"That boy breaks my heart," said Ashton

Last night, I was on the web reading blogs of other adoptive families. There are a lot of us out there with many, many different stories but the same desire - to find our child. There is one family's blog in particular that we follow with great commitment - Robert and Kelly Daniels. (http://youbelong.net/thedaniels)

Jason and I met Robert and Kelly in Nashville on November 10, 2007, when we all began our adoption journey. While we were sitting in the terminal waiting to board our flight to New York, I overheard Kelly tell an airport worker that they were flying to Ukraine to adopt a child. Of course, I immediately apologized for overhearing their conversation and then introduced myself. Once we landed in Kiev, we didn't know if we would see them again or not. Well, when we went to the region to visit the orphanage, guess who pulled-up on the other side of the parking lot - Robert and Kelly. We were in the car and had thought it was them but wasn't sure because they were bundled-up pretty good and in a hurry to get inside the orphanage. Next thing we know, our phone is ringing and our translator is asking us to come back inside because she had just met another family from Tennessee. At that moment, we knew for sure that the couple we saw was actually the Daniels.

Once we got inside and made our way back up to the orphanage director's office, we were able to spend a few brief moments together before they were taken to meet their son for the first time. I'll never forget the next few moments and their faces. We had already met the girls that we were referred and were trying to complete our referral rejection paperwork. Robert was very quiet and solemn while Kelly's face radiated anxiety. They were only gone moments, however when they climbed back up the stairs to the director's office, their faces were lit-up and they were smiling from ear to ear. Kelly was literally glowing. They had found their child! We were so excited for them. They began preparing for court and we returned to Kiev to prepare for our second appointment. Our paths never crossed again except over the Internet.

We made sure to keep-up with their journey by reading their blog faithfully. It had been awhile since any new posts, so we were pretty excited last night when we saw that there was a new post with pictures. Ashton recognized Nathan immediately because we have used the Daniel blog as a way of better explaining the adoption process to Ashton. Last night, he just kept staring at Nathan's pictures and not saying much (usually he constantly asks questions about Nathan, Ukraine, and his new parents). Ashton finally said, "That boy breaks my heart." When I asked him why, he stated, "Because he in 'Merica and my sissy is in Ukraine." At that point in time, Jason and I just looked at each other with tears in our eyes. We immediately started telling Ashton that he should be happy because Nathan has a mommy and daddy now and that when his sissy is ready to come to America, God will let us know and we will go get her. After a few minutes of talking, he was ready to see more of Nathan's pictures and was glad that he had come to 'Merica.

Some people may think that we have been too open with Ashton about the adoption, however we wouldn't do anything any differently. We want Ashton to understand why we have to go to Ukraine and where we're at when we are gone for weeks at a time. Even more importantly, we want Ashton to recognize that God's hand is at work and that God is taking care of our family - even his sissy across the world. One thing is for sure, when God calls a family to adopt, he places that desire in both the hearts of the parents and the children.