Gary and I knew when we got married that we would never be able to have children and that we would adopt one day. That is why we chose to become foster parents so that we could help some childen along the way and maybe adopt a few of them. As time went on we were only getting boy placements or calls for placement of boys and I wasn't sure why, I just knew I wanted a daughter.
I started checking in to international adoption about the time that my oldest son and I went to a concert that featured Christian bands, one being Addison Road. I always liked this group and there song, Hope Now, just really spoke to me. Specifically the lyrics,
When my life is like a storm
Rising waters all I want is the shore
You say I'll be ok and
Make it through the rain
You are my shelter from the storm
And everything rides on hope now
And everything rides on faith somehow
When the world has broken me down
Your love sets me free.
My life had definitely had some storms in the past and I guess I had been broken by the people in this world. But I knew that God had spared my life and my oldest son's life for some reason and so I never let those storms get to me. That night at the concert God reassured me that my daughter was out there I just needed to be faithful to what He was calling us to do. And so the name Adyson was what I thought would be my daughter's name.
For those that don't know, Gary and I travelled to Ukraine in the fall of 2010 and we travelled to 2 different areas to meet children. Both referrals we did not feel we were right for. After 3 weeks here, we felt God leading us home. I was heartbroken but I knew that God had a plan and that I would have a daughter some day I just had to wait for His timing.
So we went on being foster parents but my heart was still being pulled towards Ukraine. I followed alot of blogs of people that were successfully adopting from here. I would check the Ukraine photolisting of available children (not all available outside Ukraine) in hopes of seeing my daughter. One blog in particular that I had followed for sometime was the Horner family. They had adopted an older boy from Ukraine in late 2010 and were returning to Ukraine in 2011 to adopt a girl that they knew about. Right before they left to go get their girl they found out she had been adopted. They continued on anyway knowing that they had to be obedient to God and His calling for them. They travelled to Ukraine at the beginning of Oct. 2011 and on Oct. 17 Alecia posted a picture of her new daughter and her friend who was available for adoption. As soon as I saw her face I knew that this girl was my daughter. I emailed Alecia about her and as they say the rest is history.
Once we got to Ukraine in July and met Yulia we had our facilitator tell her that we would like to change her name to Adyson as we knew she did not want to keep the name Yulia. She immediately said she did not like that name and so we told her we would choose another name. I was not in the least disappointed because I just wanted her to be happy with her name. It was not like she was a newborn and had no choice.
When we returned home Gary and I made a list of names we liked. We hoped when we went back to Ukraine that we could give her the list and let her choose. Well those of you know, when we came back to Ukraine in August we only got to see Yulia for about 10 minutes and most of that was taken up with her writing a letter saying she wanted to be adopted by us and we were her mama and papa. Much more important I think than worrying about her name. What we did not realize is the next day we would have to file the petition to the court to get a court date and in the petition we would need her new name. So no pressure, just choose, right now. Gary and I then talked a minute and decided on Peyton. Our facilitator said we could just file another document to change it if she didn't like it once we got to court. Well, things didn't happen as our facilitator thought they would and when he filed to get a court date he was told that it was not going to be until Oct. So we headed back home and did not get to see Yulia again to ask her.
When we came back to Ukraine this time, we came a few days early to visit the kids. Our facilitator does not live near the area we are in and so he arrived here the day of court. Needless to say, because we did not have our facilitator here to translate for us, we did not get to ask Yulia about her new name until we walked in to the courthouse. Our facilitator said she said she was fine with the name Peyton. So Peyton it is.
The name Peyton means Peacock Town but we did not know that at the time. As you can see by one of the pictures below, our hotel lobby has a mural on the wall of peacocks. What a coincidence.
Her middle name, Mae, is a family name. Gary's mother has the middle name Mae and my late grandmother had the middle name Mae. Both Godly women who love to help people. We hope to pass this on to her.
Now on to little man's name. We chose the name Caleb first because I wanted a biblical name and second I wanted him to have a C name like two of his brothers. His birth name was Bogdan which means God given and I knew his new name needed to be pleasing to God. You see, when we first found out about Yulia we did not know she had a brother. As the months went on and the Horner family communicated with her for us we found out she had a brother but she had never met him and did not know where he was. We did not know we would be getting him also until we had our SDA appointment in August. So truly God has given him to us. The name Caleb means faithful and whole-hearted.
His middle name, Fredrick, was my father's middle name. He passed away about 4 years ago and he would have been proud to have 2 more grandchildren especially one with his name.
~Tina
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| getting ready for Winter |
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| peacock mural |
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| sweet girl with her daddy |
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