Submission Date draws near; Asking for Prayers.

It’s a Monday evening. I’m sitting back relaxed after a bike ride and nice dinner made by my beautiful wife, with my feet up on the coffee table watching the O’ Reilly Factor while drinking a beer (a seldom treat). It’s a peaceful evening after a long hard day at work. Ah.. this is the life.

Well okay, not really. Though I do enjoy nights like this, I realize that life as I know it is about to change. And although I will miss quiet evenings like tonight, I am ecstatic for change. I selfishly have enjoyed being “comfortable” for years but the thought of being a father, especially in these circumstances, is a honoring feeling. That might sound prideful in earthly terms, but I am honored because I truly feel Lindsey and I have been called to this adoption by our Father. Just as He adopted us through his son Jesus Christ, we too have a child waiting for us in Ukraine who does not know us, who will be saved from a life of crime, prostitution, or even worse. This child will be adopted into our family – the Howell family, and we will love on this kid like no way it could ever imagine.

With that said though, I am totally unprepared. Not that I’m not ready to adopt. I’m ready, willing, and anxiously wanting to get ourselves over there and meet our child. But there’s a little panic setting in as Lindsey and I come to the realization that in just nearly a month we will be in a foreign country, where only us and our facilitator will know English, and in the middle of a strange land miles and miles away from home. There’s still things to do, still things to buy, and things to figure out before we go. It’s been over a year since we started this process and you start to get used to it being in the distance. All of a sudden here we are just days from our submission date and one step closer to becoming parents.

The Lord however is a gracious God, and he is preparing us. He’s put friends and families in our path during this entire process that have helped us mentally and spiritually get ready for such a transition. One of these moments happened a few weekends ago when our LifeGroup friends The Carr’s introduced us to Doug & Cara Layne. The Layne’s have adopted two girls internationally with special needs – Hannah, now age six from Ukraine and Mila, now age three from Serbia. Though we have not signed up to adopt children with special needs, we know very well that there is the possibility that we will come home with a child with “minor or correctable health issues”. Whether this be a lazy eye, a cleft palate, or something else we are prepared for that. Even though we want the healthiest child possible, I know now from meeting the Layne’s that there’s no doubt I will fall in love with our child. The Layne’s children are the cutest I’ve met in a long time. I even shared somewhat of a connection with them. Hannah and Mila both have cerebral palsy, which I too have, even if just a mild case. It was neat to have that connection, and especially with Hannah who was from Ukraine. I have never met such a lively and happy girl at age six. She has a handicap that she will live with for the rest of her life, but you wouldn’t know it from speaking with her and listening to her tell stories and laugh. She truly is precious.

It was great to meet with a family whose heart is for adoption, and also great to meet a family that we could ask as many questions as we wanted about Ukraine, the trip, and more. We even realized our home study was done by the same lady. We look forward to talking to Doug and Cara in the future and making new friends!

To wrap up, our submission date is indeed this Thursday. We’re hoping to find out what our travel date will be the week after that and I’m sure Lindsey and I will be on pins and needles as we wait.

To end, we do have one small concern that I want to bring up briefly. It seems like the devil is always there trying worry us or put things array at times. Our agency has not brought this to our attention, but we regularly read various blogs by people in the process of adopting from Ukraine. One of the rumors in the blogosphere this past week has been that the Ukrainian Parliament will be putting up a vote on September 21st to put a hold on international adoptions. I could speculate forever on the reasons why, but in the end it’s out of our control. This same vote has been put up before on June 1st and did not pass, and we are reading it’s a vote that has been put up on the table a couple of times a year and never does pass. It has something to do with reforming the program, but in the mean time, it ultimately could affect many children from uniting with families who want to love and save these children. We ask, as many families are, that you uplift a prayer or two and ask that God puts in the heart of these individuals responsible for the vote to go against such a hold on their program. We have full confidence though that God will work things out for His will, and He is in control!