It started out as a feeling. Chris and I felt our family of 3 just could not be complete. We had a taste of being a family of 4 for such a short period of time. It just felt right, two adults + two kids. Dylan knew the gift of having and loving a sibling and we had two wonderful children to give our love.

We realize we could never replace our Cedie. She will always be our first daughter and Dylan's first sister. However, we could let another child into our lives and into our hearts without betraying her memory.

So, we then started discussing our options. Medically speaking, I can not have anymore children. Fostering a child is out because we could not go through the pain of getting attached and then losing a child again (not that it would be as final as it was with Cedie-but it would still be devastating to us and unfair to Dylan). That leaves us with the idea of adopting. Before we knew what sex Cedie was, we had said that if she were a boy, we would adopt a little girl, so this wasn't exactly an original idea to us.

We started thinking more about the possibility of adoption over the past month or so. Watching Dylan has really solidified this need to expand our family to 4 again in our minds. When he is alone with just us, the house is so quiet and he seems so lonely. But when he is around other children, he just lights up, regardless of whether they are a boy or a girl or whether they are 3 months old or 8 years old.

Chris and I started researching the different kinds of adopting. We know that our ideal would be a little girl between the ages of 2 to 4. We want Dylan to be the big brother and we don't want their age gap to be too vast. We first looked into domestic adoptions but were told by two different types of agencies that it was a long shot to get our "ideal" child. They both said that that age range was just not common in the available children of our area. This led us to the idea of international adoption. We were specifically drawn to the Russian and Ukraine programs. However, the cost factor nearly had us rethinking if this idea was even obtainable for a family like us.

And then Sunday came. It was like God put the thoughts in our head that morning before church. As soon as I saw my mom-in-law, we both simultaneously said "we do mission work in the Ukraine!" After the service we talked to one of the church members who had returned from there. He gave me the name of another man who does the missionary work over there and knows the country well.

Chris and I have both had discussions with him and we now have a clear (and much more affordable) plan! If all goes well, we may have a new member in our family by the end of the year!

There is a lot of paper work and legalities involved. We will also have to start some serious fundraising to make this happen. However, to have our family complete again, as we really believe it was meant to be, would be so worth it! We have talked to Dylan and he is super pumped. He said "then I could have two sisters, one here with me and one watching above me."

So, now you know our new direction. Please pray for our family as we begin this new journey. God knows the plan and will most certainly guide us in the right direction, as we believe He is doing now. Also, if you have any fundraising ideas, we could definitely use your help there as well.