Sarah Catherine Olesya Johnson:
Our Blessing from God!
It was a normal day in early April of 2002. I had
just dropped off your two brothers at school, and was doing what
all mothers do, picking up after the family. I had the television
on in the kitchen as I cleaned and The 700 Club was on. They were
talking of a trip one of the host had just made to Guatemala to
visit some of the orphanages there. I stopped cold in my tracks
and listened without an interruption. The host was talking about
all the children there that needed homes and such and as soon as
the show was over I headed for my computer to research and gather
more information on this. Six years prior I had to undergo an partial
hysterectomy due to some pre-cancerous cell growth. Dad said if
we ever wanted any more we could adopt. Well 6 years later here
we are!
As I searched my heart grew full of anticipation for
you. I felt the strong urge that God was telling me he had a daughter
for us but I needed to pray more and bring the subject up with
your daddy. As time went on I requested a packet from another agency
and had convinced Dad that this was for sure a sign from God that
you were waiting on us, we just needed more time to pray and follow
his guidance. This was in April of 2002, I received the paper work
looked it over and brought it up with dad and he was a bit interested
but we needed more prayer time so I placed it in a file and didn’t
look at it again until August of 2002, but it remained heavy on
my heart. We had just made a weekend trip to Dallas for a get away
weekend and were to return on Sunday, but decided to stay one more
night. That evening on the local news was a story of a group of
Russian children that had just arrived at the DFW airport for an
exchange program, these children were from orphanages in Russia,
they were older but that was the first sign to me that God was
sending us to your country. Had Mom and Dad not stayed that extra
night we would never have heard this story. We would have been
back in Louisiana and not had the opportunity to hear of the many
children available for adoptions in Russia. It is all we could
talk about on the 4 hour ride home to Ruston.
When dad signed the papers, on Sunday August 8th I
cried with joy. I was about to send them into the agency I had
requested the information from but, did one last search and found
out that this agency we would have been using was not licensed
and accredited in Russia this was a major eye opener for me. This
is the country we finally were led to. I did some more research
and looked at the ministry of education’s website and found
Christian World Adoption. I knew that this agency was the one God
wanted our family to use. I am so thankful He opened my eyes and
led me to CWA.
August 12th 2002, we signed with CWA and requested
all the paper work. We also began the home study process and INS
clearance at this time. We completed our home study by mid September
and a few days later had INS clearance. There were several times
along the way that God truly let me know he was right there with
everyone involved.
The end of September we sent our completed dossier
to CWA and on October 3rd I had called Denise Hunter our case worker
to see if she had heard anything. I had to leave a voice mail and
by the end of that day while in car line to pick your 2 big brothers
up from school she called me with the most wonderful news of my
life! She had talked to the facilitator in Russia, St. Petersburg
region, and she told me that he had just received information on
you and that you should becoming available within 3-4 weeks. That
was the longest 3-4 weeks of my life, I had no information on you
other than your age, 8 months old, just the age we wanted. She
told me that our dossier had not yet been sent to Russia, but she
would be sending it that week. This is where God really blessed
our family.
It was Monday October 28, 2002. Dad wasn’t home,
Michael and John-Caleb, your brothers were finishing up their home
work, I had just rearranged the furniture as I do often and had
hooked back up the computer. I decided to check my email one last
time to see if by chance there was any information on you. I did
this 1000 times a day. Then as my email was loading I noticed this
huge file from Ludmilla. It was forwarded from the facilitator
in Russia, he had our referral. I started crying and couldn’t
believe this had happened so fast, just 2 short months into the
process and we had our daughter! We knew immediately that you were
the one for us! No hesitation. God was totally in control of this.
When Dad came home I started screaming to tell him all about you.
He started crying also and couldn’t believe this was really
finally happening.
The next day I called CWA to find out how long it
may be before we traveled to see you for the first time. I was
hoping to be there over Thanksgiving, but Ludmilla told me that
we probably would not travel then because of the busy holiday season.
Weeks went by and I sent Denise an email wanting to know if she
had heard anything. She later called me and asked me when the time
I talked to Kirill our facilitator was, I told her it had been
several days. She said then that explains your message. Kirill
our facilitator had been sending us emails as to when to make travel
plans but my email server was down for some reason. She said he
wants you there on November 23, 2002, Thanksgiving week!!!! That
call was on November 14,2002 we had one week to plan our trip and
make our travel arrangements to come and meet you for the first
time.
What a week!!! Finally the time has come to leave
and make the journey to meet our angel from God. We left the USA
on November 232002 arriving in St. Petersburg on Sunday November
24 2002. Kirill our facilitator picked us up at the airport and
took us to check into our hotel. He told us that we would get to
go to the Baby home tomorrow and meet you finally, we had originally
thought it would be Tuesday, but he worked wonders and got us there
on Monday.
Monday November 25. Today is the big day to meet you.
We went to the baby home and were given all you medical information
and we told them yes we wanted to meet you. We were then told you
had a bad case of the chicken pox. We said no big deal! Then a
few minutes later in they walked with you. I was so taken with
how beautiful you were! Even though you had all these blue dots
all over you. Medicine they used for the chicken pox. I started
crying and dad did too! You are so beautiful! We got to spend about
30 minutes with you this day then the following 3 days we got to
visit with you for about 1 hour each time. Thanksgiving day was
the last day we had with you and what a better thing to be thankful
for that a blessing from God! I cried thinking of having to leave
you for the next 6 weeks. It was so hard to get back on that plane
and come home to await a court date. But God was in control of
it all! I knew that! HE would keep you in his care while we were
apart.
December 17, 2002. What a better Christmas present
than to receive our court date! We got word today that we would
be returning on January 20,2003 to bring you home! How exciting
our Christmas was this year thinking about you! Wishing you could
have been here to celebrate your first Christmas. We bought you
presents to have when you came home. This was the longest wait
of my life!
January 20, 2003. Today was the big day we left to
come back and bring you home. It was hard to leave your brothers
again, but they knew you would be returning with us this time and
were so excited. We finally got to have you in our arms forever
on January 24,2003. We were so glad to get the opportunity to celebrate
your first birthday with you.
What a wonderful thing God did when he made you! You
look just like your daddy and brothers. To know that He made you
for us, and to know that He knew that before we did is just beyond
my knowledge. People stop us everywhere we go and say what a beautiful
baby you are. We get told all the time that you look just like
Daddy. I have never once felt like you were not meant for our family.
You have always been in my heart...You are a wonderful
baby and such a joy to your Daddy and me. You have stolen the hearts
of all around you and just love to be with your family. You love
your brothers and squeal every time they get in the car at school
in the afternoons. They love you so much! Thanks for loving us!
Jeremiah 1:5 “I knew you before I formed you
in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart
and appointed you as my spokesman to the world” (NLT).
Love,
Mama & Daddy
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