This Week at a Glance

Our days have been quite busier than we ever expected.  Our mornings are spent travelling to appointments to sign more documents.....will it ever end???  Then our afternoons are spent visiting Vanya and "the boys".  Our visits have been sweet.  We have done a little English, played some Chinese Checkers, gone out for pizza, and have done some some shopping so that we may bless his close friends with shoes, groceries, and cell phones to keep in touch!

Friday at 10am (3am EST), we will have court.  After some formalities and questioning, we will wait about 30 minutes before we hear the official decision of the court regarding the adoption.  Upon hearing their decision, we will enter a mandatory 10 day waiting period.  Jim will travel back home on Saturday and I will continue visiting with Vanya and preparing for all the transitions to happen on the other other side of the Atlantic.  Then, on the 11th day (November 1st) we will pick up the court decree and will also celebrate our first "Gotcha Day" with Vanya!  He will be declared our son and we will grow to be a family of 7 Moynihans!

Once we have the court decree, we have about another week's worth of travelling and paperwork before Vanya and I return home!  Our flight is scheduled for November 9th and we're praying that we can make it!  I was hoping to leave before the snow and severe cold comes, but I'm not counting on it.  It was actually snowing yesterday, just a few hours north of us!!!

On a more personal note, I have to let you all know that tonight my heart is breaking.  We have rubbed shoulders with some amazing young men these past couple of weeks.  Tonight, we talked more extensively with 2 of the boys, Genna and Kirill.  Both of these boys live in a totally volatile environment with alcohol, sex, smoking, and drugs readily available around every corner.  Neither of them have parents to offer any direction, encouragement, provision, or protection.  They both came to know Christ through an orphan ministry through a local church.  They told their salvation story freely.  They found Love and embraced Him.  God is Love.  Their reciprocated love, devotion, purity, and prayer lives would put many of us to shame.

How is it that a toxic environment + no way out + no family + a traumatic childhood + very little money + not even knowing where they'll sleep over the Christmas holiday in the dead of winter = a dynamic love for God?
These are honorable boys.

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you" (Is. 49:15).

Not only has God not forgotten them, but He is preparing their forever home.  He is making ready their reward.  He is pleasured and glorified by their faith.