Girls are official U.S. citizens! + 120 miles per hour

Greetings all!
July 8th the girls were sworn in as US citizens :-)
For those of your reading this blog who are yet to adopt just an FYI: If your child is 14 years or YOUNGER when they arrive on U.S. soil, they are naturalized U.S. citizens and nothing else other than paperwork you complete at the Embassy is needed. HOWEVER... if your child is over 14, like Julia and we arrived on Rymma's birthday (March 6th), they will need to be sworn in. So both of the girls had to go to the Federal Building to be sworn in as citizens. It was kinda funny because I believe the oath they took was exact oath I took when I joined the army. So once they finished taking the oath, I had a huge grin on my face and shook their hands and said, "Welcome to the Army!" (OK, perhaps you needed to be there to appreciate the effect of my humor).

Two down, one to go! :-) We are finishing up some last minute paperwork before we submit our dosssier for Krystina. This time around is totally different because for this adoption we are 100% raising the funds through "donations only" to complete the adoption of Krystina. We will be posting more about the fundraising shortly ... and if any of you have suggestions we are all ears!

120 miles per hour! Below are photos from our recent trip to Cedar Point. I really missed Shauna coming along this time again and Sammy ended up having to work so it was mostly Rymma and I on the roller coasters. The pic is from Top Thrill Dragster (video from CP website). 120 miles per hour in under 4 seconds! WHAT A RIDE! Rymma is in yellow and I am beside her. What a hoot! Not only is this ride fast but a reminder of how life goes by sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fast! We have been home a little over 4 months now! Goodness! You blink and a day passes by you. I find myself wondering at various times what Krystina is doing. Thank God we can send her text messages and call her.

Today was Ukraine day at our house to the max! Rymma talked to her best friend, Julia, who was adopted by a family in Iowa. She got to call Krystina in Ukraine and as I type this, Lucia, Rymma and Julia are heading to Akron to meet Alena from AZ who happened to be passing through Ohio today. I stayed home because Sam wasn't home from work yet. So I took advantage of the moment to blog a bit.

SO, at this point, we are just praying to raise the funds for Krystina. The world is telling us we are crazy for taking in 2 girls so far and we are nuts to go for a 3rd daughter. This will put us at 8 kids. But the more I pray about it, I still believe this is meant to be. For me the decision is simple. James 1:27 sums it all up and tells us to take care of the widows and the orphans. It's sad that the world is blinded and follows a different direction. When I die, it won't matter much how much money I have in the bank or how many customers my business has. What matters most is if I chose to follow God's directions for my life. Did I love enough? What kind of seeds did I plant in my own family? Some of these seeds I have already seen grow and some of them I won't live to see. But I want my legacy to be that I forever changed lives for Christ; that Lucia and I took 3 young ladies out of hopelessness and gave them a clean slate for their future. Just like Christ has done for us.

AGAPE,
John