Elijah's Dedication (Long...)

On May 1st, we had a VERY special day! We had Elijah dedicated to the Lord. That means we pray someday that he will make a decision to follow Christ and be baptized at that time. We also announced our adoption of Jonathan to our church family. AND, we got to hear Max (from Elijah's former country) share about his totally amazing ministry to the hopeless of that country as our "sermon" for the day. I could sit and listen to him share the stories of how God is working in mighty ways all day long. Our wonderful church family blessed Max's ministry will LOTS of money too. They are SO awesome and generous! Remember, this is the same church family that raised over $17,000 to bring Elijah home.

I'm very grateful to "Auntie Debbie" for taking photos of our party here after church. I have over 200 photos from the time church ended until everyone left our home. Awesome! But that is why it was a bit overwhelming to do this post. Don't worry, I'm not posting all of them, but here are several, telling the story as we go. (Sorry some of the photos are sideways...I don't have the time or energy to fix them.)




Our family of 8!

 

Our family with grandparents



Getting some love...this boy loves to cuddle. I love it!




He looks like such a big boy in his new outfit. Thanks Mom for the cute clothes for his special day!



How is it that I'm so blessed to be his momma?

Max, Elijah and I skyping with Elijah's birth parents!

I wasn't going to let this once in a lifetime opportunity go by of having Max, who is fluent in Russian obviously, talk with his parents and translate for us. This is the second time we've skyped with them. Their English is a ton better than my Russian, but it is still hard to communicate. It was a true, true blessing to be able to talk with them. I know they appreciated it deeply too. His mom asked about our Ds support group (how many friends he has w/ Ds) and how Elijah is doing.  I got to ask her if they had any cancer in their family (none), as well as allergies. Elijah's nose has been dripping for about 3 weeks straight, so I'm assuming he does have some sort of seasonal allergies. His mom said she had allergies to a particular plant in the spring when she was pregnant with him. Interesting, huh?
Max was generous to share his cell phone # with them, so she has contacted him a couple times to express her gratitude.

God is so good!!!

Oh, Max also told them about our adoption of Jonathan. He could explain it better than me. I wasn't sure if they would be happy or sad. Maybe happy that Elijah would not be the only child with Ds here, or maybe sad that they might think he would get less attention with a new little one here. They seemed ok about it.  They said we should contact them when we are in country and maybe we can get together if it works out. We will be in the same quarter of the country as last time, but still a long train ride away.

 

We had 2 cakes that day. Isaac's birthday was just a few days before and he shares his birthday with his buddy, Ben. So, I had a birthday cake made for them with their photo on it. :-)



Elijah's cake



Rachel wearing Pastor Dan's tie.  Too cute!

 

Elijah and Max, his godfather

Yes, we asked Max to Elijah's godfather, or sponsor. I just continue to be overwhelmed at the Lord's goodness and perfect timing and how He has woven our story together with Max's. If you've been reading here since the very beginning, you will remember that Pat and Sarah went on a mission trip last summer to minister with Max in an adult handicapped facility (mental institution). It was because of that trip that I was on RR when I saw Elijah's photo and JUST KNEW he was ours.  I just can't even process it all how this all worked out. God is amazing...

For what it's worth, Max spoke Russian to him, and Elijah didn't really want to have anything to do with him. It was pretty interesting. On the other hand, when we skyped with his bio mom, he looks at her very intently. I'm pretty sure he remembers her. This time he sat calmly on my lap for the whole conversation, and it was pretty long - maybe 30 minutes.

Elijah is just not sure about this weird guy who speaks a weird language. :-)



Elijah with both of his godparents
Auntie Debbie and Max

Debbie has played such a HUGE role in helping us bring Elijah home (including spending 2 weeks with me in a foreign country and giving up Christmas with her family), and has been so super supportive since then. We are SO grateful for Debbie and her entire family in our lives. THANK YOU!




Rebekah and Max



Anna and Max

Our neighbors just hatched chicks, so they brought them over to share their cuteness.

This precious child the Lord has given us!  We are eternally grateful!