So I’m sitting here in a coffee shop ALL ALONE. I’m not sure the last time this has ever happened to me. Wait, has this ever happened to me before? It feels very strange and even a bit wrong. I feel like I’m forgetting something….or four somethings. 🙂
The Johnson kids are in school. Wow.
You know, I think I must be a slow learner, because God keeps telling us to do stuff I said we would never do. Maybe I should keep my mouth shut a little more often. Hehe. We are a homeschooling family. I love homeschool. It just works for us. It clicks with us. Why would my kids ever need to go to school when I can teach them just fine at home? Well, enter moving across the world and then one year of Ukrainian school then international adoption then temporarily relocating back to the other side of the world and a multitude of doctor’s offices and surgeries to come and you get the idea: school must happen and I’m not going to have the time to do it myself.
Jed and Vladik are still in Ukraine waiting on documents to be able to leave the country; meanwhile the kids and I are here in Oregon getting settled and prepared for their arrival. And the kids started school on Tuesday. Eeeeeek!
We are so blessed to have an amazing Christian school in our city with teachers that know our family and have been praying for us for years. In fact, my mom, my brother, and one of my dearest friends are three of them! The school is giving us some financial aid, so praise God for that. We still haven worked out exactly how we’re going to pay for the rest of it, but God knows and He will provide.
Jed and I felt really strongly that it wouldn’t be the best idea to put our kids straight from Ukraine into public school where we knew no one. We also knew that I won’t be able to cart them to all Vladik’s upcoming medical appointments, so this school is a huge answer to our prayers. Already, after the first week, I know it was the right choice. The kids are happy and loving it, the teachers are wonderful, and I know they are safe and loved.
Hava and Seth are both in kindergarten.
Ezra is in fourth grade and Grams is his teacher!
And Addy is doing fifth grade.
This world of American school is like another foreign country, but so far we seem to be navigating it okay (minus being late on the FIRST DAY…oops). It’s a breeze compared to navigating Ukrainian school…I mean, for starters, everyone speaks English! Ha!
So, that’s where we stand now. On another note, if you could pray for our adoption process we would super appreciate it. We are hitting delay after delay after delay and we are so tired and ready to be together as a family. Vladik and Jed still wait for documents and the kids are missing Daddy like crazy. Praise God they have done amazingly well during all this transition, but we are soooo ready to be done!!! Thanks 🙂
This is Part 3 in our adoption story. You can read Part One here and Part Two here!
After camp Jed and I both began to see Vladik differently. Our hearts toward him were changing, but it wasn’t something we talked about with each other. We both just knew in our hearts we had a special love for him. Honestly, every person who serves at Romaniv has their “favorite”. Ha! You know, that one boy that you just connect with in a special way. My “favorite” changes from week to week. 😉
Separately, Jed and I both began to think more and more about Vladik. Our love for him grew and grew. Separately, we started to wonder if God had something more for us and Vladik together. We didn’t know even what that would mean. We didn’t know how old Vladik was (it’s impossible to guess the ages of the boys at Romaniv), if he was even available for adoption (only 9 boys out of 86 at Romaniv can be adopted), or what God had in mind. Then, over time we both, separately (great communication skills, eh?), began to feel like God was maybe asking us to consider adoption. Holy smokes. Scary thought. It’s one thing to love Vladik at Romaniv and camp. It’s a whole other thing to love him in our home, as our son, for the rest of his life.
In October Jed and I began to talk about Vladik together. We both shared with the other our musings about adoption and laughed about how crazy it sounded to bring pursue adopting one of our boys while continuing to live in Ukraine. Was it even possible? I mean, all of our boys have so many needs, could we raise Vladik here and continue to be effective in the work God has called us to? Was Vladik even adoptable? What about our other kiddos? Were there any safety concerns for them? Would a family need to live in America to be able to adequately care for Vladik’s medical needs? How could we afford an international adoption while living on raised support? Would it be possible to do an American adoption from Ukraine while living in Ukraine? So much to pray about and consider. We decided to keep those thoughts to ourselves for the time being and just wait on the Lord. We knew that if He wanted Vladik to join our family He would speak to us.
The very next morning, after we had first talked about our love for Vladik we got an email from a dear friend in Switzerland. She told us that she had had a dream about us and felt like she was supposed to share, even if it sounded strange to us. She dreamed that she was coming to visit us in Ukraine and we were so excited because we were adopting two boys from Romaniv! In the end we ended up adopting one boy, but then before we could get back to adopt the other one he passed away. 🙁
Of course we didn’t know what the whole dream meant, but wow. What an encouragement from the Lord that he would speak to us through our friend about adoption when we had told NO ONE our hearts! Shortly after that we found out from the assistant director of the institution that Vladik was one of the few boys available for adoption! Oh my.
