myself on the floor and PRAY for MY CHILD that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was out there. Were they warm, were they fed? This is what was plaguing my mind. Finally, in February 2012, I changed my prayer. I asked for God to remove the urgency I was feeling if it wasn’t what He had for us in that moment. I felt instant peace! It was amazing, no sooner had I finished my prayer than GOD answered. I spend 11 months in peace about it.

Flash forward to January 2013. I was browsing Facebook and saw a picture. It was of a boy that was being hosted through an orphan hosting program. The post said he needed a family. He was older than the baby that I had always envisioned, but it was like God whispered in my soul, “what if?” I decided to ask Garth what he would think about meeting V; I was shocked! Garth was game for it! We spent a wonderful day at the park with V and his host family. When we got home that night, Garth said, “Why not? Let’s go for it!” I was amazed! I had given God the desire of my heart and He gave it back to me!

We called V’s family and told them our plans, they were thrilled. The next day, though, we got a call saying there had been some wires crossed; V was in the process of being adopted. We were so happy for him. I was left wondering if Garth would still be game and HE WAS! We are now in the process of trying to adopt D, who is 7years old. There are no guarantees in Ukraine as to who you will get. We need to send our dossier and request a referral with D. Hopefully that will happen. If it doesn’t, though we are trusting God to use D to bring us closer to who we are supposed to have.

Things have gone very smoothly and quickly so far and we thank God. We could be traveling as soon as mid-May! Wow! Whereas we feel emotionally ready, we know that we have a ways to go to be financially ready; we also know the expenses don’t stop when we come home, so that is why we are trying to raise what support that we can.

Garth and Crystal Sponseller

Would you like to help them bring their child home? Please visit their blog at http://openheartsopenhands.blogspot.com/ to make a donation. Also, Crystal is selling adorable heart-shaped, homemade lotion bars to help fund their adoption. They are $6, and come in cute little tins with the verse "God sets the lonely in families - Psalm 68:6" printed on them in both English and Ukrainian. Visit Crystal's Etsy site here to order.

The Master Artist.....

Recently, I found these beautiful, amazing images of magnified snowflakes on Pinterest. The photos were taken by Beltsville Agricultural Research Center using a frozen microscope.

The Research Center also notes, "...man-made snow doesn’t vary in shape like natural snow does, and, in fact, doesn’t even look like natural snow at all when magnified. It’s just little blobs…"

Only God can make all things beautiful. He puts so many amazing details into something as small as a snowflake; how much more does He care about the details of the lives of His children? It brought to mind the verse:

"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." Luke 16:10.

And my God most definitely is faithful. In all things.

A Short and Sweet Interview.....

Chris and I have been taking turns going on one-on-one dates with the kids. Last night was Malia's turn, so she and I went to Fort Wayne, where we ate dinner and did a little shopping. Between dozens of tic-tac-toe games and bites of our salad and sandwiches once our meal arrived, I asked her some questions. Here are some of her responses:

1. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?
     -Disney World!

2. What do you want to be when you grow up?
     -A storekeeper.

3. What kind of a store?
     -Meijer

4. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
     - No more orphans!

5. If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?
     -Give it to poor people.

6. If you could meet anyone in the world, who would it be?
     -Well, he's not in the world, he's up in heaven. God.

Love this girl! She's my little angel.