About us...Russie and Cheri
We met in highschool and have been together ever since. We have been married for 9 years and have 4 beautiful children of our own. Gracie, (Age 7) Bubba (Age 6), Laynie ( Age 4 ) and Madison ( Age 3 ) We have a full and happy life. It was about 9 months ago, when my Mother and Father in law were in the midst of their adoption process, that our eyes started being open to it . Before that, we had never really talked about adoption at length. We were made believers' in adoption very quickly when we saw Russ and Lori go through the process and bring their new daughter, Ana, home. When they were in the Ukraine the first time, they got to meet children and took many pictures. There was one little guy in particular that caught our eye right away. We were instantly drawn to him, and he consumed our thoughts and hearts for the months to follow. We prayed about him and strongly felt that we needed to find out all the info on him we could, and go from there. When Lori went back for the second trip, she met him, spent some time with him and retained some information on him for us. After about 2 months of not knowing for sure if he was adoptable, it ended with a phone call one morning, that said his Aunt came back in the picture when we voiced we wanted to adopt him, and she is now going to pursue adopting him. We never would have thought in just a few short months, that our hearts would not only be drawn to adopt this child, but in the end that we would feel great heartbreak when we couldn't adopt him. God opened our hearts in a way that we had never felt before, we saw these kids how he sees them. For a brief time, we felt that Love that we could possibly give that little boy, and were crushed when we couldn't give it to him. That was the first step in transforming our hearts for adoption. After Russ and Lori returned with Ana, and we saw how precious she was and how she fit so easily into the family, our hearts once again were warmed to the idea of adoption. The next step for us, was helping to plan and prepare for the 21 orphans that were coming here to the lodge, in Tyrone, for a hosting camp. Throughout this whole preparation period, we were praying for our hearts to remain open, and if God had something in his plan for us with these kids, that he would show us. When they arrived, and we started interacting with them, we knew that there was something life changing in store for us and our family. With God's guidance, and spending time with these kids, we were drawn to 2 sisters, 12 and 13 years old, and ended up having them in our home for almost two weeks. We were truly blessed by the time we had with them here, and were sad to see them have to go back. At first, we didn't really see two teenage girls in our plan, but we told God we would trust in his plan and follow his lead. It was quickly evident why he had chosen these two, beautiful, tenderhearted girls for our family. They are so giving, so willing to help, and instantly loved our small children. We got the opportunity to see how our family would function with these two girls being a part of it, and it made perfect sense. We now sit here and think about all the details and all the changes to come and can't imagine it any other way. We feel like we have the most important asset to offer these girls, loving them the way God loves them. He has trusted us enough, to show them his Love and for that, we will be forever grateful and changed. For the first time, we feel as if God has called us for "more." We have been blessed with four, beautiful and healthy kids of our own and would have lived a happy and abundant life with our family the way it was. But, when God gave us the next piece of our puzzle and showed us these kids, we knew that our family was not yet complete. We are excited and blessed by the opportunity to make these girls a part of our family. They have a lot to offer us and teach us and our children, and we are feeling like our life is gaining a new appreciation and new meaning. This camp has truly changed our life, not only are we gaining 2 beautiful daughters, we are gaining a little brother named Dema, who my Mom and Eric are adopting, and we are also gaining another Sister and brother, Lena and Eddick, who Russ and Lori are adopting, not to mention, all the friends who will be joining all these kids, who are being adopted as well. We are so excited for this new journey and to be walking his path...
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