Then came November, a really dark time for us. We began to learn more about what makes Romaniv the way it is. Jed always says “Romaniv didn’t get the way it is from everybody doing their best job.” Ain’t that the truth. The plain and simple truth is that the enemy has kept that place in darkness for far too long, and he doesn’t plan to give it up easily. This work we do is absolutely our dream come true. We couldn’t imagine doing anything else, yet this work comes with plenty of pain and heartache. All is not lollipops and roses. We try to be very positive about what we share on social media about the Boys and our work. It’s not like we’re dishonest or anything, it’s just very important to us that we always maintain the boys’ dignity, and to remember hope when we share. Our boys have had everything stolen from them. We will not go in and steal their dignity as well. Honestly though, the more and more time we spend at Romaniv, the more and more layers of ugliness we uncover. That’s just bound to happen. In that regard, November was just plain rough on our spirits. It was not pretty. We couldn’t manage to think of much except putting one foot in front of the other. The weight of injustice became almost too much to bear. Adoption dreams were on the backburner.
Then two of our boys that we love VERY much were sent to a hospital several hours away and were lost to us. The Director said they would be gone for at least a year, and “maybe forever”. It felt like a death. We just arrived one day and they were gone. Oh the tears. We were devastated because we knew those boys would not understand what was happening. Would they be scared? Would they be treated well? Then we remembered our friend’s dream. One of the boys that was sent away, Valera, was Vladik’s only real “peer” in the Isolation Hall. He was the one other boy that would try to play a little, and the two of them were attached at the hip. One of our big issues with adopting Vladik was knowing we could never take him away and leave Valera behind, but Valera was too old to be adopted. When we first started talking about adopting we had discussed trying to get guardianship of Valera and were really thinking we could find a way to take him home too, and then he was gone. Just like the dream. So, so sad. Maybe this adoption idea was too much for our hearts to take on.
Sweet Valera
December came and we prepared to make a couple Christmas videos for Wide Awake, to introduce people to two of our boys. Jed decided to feature Boris in his video because they have a really special connection. I couldn’t decide who to feature in mine! After lots of indecision I decided to feature Vladik in my video because my deepest connection was with him, and I hoped maybe his family would discover him by watching the video. Jed and I had basically stopped talking about adopting him ourselves, so if he couldn’t be ours I made it my mission to find him a family of his own.
Thousands of people saw the videos of Boris and Vladik. 🙂 Only a few days passed and a family wrote an email inquiring about adopting him! My heart leaped and sank at the same time when I read their email. Is that even possible? It sure felt like it. We wanted a family for him so badly, but oh man, I had so hoped it would be us. Whenever our kids would watch the video of Vladik (which they were slightly obsessed with) Havalah would say “But Mommy, we don’t really want him to be adopted right? Because then we would never get to see him anymore!” She said it every.single.time. Anyway, I got over myself 😉 and was truly excited to get that inquiry about Vladik, but then we found out that the interested parents were too young to adopt Vladik. They were only 12 years older than him, and by Ukrainian law adoptive parents have to be at least 15 years older than the child they are adopting. Back to the drawing board, loving our boy more than ever after seeing how many people responded to his preciousness in the video.
Then one morning in January Jed woke up early and felt like God spoke to him super clearly, “So, when are you gonna finally move forward with adopting Vladik?” Uuuuuuh now, I guess???? Ha! Jed came and told me he felt like we were supposed to go for it, and that was that. I mean, we loved him, he needed a family, it was really a no-brainer. All of our reasons for saying no seemed absolutely fearful and selfish and lame. Our baby was right in front of our faces and he needed his mommy and daddy. We sought wisdom from our parents, our pastor, and a few friends, and they were all completely supportive and completely not surprised. 🙂 In mid-January we began working on documents, and on August 31st Vladik became our son.
It might have taken 15 years, but Vladik is finally found. We pray and believe that God will use Vladik to be a voice for those who are yet to be rescued. We pray and believe that God will use our family, and our adoption story to show Ukrainian people the value of our Boys. It’s awesome, God has spoken to us, and to many others that Vladik is going to bring our family so much joy. We know that of course there are bound to be some rough moments ahead, but we just keep getting the word “JOY”. As Jed and I drove away from court after the judge declared Vladik was our son we had tears streaming down our faces: “How is it that God saved Vladik for us? How did we get to be the lucky ones?”
He is so valuable. He is so beautiful. He is our baby and we are the happiest, most blessed family in the world.
This is the second part in a series about our adoption story. You can read Part One here.
