FFF-Hope

"The power of HOPE is a beautiful thing. It gives us something to look forward to on our darkest days. It is a light in the darkness. It is the anticipation of good things to come."-Heather"Faithfull Froggers"

Above is a quote from the inspiration of this weeks theme-Hope. I have to say that this one threw me for a loop, and although I could come up with a lot of things in my life that give me hope, I couldn't find a picture that could quite describe the amazing topic of "Hope".


So, I will describe a time in my life, where there was great hope, and share a few meaningful pictures from that time of great hope.

You see, although we have one bio child, and three beautiful and amazing children adopted from Guatemala, there was a time in our life that I thought we would be going to a completely different country to find the children that God always meant to be ours-Russia.

I can remember the excitement, and hope we had while filling out paperwork, or as many of you know, the dossier, and waiting to receive our referral. A lot went on during that long year of waiting, with the closing and reopening of the adoption process in Russia, and at last, in July of 2005, we received two photos-one of a toddler boy, and one of a baby girl.

In August of 2005, we boarded a plane to Russia with our hearts bursting with joy in anticipation of meeting our new son and daughter. We were ecstatic, and the hope that filled our hearts was overflowing.

Every thing we saw represented hope, and I can't even begin to express to you in words the feelings of excitement, joy and hope we were experiencing as we arrived at the orphanage in Izhevsk, Russia!

The beautiful fields of sunflowers that lined the highways(2 lane, very rough roads) to the orphanage

The orphanage

Clothes hanging out to dry in the yard of the orphanage.

The playground at the orphanage

To make a long story short, we came home shattered and broken, and the children we thought would be ours, were in truth not meant to be.

And for a short while,our days were dark, as our hope was gone.

In early September of 2005, we received a new referral picture, of a beautiful baby boy living in Guatemala. With our hope renewed, we accepted the referral of this sweet little guy, and our journey that is journaled in this blog, to a family of 6 began...

Caleb Michael born August 24, 2005-the day after we arrived home from Russia.

You see, we were really never meant to go to Russia, and why the Lord sent us there, is beyond me. Hopefully one day he will reveal to me the reasons, but for now, I know that Guatemala is where my children were always waiting for me.

Maya Mishelle

Sofia Grace