Weekend in St. Louis

      Just spent the weekend in St. Louis.  Had a nice couple of nights with the wife,  good food, and some quality time with family we see very rarely.    However great all that was, it was not what the weekend was about.  We traveled to St. Louis to get our first taste of what it will be like to host a little girl from the Ukraine.   The purpose of the trip was to learn what is acceptable and unacceptable while hosting our little girl.   Personally, I felt pretty comfortable with what was and was not allowed, but was more interested in hearing the testimony of the people that have done this in the past.  Jenelle and Paula gave great descriptions of their experience with the program. Paula was so smitten with her host child she is in the process of adoption.  Jenelle gave such a heart felt testimony I was even holding back tears myself seeing her so emotionally invested in these kids.  It was nice to see such a young person invest so much of herself into something else other than herself.   I would like to thank them both for investing their time to help the families that are new to this.
    I will not speak for Liz, but this weekend has made things exponentially more real for me. I have been unusually positive for me about this whole process, but the drive home has me really searching for answers I am not sure I can get until Masha arrives.  I have no doubts or second thoughts what we are doing is the right thing.  This process just feels like driving down a mountain road in the middle of the night with no head lights for me.  At this point I am going to have let some one greater take the wheel and help me get to where I should be.

Christopher

A Birthday To Remember (Mom's 56th)

Tomorrow is a very special birthday. It would have been the most influential person in my life's birthday, Mom's 56th. This is not usually a sad day for me as it is a time for me to remember all of the amazing things my Mom did for me and other people. Those of you that knew her know that she had an amazing gift to make everyone feel valued and loved. A quality I wish I had. Her hugs had the ability to make any trial or tribulation a little more bearable. I have not known many people with the love, compassion, and capability to forgive that my Mom possessed. A friend of the family, Steve Coleman, said it best once when my mom was very ill and near death. Steve said to my Mom, "Carla I know Heaven exist because of people like you." I can not come up with a better way to describe the type of person my Mom was.

Mom, I love you forever, I like you for always, As long as I'm living, My Mom you will be.

Love,
Christopher

Introduction to the Atchley's

Chris and I have always been "by the book" kind of people.  We completed high-school, attended college, met, dated for a few years, got engaged, married and started our careers.  It took a few years for Chris to further his education as well as hard work before we were able to obtain a solid foundation to build our marriage and life on.  We encountered many obstacles most young couples face but with each one overcome we gained confidence in ourselves and our relationship.  However, our hearts were heavy and filled with grief at the loss of Chris' adored mom during this time.  Each sad day passed by as life went on with reminders that there were promises made to succeed in every way we could.            Chris and I thought we had everything pertaining to a somewhat perfect life as two young individuals in love strived to accomplish, until our miracle and most precious gift from God was bestowed upon us, our first daughter Carley.  Carley was our light, a blessing to continue on with a happy-filled life.  We were love struck all over again but in a way we could never have imagined, this tiny life captured our hearts and seemed to complete our family.  We were finally settling down in a home, feeling the rewards of our hard work paying off, and living a comfortable family life.  Then, two years later we learned we were missing something in our comfortable family life and we did not realize it until our second daughter, Keira, was born.  Keira added lots of sugar and spice to everything about us, her beautiful spirit has brought so much more love plus a multitude of laughter to our family.      The chapters in our "book" that became filled with many young family adventures seem to have been written so quickly with our daughters already at 5 and 7 years old.  Although our girls are still very young it feels like we are already on a new phase of our life and it is time to write some new chapters.  The decision to expand our family has been an on-going topic for a few years now but time passes so quickly, it turns out the time used to think, was the time that would have been ideal to make a decision.  We are still young and nothing is stopping us from expanding our family but we decided to embrace our next phase of life and move on while enjoying every single moment with each other.      Chris and I often discuss our family values and the life we would like to continue to lead, this conversation often includes the topic of his mother, Carla.  Carla was the individual everyone looked up to, admired, and aspired to be like.  We like to have the attitude of going the extra mile on everything we do, but wonder what can we do to really make a difference, to carve a niche in this world and do good?  What would be the ultimate experience to teach us what life is really about, set examples for our daughters, show God's love?  We were recently introduced to such an opportunity that seemed to grab at our wants to fulfill a greater cause.  We have a family member who is involved in a Christian based program through New Horizons for Children to host International orphans in America for summer and winter programs.  They search for children who have a "resilience factor" in their lives that helps them to overcome past obstacles and difficulties.  It is intended to give these children an opportunity to get away from the orphanage for a summer or winter and see America, as well as integrate with a loving family.      Chris and I read about the program and decided this is exactly what we have been looking for.  So, our next chapter for Summer of 2011 begins.  We are hosting a 15 year old Ukranian girl, Masha, for five weeks this summer and are very excited about it.  We have been spending the last month in preparing our daughters, learning Russian, completing lots of paperwork, and making other various arrangements.  We are not sure of how our adventure will unfold but it is something we look forward to and proceed on with open hearts.