After God turned our hearts to Ukraine, and orphans with special needs there, we knew we had to go check it out for ourselves. I remember the first time we visited Romaniv in 2012. We saw Vladik there and our hearts were touched because we saw that he had Apert Syndrome like Jonah, the boy we had loved. I even wrote a bit about him here. Then, as you know, we ended up moving to Ukraine in November of 2013. YAY!
After our move we began to visit Romaniv every week with MTU (Mission to Ukraine) and grew to love all the boys. The boys in the Isolation Hall were our main focus and every week our love for them deepened as we came to know them more.
We loved Vladik very much, but honestly, not any differently than any of the other boys. I guess he held a special place in our hearts because of Jonah, but we weren’t considering adoption at all. I promise! Ha! We had ended up adopting our Seth before we moved and felt that someday we would adopt again, and most likely that would be a Ukrainian adoption, but the idea was far away in the future. We did not even remotely think about adopting one of our boys. I mean, how could you pick just one, when our biggest dream is that they would all know the love of a family? Yeah, not happening.
Then came MTU summer camp. The last two summers our family has had the EXTREME pleasure of serving at camps for kids with disabilities, put on by Mission to Ukraine, one of our non-profit partner here in Zhytomyr.
They have loved our Vladik for many years. Just look at these pictures!
MTU actually plays a giant role in every part of this adoption. We came to Zhytomyr to volunteer for MTU. We heard about the work they were doing at Romaniv and longed to be a part of it. They had been visiting the boys for several years before we came along. If it weren’t for God leading us to MTU there is no doubt in my mind- we would not know Vladik. 🙂 THANK YOU MTU!!!!
Anyway, every year Romaniv sends 6 boys to MTU’s camp, along with one of the nannies. This is outrageously amazing for our boys. They never ever leave the grounds of Romaniv. It is their entire world. But, every summer 6 boys get to escape for 8 days and truly LIVE.
They are treasured at camp. They laugh at camp. They play at camp. It’s like Disneyland on steroids for these boys. We were at camp last July waiting for the bus to arrive from Romaniv and who, to our enormous surprise, stepped off the bus? VLADIK! We had no idea any of our boys from Isolation were coming!!!! Vladik had never been to camp before! We were so happy!!!!
You guys, Vladik did so great at camp. Oh my word. He started out the week with many institutional behaviors (screaming at the wrong time, loud noises at inappropriate times…) but after only 2 days at camp those behaviors were gone. He was trying to sing the songs and do the motions. He was doing his best at the games. He was sitting quietly during lessons. He gained new words every day. It was so beautiful.
The most unexpected and most beautiful thing for Jed and me was how Vladik connected with our kids. Addy and Ezra had met him at Romaniv before camp, and Vladik had immediately taken a liking to Ezra. Vladik likes most people, but for some reason (God) he really latched on to Ezra during the couple of times Ez came to Romaniv. That relationship only grew at camp- and the feeling was mutual. Ez was drawn to Vladik and really began to love him.
One night toward the end of camp, I was putting the kids to bed in our room and all the lights were out. Jed was away and the kids and I were talking about our day. I asked them each what was the best moment of their day and the most difficult moment of their day. That day the camp had held Special Olympics, so there was a lot of great moments to talk about. When it came to my turn to share Ezra piped up, “Mom, I bet I know what your hardest moment was. When the Romaniv boys were getting their medals at Olympics I saw you crying. I bet that was hard for you.” I answered him that that moment was actually my best and most difficult moment all at once. It was the best because I saw all the joy on the boys’ faces and I was so happy to see them so happy. But it was the hardest because they were the only campers who didn’t have a mommy to walk them up to the front to get their medal. I was sad because I knew they were going home tomorrow and I knew that their home was not a good place.
All of a sudden, in the dark room I heard a weeping, almost a wailing coming from one of the beds. It was Ezra! “Ezra! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“Mommy, why? Why do the boys have to live there? Why do they have no mommy? It’s not fair. I don’t want them to go back there! Why does Vladik have to live there? He’s my friend. How long is he gonna have to wait till his family finds him?”
Pretty soon all four of my kids were weeping. Their hearts were broken for the boys. In that moment they really got it. They really began to understand why we live here in Ukraine. They began to understand why we sold everything and came to love these boys. Ezra said “Mom, we can never leave Ukraine. The boys need us!”
That camp, that night, our kids fell in love with Vladik. That night my heart began to shift. I began to see Vladik in a new way. I shared the story with Jed and he cried. We could barely stand to see him get on that bus to head back to Romaniv. Something was stirring. God was up to something!!
