Waiting- The begining of the story until now

So not the news that I wanted to start out this blog, but just need to write it out and get it out. We have worked since last fall putting together everything we needed to begin an adoption from Ukraine. We went by faith that God would lead us to the children that He had for us. We started the homestudy, so that we would be ready to file as soon as God led us.
We began looking at the kids who would come for Christmas hosting as soon as they came available. We emailed and called to get as much information as we could on several children who we thought would fit in our family. After speaking with other adoptive families and the girls from Open Arms Ukraine we chose Yaroslav and Sergiy.

Yaroslav was already 15 and due to turn 16 in March. He did not have much time left to find a family. That is part of the reason we hurried to get our paperwork ready, so we could file the immigration paperwork before his birthday. We were told what an amazing boy he is despite living his whole life in the orphanage. They told us of how kind he was and how he was a mentor to the younger children in the orphanage. How he wanted to learn the guitar and loved to draw and paint. He really sounded like a terrific big brother for TJ.
Sergiy was the other boy we chose after speaking with his best friend's new mom. He was 14 and will turn 15 this fall. While the Spiker family was adopting Sergiy's best friend, Sergei, they met our Sergiy and had great things to say about him as well. How he was well mannered and gave up his chair for Amber. That he also was a sweet boy and they were very impressed with him and had hopes that a family would choose him for Christmas hosting. We also found out that he likes to skateboard, which was fun for TJ and Bekka who also want to get better at skateboarding. And to be able to skateboard he had to be resourceful and put together his own skateboard from spare parts.
Both families who had adopted their friends noted that they would not have hesitated to go back and adopt these two if time and money were not an issue. It certainly gave us confidence that they were the ones we should host. We also heard from the Open Arms girls how much they loved each of these boys and that they both wanted families.
Waiting for them to come was painful. It seemed forever until their arrival day. When they came, we were so excited. They had no hesitation about leaving with our family and gave hugs easily. As we left the airport, Sergiy asked me in perfect English what my name was and where we lived. I had given them the names of the rest of the family, but forgot mine. I told him my name and that we lived in Pennsylvania. I will never forget how his face lit up when I told him this. I know he was excited to be close to his best friend Sergei who lives out near Pittsburgh.
I was so excited that we had made plans to get together with Sergei's family!
The days of hosting were full and sweet. Both boys were so patient with TJ and did not get annoyed by him. They were helpful and willing to do what they were asked. They accepted affection and gave great hugs back to us. They were familiar with the Bible and knew many Bible stories. They both tried hard to get better at English. Yarik working several hours at a time on Rosetta Stone. Sergiy had us rolling with laughter. Yarik impressed us with how quickly he learned the guitar chords that Dad taught him.
Yarik was always up early, taking his shower and getting ready for the day. Willing to go out and help me take care of our chickens. The cold did not bother them as we played a bit of soccer in the yard or basketball in the driveway. They were enthusiastic about everything. They both loved to watch movies with us as a family, eat popcorn and snuggle on the couch. They were a little hesitant about joining us on the harder ski slopes, but by the second trip, they were both adept at the green trails. No more bunny hill for them.
I was especially proud when I offered them photo albums. All the other host children we had chose simple slip in photo albums. But not Yarik and Sergiy, they both wanted real scrapbooks...Loved this! They both worked hard to decorate their pages and fill them with photos from our time together. What a treasure for them to keep while they waited for us to come back.
As NHFC rules do not allow us to talk of adoption, we could not tell them how much we wanted them to be a permanent part of our family. But they did their best to let us know they wanted to be part of ours. Twice Sergiy was looking at our family photos and pointed to himself and said, "Sergiy Rhoads." The second time, Yarik was there and added our name to his as well. I had to bite my tongue so that I would not let it slip that I wanted it as much as they did.
Fortunately, we only had a few weeks to wait after they left until we were able to see them again. This time was bittersweet. We were able to talk to both boys about our desire to adopt them. Both said yes without any hesitation and were very happy. Unfortunately, the orphanage director who had once been very supportive of American adoptions, had for some reason had a change of heart and closed down the hosting program for their orphanage. She had also intended to send Yarik to a different orphanage where he could go to school longer, but would be separated from Sergiy, which would make our pending adoption more difficult. Although she would not change her mind about letting the boys come for the summer hosting, she did agree to let Yarik remain at her orphanage until we could come and adopt both boys together. We also had only a very short time with them as she was not interested in letting us spend time with the kids more than necessary. It was so hard to say good-bye to them again, knowing this time it would be a long time until we would see them again.
Fortunately, God blessed us with a way to call Yarik on his cell phone. So we are able to talk and text. Occasionally we do a 3 way call with a translator so we can really get past the simple Love you and Miss you conversations.
We do know that they are waiting for us to come and want us there so much. They keep asking, when are you coming. Which is the same question I am asking God! When can we go!
Which brings us to today. For some reason there was a hiccup in our paperwork and our dossier got kicked back. We are scrambling to figure out what happened to some missing papers and how we can get them turned back in again to be able to move forward again. It seems like we should still be there the first week in September, but that is later than I had hoped. God is in control and He knows exactly where the paperwork is and what needs to happen and what day we need to be there. I am telling my heart, but it is tough to make it listen when it longs to have those two very loved boys back in my arms!!!