How it all began

The idea of adoption came to me (Svetlana) when I was a little girl living in Russia. I heard that there were children in orphanages and nobody loved them. I asked my parents if we could adopt a little brother for me (I have an older sister). My parents didn't want to adopt any children; life in Russia was hard. My mom said, "when you grow up, you can adopt if you want to". Later when I was in high school we had one day a week to try some jobs to see if we wanted to choose that career for life. One year I chose to be a nurse. We were offered to work at the baby house. When I saw all the children there, my tears stuck in my throat. Some babies were pretty healthy, some babies were sick, some had very serious disabilities. No, I couldn't work there. I would cry every day. That day I decided: when I grow up and if I have a good marriage I will adopt a child.
In 2002 I came to the USA and married The man of my life, Bob. We decided to wait for children. Then one day my sister in Russia became a widow with three sons and pregnant with #4. She wanted to get an abortion but I talked her out of it. I said that we can adopt her child and raise him as our own. I started to learn about adoption from Russia. When the baby was born my sister decided to keep him. But I was already "pregnant" with this idea. I couldn't just stop. We decided to adopt a baby from my hometown Volgograd in Russia. It would take A LOT of money. Bob suggested to pray that God would show us the right direction. So I did. The very next day one of my coworkers told me about an American missionary from Ukraine who visited her Sunday scohool about a month ago and talked about older orphans in Ukraine. In my head I was thinking "I want to adopt a baby from Russia and I will let somebody else to adopt older children from Ukraine". That evening I was working at home at my sewing machine (I am a seamstress) and I got a bad headache that grew in 5 seconds. It was God hitting me on the head. "Hey, I gave you the answer and you ignore it!" I got it then! The process of adoption from Ukraine was a little easier, faster and much cheaper. So, in February 2008 we brought our 10 y.o. daughter Anastasia from Balta, Ukraine. Our trip took exactly one month. We all got sick with a cold, Anastasia and I had an ear infection. Have you ever flown with an ear infection? I did! Bob and I visited my family in Russia during 10 day waiting period. On the way back to Ukraine I thought I was dying. I had a VERY bad pain in my ears and head. I thought my head was going to blow up right there in the airplane. So, we all went to the doctor and got all kinds of prescriptions. Three times a day I had to give out pills, put nose drops or ear drops or all together to everybody. I was very tired! And I was VERY happy to come back home. I was thinking " NEVER AGAIN! Never again I will go to Ukraine to adopt!" Guess what? Never say "never"! We are doing it again! We are in the middle of our paperwork. We want to adopt another girl (or two), a little sister for Anastasia. We are praying that God would bring us to our new daughter, that He would provide all the necessary funds for adoption, that we don't have any big road blocks in our process. God, help us!