PS: Thank you MTU for the pics of Vladik when he was little 🙂
Today, in a courtroom in Romaniv, Ukraine, Vladik was legally declared to be our son. We are officially a family of seven!
Ours was the first international adoption in the town of Romaniv and we are praying it helps to pave the way for many more to come after us. The court went well and although it was a long, serious affair, there was nothing scary or tense about it. All the parties represented agreed that our family adopting Vladik was in his best interest. The representative from the orphanage said “You can see they love him like parents. It’s almost like he’s already a part of their family!”
Ain’t that the truth.
Remember when I wrote this post about Vladik being found by a super lucky family? So yeah, the secret’s out: we are that most lucky family. It was KILLING us to keep the secret for all those months. Whew! I’m so glad we can now share our joy with the world.
The story of how we came to adopt Vladik is wonderful and beautiful, and tomorrow I’ll begin to share it all with you.
Now we have a 10-day wait (Ukrainian law), and then we will be able to take Vladik out of the orphanage FOREVER.
The first of our Boys, redeemed.
Once he was abandoned, but today he is a beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, and cousin.
Our hearts are full and we pray many families will come after us. Our Boys are absolutely treasures. How blessed are we that God gave one of those precious treasures to us for our very own?? We are the luckiest.
Where in the world is the Johnson Fam? Are you finding it impossible to keep up with all our comings and goings and craziness? Yeah, me too. 🙂 I did a big catch-up post here, for the curious.
I’m sitting in the Houston Airport, on my way back to Ukraine for adoption court. YES! Jed is already back in Ukraine working away with our Boys, moving out of our house, and spending lots of quality time with our soon-to-be-son. Our other kiddos are back in Salem at some wonderful friends’ house. Grammy (Jed’s mommy) flew to Oregon from Montana to care for them while I’m gone for court. So, we’re all spread out for now, but it’s all gonna be worth it, because soon our son will be OUT forever!!! I hope and pray all goes well at court on Monday and I can do a big, fat introduction/birth announcement.
We arrived in the US as a family on August 11th and had the most wonderful 10 days together before Jed flew back to Ukraine. It was just pure awesomeness.
We only pack the necessities
Ol’ Faithful mustache tape has served us well
At the airport in Kyiv!
You know, I had read lots of missionary/expat tips on how to re-enter the US after being away for a while, and they all recommended heading someplace that is not your home base and just being together as a family before seeing family and friends. All the recommendations talked about how it is helpful just to decompress as a family, get over jetlag without demands on your attention and all that. I thought it sounded like a great idea, but not great on the ol’ budget. Well, God totally took care of that! A wonderfully generous couple from Ventura, CA whom we had NEVER MET gave us their house for 5 days. They left and just let us take over their beautiful home and it was the hugest blessing ever!!! We went to the beach (where Jed and I proceeded to win the worst parents in the world award by letting our kids get completely fried…oops #babylobsters), we watched tons of movies, we oogled over Target and Trader Joes, I read and read and read some more, and the icing on the cake: Jed and I got to go see my brother star in a musical in La Jolla. It was AWESOME. Thank you Dan and Jeannie for blessing us so completely.
Jet lag is a beast!
I’m so proud of my brother!
After our 5 day rest, my family drove down and we all met in Anaheim for 4 days of Disney!!! My heaven! Haha! My parents had been saving and planning for this family trip for 2 years and it was absolutely perfection. Seriously. It could not have been better!
We did two days of Disneyland and two days of California Adventure and we loved every second of it. My parents rented a house with a pool so every day we would come back in the afternoon and the kids would swim with their cousins. Best.trip.ever. Thank you Mom and Dad for that most wonderful, memorable gift!
Gotta represent Wide Awake! 🙂
Jed flew back to Ukraine on our last day of Disney and the kids and I flew up to Oregon. Then it was school registration (EEK!) and school supply shopping and embassy document notarizing and health insurance document mailing and doctor’s office calling and soon-to-be-son clothes shopping and back-to-America-culture-shocking (more on that later). I pretty much ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, so it’s lucky that Grammy arrived when she did to save my children from their crazy mommy! 😉
Seth forgot about booster seats. Ha!
My kids were FASCINATED and in awe of the cereal aisle
A once in a lifetime experience: they each got to pick out their own cereal.
We’ve been so busy we even lost a tooth!
The kids insisted we walk to the library instead of driving. “We don’t want to lose our Ukrainian legs Mom!”
We are so blessed and SO excited to be just about done with this legal stage of the adoption. We’re ready for the family stage now. Our mommy and daddy hearts are positively busting at the seams. We are so close! The kids are doing amazing. They are so flexible and adaptable and brave. They want their brother home super bad too.
