Life got busy but the vision remained. We knew we would know the right opportunity when we saw it. In spring of 2008, we learned of a summer hosting program with children from Ukraine. We had heard of other hosting programs, but this time we were immediately interested. We dove right into the car washes and other fund raisers to bring these children to the USA.
The moment arrived when we were waiting for this group of children at the airport. We were all so excited when they got off of the plane! Our Tanya, the tallest one, had at least six children hanging off of her. (Obviously a nurturing little girl.)
She smiled bravely when she saw us, excited but cautious. Imagine going home with someone you had never met before! Shortly afterwards, we were talking with the translators when she slipped behind us. We turned around to see her hugging the cutest little boy! We asked who he was and she said he was her "brat" (brother). He was being hosted by another family.
We had six weeks of pure bliss. We fell in love with her and she fell in love with us. After a week, she was calling us Muzza and Fazza. Despite the initial language barrier, we were all a quick study.
The first three days, she wanted us to only talk Ukranian, but she also picked up English very quickly. After years of trying to have children, we didn't miss a beat. It was very natural and seemed as if Tanya had always been ours.
As part of the medical hosting, we took Tanya to our MD, chiropractor, eye doctor, and last but not least, our family dentist. She had a root canal and didn't even flinch. I told her I would take her for ice cream at Sonic afterwards, and she asked for a burger to go with it! (after a root canal???) Okay!!
Tanya made lots of friends at our church, and every where we went. The end of the summer arrived and we prepared for her return trip to the orphanage with her group.
Jeanie had enjoyed a lot of quality time with Tanya. Since Mark had often been busy working during the week, Jeanie decided to stay behind while Mark took Tanya to her connecting flight. (The idea was to save money to initiate adoption proceedings.)
Tanya clung to Jeanie all the way to the airport. We had lunch with our friend, Jeff, who came to say goodbye to Tanya. Mark asked Jeanie if she was sure she wanted to stay at home, and she said "No."
Five minutes before boarding, we bought Jeanie a ticket and we traveled together for the rest of the day. We laughed because the "church lady" was frisked like a criminal for boarding a plane at the last minute. Does anyone else do anything spontaneously? Two gentlemen on the flights were very kind to switch seats so we could sit together.
We were advised that the children would often run to see their friends, leaving host parents hanging at the airport, but that did not happen to us. Tanya would flit back and forth between her friends and us.
The moment that we hugged and kissed goodbye, we knew that if God had to part our own Red Sea for us that He would. Our Father, Jehovah Jirah would move heaven and earth to bring our children back to us.
When the announcement for boarding came, Tanya gathered her little flock of kids, started up the escalator, then turned around and blew Jeanie a kiss.
We have stayed in touch as much as possible and have sent gifts to Tanya and Austin. We raised $9000 and submitted our dossier to Ukraine.
However, we are now on a very URGENT DEADLINE with only about a month to go. We need your help in raising the money for our country fee. No amount is too small. Please don't feel that $10 or $20 is not significant. We need the help of everyone reading this blog and the help of your friends.
We need to raise $20K for the country fee, we will need $1000 for the children's passports, $5000 for all associated expenses of staying in country for approximately a month, and plane fare to return home on short notice for 4 people.
Thank you for helping to rescue our children and make this forever family complete.
Please don't be too busy - life is like that. We pray for blessings upon each of you who help us in some way. Paypal is available at laurel@godswaitingchildren.com or you can email markattes@gvtc.com for more information.
Contact information for this nonprofit, 501c3 (which provides 100% of funds to the party you send it for, tax deductible) is:
Laurel Boylan, Director
God's Waiting Children, Inc.
1865 Herndon Ave., #K125
Clovis, CA 93611
(559) 316-4823 local
(866) 468-3089 toll free
www.godswaitingchildren.com
Please don't wait! We are very short on time. Thank you for being a part of our dream. Please check back regularly as we will be posting exciting updates about our kids and the adoption.”
Mark and Jeanie
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