About a year after we married, I had the opportunity to help some friends at a camp for kids from various orphanages in the region north of Kyiv. There I met Maxim, who was almost 10 years old at the time. We connected right away, and a few weeks later I brought my husband back to meet him. Half a year later, after countless documents, court procedures and required classes, we brought him home as our son.
During that time I got pregnant with our first baby, and about six months after joining our family, Maxim got a little sister, Liza Joy. Without knowing it, our sweet girl has brought about more change in Maxim’s life than we could ever hope for as parents. In her sweet innocence as a baby, she gave him the opportunity to love and be loved that he missed in his early life. I thank God for using Liza (and later her younger brother and sister) to show Maxim His love and His design for the family.
When Liza was one year old I got pregnant with our next child, and we began to pray for a bigger place to live. We had our own apartment at the time, but it was very small (about 360 square feet). Liza slept in our small bedroom, and we divided the small kitchen in half for Maxim to have his own space. We prayed about having a home big enough to have guests over, and with enough bedrooms to adopt more children. God is answering that prayer through HopeHouse International®.
Finally, early this spring, our local social services called to say that a brother and sister from our village had recently received orphan status and were available if we wanted them. Although they were older than we were originally looking for because of our younger kids, we decided to pray and meet them. They fit right in with our family and we decided to pursue their adoption. Nazar and Angelina have now officially been with us for a few months, and we are all adjusting to life as a family of eight!
Raising kids is hard, raising adopted kids is hard, and raising six kids is hard. Our life is extremely full with both of us working full-time and involved in full-time educational ministry. Our kids are 16, 10, 8, 5, 3, and 11 months old. We are always tired at the end of the day. But we are convinced that God calls His children to do hard things and we trust that He will continue to provide the love, patience, and energy that we need to invest in our all of our kids emotionally, physically, and spiritually. We hope that our children will see the value of serving God and others and grow up to do the same.
We are grateful for your prayers for each of us as we strive to live out the gospel in our family.
-Mom
