Ukraine

Okay, so I know I have been a bad, bad blogger, but I will try to give an update. Eric and I did go to Ukraine at the end of January. We spent two weeks there and came home without a child. It was very difficult and I didn't really want to blog about it. Basically we had a great trip, but a bad adoption experience. We were given files of only sick children and the child with the least problems was the one we went to the region to see. We traveled on an overnight train to the region and visited the orphanage the next day. The doctors were all very negative about the health of the child and it was obvious they did not want us to adopt her. We didn't understand why they were acting this way, until we found out there was another couple who wanted her, and the theory of our facilitator was that they thought they could get more money for her from this other couple. Anyway, we prayed about Sasha, but we definitely received the answer that she was not meant to be ours. It was not the answer we wanted or expected, but we were so just so thankful to get an answer one way or another. We knew that Heavenly Father has a plan, both for us and this little girl. We are hopeful that she was adopted by this other family.
Although very disappointing, this trip was certainly an adventure (including our 10 hour bus ride back to Kiev). We never felt anything but safe, and we learned and experienced a lot of new things. We came home not knowing if we would ever go back, or even if we wanted to. This process is so difficult, in every way.