How Liza's Story Became Alona's

Some of you have been praying diligently for Alona since we first asked for help finding her a home.  For those of you who don't know, Alona is our Liza's best friend from her orphanage in Ukraine.  Thursday, January 31st, Liza had gone to work with Tom.  He posted this status on Facebook at 9:15am Friday morning about an exchange he had with her at his office:

February 1 via mobile

Mercy and Liza came to work with me yesterday. During a brief pause and staring out the window, Liza said "I miss Alona". Alona is her 15 year old best friend who is still at the orphanage. I said, "who knows? Maybe she will be adopted too and come live in America like you?" Liza said, "Daddy, it is too late for her. I know this. She is 15. When she turns 16, no one can adopt her and she must leave school". I said, "then we need to be asking God to find her a family before she turns 16 in July." She folded her hands and bowed her head. Then looked up at me and nodded as if to say "go ahead and pray, I'm waiting." So the three of us prayed for Alona there in the middle of my office. Please join us in praying for her to find a family before July. –t

He had called me not long afterward and told me he thought we needed to do something.  So I sat down and began to write this post with pictures of Alona from our time there http://myfarawayhome.blogspot.com/2013/02/alona.html .
Thanks to our many supporters, it was viewed fourteen hundred twenty nine times in just a few days.

Friday, February 1st at 2:42pm I got an email from the sister-in-law of a friend of ours here in Raleigh.  The email asked for any information we could share about Alona so that they might pray for her, "if nothing else"; that they had followed some of our story of adopting Liza; that they have four daughters ranging in age from 6 months to 5 years; that "We don't feel equipped to adopt a teenager, but we are willing to do so if that is God's will for us. We know that God does not call the equipped, but equips those He calls."  In the course of writing back and forth, she mentioned that all their daughter's names start with the letter "A".  Coincidence if you want to call it that and if you don't know that Liza's birthday is the exact date of our wedding; that we celebrated our 16th anniversary together with her on her 16th birthday in Ukraine.  Me, I have another name for it.

I didn't actually post the blog on Facebook until 3:46pm.  You see, God already had this covered.  This story was already well underway.

We didn't tell Liza anything beyond the fact that we had posted Alona's pictures and that many, many people had gone to look at them.  We were still floored that she had prayed to the God who she believed wouldn't answer because of her past mistakes.  But every few hours, she would ask.  "What news Alona?"

Super Bowl Sunday, February 3rd, we were at friends' house to watch the game (being the country bumpkins we are with no live t.v.)  Liza, bored out of her ever lovin' mind was sitting next to me on the couch, not even interested in the commercials we Americans are so proud of.  My phone dinged.   "I wanted to let you know that we have sent an email to Angel's Haven about starting the adoption process.  Please pray for us as we start this adventure!"

February 3 via mobile at 10:16pm I posted this, but couldn't explain it just yet.  “We got some pretty cool news tonight. Might be able to share it soon. But on the way home from the game, Liza said, "I believe in God." :-) R

After she read those words, Liza buried her head behind my shoulder and cried.  She could not believe that the God of the Universe heard her prayers.  From that day on, Liza's struggle with survivors guilt disappeared.  She has told me several times since, "God listens."Alona now speaks with her new family every Saturday on the phone with an interpreter, a sweet, Christian, Ukrainian woman who visits the orphanage every weekend.  She now knows that she has a hope and a future.If you are feeling like an orphan whose Father does not hear your cries, please believe me when I tell you that He does.  Just as He heard the pleas of these orphaned children, in the middle of nowhere, in a forgotten country, He hears YOU.  Talk to Him again tonight.  Right now.  And believe that He is writing your story, too.