Still Waiting

Dearest Dema,

Well, even though we haven’t heard about a travel date yet, I still feel positive about moving forward to get you. We had a long Skype call with Alex yesterday evening and he said that he would try to call you. It might be easier for him to get in touch with you than for us. I told him that I want you to know we will be coming in April or May. I am sure that it will be a shock for you - here we have been working so hard and constantly praying for things to move along - so it will not be a surprise for us to finally see you. But I can imagine it might be a nasty shock for us to show up and you to realize that you will be leaving all things familiar.

This point is especially concerning to me, I actually lay awake thinking about it at night! I worry that you might not want to come with us. You will be leaving friends, a familiar place, your country and your language to come live with virtual strangers. I worry about how to convince you that it will be ok, that we will love you and give you all the benefits of a loving family life. You will find friends and make a future with us as your back up whether it is here or back in Ukraine, but this is going to be hard for you to understand. And I am sure that it will be hard even when you get here and you are lonely or frustrated.

I have joined several email groups about adopting older children in an effort to try to understand everything you will be going through or possibly facing while with us. I want to anticipate every possible scenario so that I can help guide you through it, but I sometimes get overwhelmed with this. I don’t know you yet, so how can I predict what you will be feeling or how you will react? 

All I do know is that all of us are desperate to have you a part of our family. We talk about you at least once a day and have planned out trips and things to take you to. I am afraid you will be a little frazzled with everything we want to show you! I know that one day, we both will look back on this and laugh, but for now, I am obsessed with making sure you have a smooth as possible transition to our family. I know that you will enrich our family no end. We are all looking forward to the new family you will help us create.

So, here I am counting the hours as they pass too slowly to hear back from the Ukrainian government and passing the time worrying about you.

Love always,

Bethany, G3, G4, & Amanda