Ukrainian Adoptions-Always a Surprise

A few days before we left for Ukraine, our facilitator told us something like this: "The only thing you can expect from a Ukrainian adoption is that it WILL NOT happen as you expect. There WILL be surprises, snags, glitches. The unexpected WILL happen." He said that if we can go into in knowing this then we should have a fairly pleasant experience.

We kept waiting to see what our "surprise" would be. Instead our adoption took half the time we expected. The two-trip process turned out to be a one-trip process. We came home with our first referral....the first trip!!! Everything went smoothly. We didn't lose our passports, we didn't get sick, we didn't get mugged, we didn't get lost, we didn't get frostbite. We had hot water, electricity, internet. SDA appointment went great. Court appointment went great. We loved our facilitators. No glitches, no snags, no surprises.

That is, until last week. Our "surprise" came a week after we got home. Apparently we inadvertently came home from Ukraine with TWO children...One is due in October! It was a big shocker to both of us!!! When I took the test, I was so confident it was negative that I forgot about it and about an hour later as I was walking by with piles of laundry, I saw it laying there....with two pink lines!! (I took a second one just to be sure).

While at first I wanted to cry (OK, I did cry)...John reminded me that God does not give us more than we can handle, and children are a blessing from the Lord, even the ones who come when you don't plan or expect them. The first couple of days the kids kept asking why is Mommy crying and why is Daddy laughing? So we told them yesterday. Their reactions were pretty much what we expected. Simeon's eyes got real big and then a big grin spread across his face. Hope said, "Nuh-uh mommy, you do not have a baby in your tummy." Jude jumped up and down and ran over and gave my belly a big hug and said, "Is it a boy or a girl?" Ava just stuck out her tongue and wiggled her fingers. :) And Liesel got really quiet. Sensing something wasn't quite right, I took her on my lap later and asked her how she felt about the new baby. She said, "Well, Mom. I'm happy about it. But what about Ava? She is so cute. Her face is....so cute." I think this translated: "But Mom, will you still love Ava when the new baby comes?"

Tonight, while I knew Liesel was watching me, I went over to Ava, took her cheeks in my hands, and I said, "Ava, guess what? You aren't going to be the baby for long. You are going to be the big sister now too. But don't worry. When the baby comes, I will still think you are the sweetest little Ava in the world, and I will love you just as much as I do right now." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big grin on Liesel's face. What a sweetheart. She just wanted to make sure Ava would not be forgotten.

Of course I question the timing in all this. Seems pretty crazy to me, insane really. However, a friend suggested how helpful it will be for Ava to have somebody to mimic, to follow. It will be like having twins, but babies with Down Syndrome really thrive off of having someone similar to their developmental age to model after. Maybe a younger sibling is just what Ava needed to really reach her full potential. Maybe it was a birth control failure, or a miscalculation, or maybe.....Just maybe the Lord planned it out exactly like this for that very reason. I'd like to think of it as the latter.

So now our "After" photo is back to being our "Before" photo. HA. I am going to have 6 kids!!! My cup runneth over....