Ye love

See the red heart? Donetsk, Ukraine, there on the Russian border, holds a special place in our hearts, and always will. Our dear boy was born 7 years ago, at a Maternity home in Donetsk, in a small coal mining town. We know from legal documents that the day after his birthday, his parents left him at the Maternity home. From the Maternity home he was transferred to his baby orphanage where from legal documents we know his parents were asked to make contact with him. Right before he turned a year old, because of being abandoned at the Maternity home and his parents refusal to have any contact, parental rights were taken away and our darling boy fell into the Ukrainian system. From the baby orphanage and at the age of almost five, he was transferred to Torez, level four institution where he remained until we were blessed to call him our son, March of last year.

After  10 months of being home, today, we started the process of trying to locate and possibly trying to establish contact with Dmitriy's birth family. We are hopeful in the Lord that they will desire communication with us, though we understand that they may not share in those desires.

Some parents who have adopted Internationally do choose to locate their child's birth family, while others do not. It is very much a personal decision each adoptive family has to make for themselves and there are many things to consider. We have friends who have chosen the path we have and we also have friends who would not dare to dream of our path.

For those who do search, sometimes the family is located, communication is established, sometimes they even get the blessing of meeting one another and some even remain in contact. Sometimes a search is done but because of lack of information, lack of willingness for the birth family to participate, lack of honesty, or sometimes even the sad reality of drugs, alcohol, or even death of the birth parents, things do not work out.

Tonight, I wanted to briefly share with you our reason for prayerfully searching for our son's family.

Jesus Christ

 "Whom having not seen, ye love...." 1 Peter 1:8

We know some, but very little information about our son's birth family. We have names, birth dates, the general  information. We do not know the reasons they made the decision to leave their son at the Maternity home and never inquire about him again. The decision they made almost cost our son his life. It is very painful to think of the condition he was in when we got him to the states back in March.A condition that cost him 3 weeks in the hospital. I would often think..."Did his mom have any idea that leaving him would almost cost him his life" "If she would have known, would she have still left him?". I would also ask myself "Does she think about him at all, 7 years later, does she wonder?" (His birth family does know he was adopted by an American family.) I still do ask myself those questions and others. Maybe oneday I will know honest answers, maybe not. I do know that God knows all the answers and that in fact, I do not have to have all the answers. God has a plan for our son's life, a beautiful plan. I do also know that above all these questions, stands my love for his family. I love them.

As his mom, those questions arise, yet above my place as his momma is my place as a Christian. And as a Christian I have a burden for the souls of my son's family. I love them as if they were my family. How again might this be possible?

Jesus Christ

"Whom having not seen, ye love...."  1 Peter 1:8 

  

It is solely by the Grace of God that in Dec. 2000 God had mercy upon me. We very much desire that same mercy to be shown to our son's family. Yes, we have questions, yes, we want to some how "fit" all the pieces together from his past. Yet above all that, we desire our son's family to have forgiveness of sins, to have eternal life, and to have hope.

 Hope is something we saw so little of in Ukraine, yet something we could give them, through Christ alone.

"That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Ephesians 2:12

Please pray for our son's family, pray specifically for their souls. Yes, we would love for them to be located, for us to have communication and to oneday have the blessing of meeting them, if that be what the Lord would have We are aware that the "chances" are small that all that would ever come to be.. And if not, then that is ok, actually it is better than ok, it is good because God has a plan and we trust the Lord in that too.  Above all, we desire for them this same hope.

"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:27

Torez, Ukraine. A couple hours down the road from our son's family.

"We love him, because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19