Arrival and First Visit

Dearest Friends and Family,
We are praising God for a safe flight to Eastern Europe yesterday!   We only had about 2 hours of sleep on our 2 overnight flights.  Needless to say we were exhausted.   After gathering our luggage we exited to find our in country representative.  We were totally shocked to find Conner standing there waiting for us!   He told us he wasn’t arriving till 8 or 9 that night but he got to the airport early and waited for us at the airport for 10 hours!   He is one amazing son.  We are so proud of him.  He has visited 75 countries and will be spending the whole week with us in Bulgaria to photograph and film this trip. Juliana has been such a wonderful traveler.  She is enjoying lots of Mommy and Daddy time.   We ventured into the capital city with our representative and enjoyed pizza for dinner.  After a good nights sleep that was too short we left for a 3 hour trip to our daughters orphanage.   We met precious Valentina (strong) Faith age 2 years 8 months old.  Her adorable nickname is Vallie pronounced Valley.  We are in awe over her sweet smile and her cute little voice.  We spent about 3 hours with her today and can’t wait to go back tomorrow!   She is beyond precious.  I can’t even imagine saying goodbye to her on Friday.  They say we can’t come back to get her for about 3 to 4 months.  Oh I pray it will be sooner than that!   
Please keep us in prayer as we continue to bond with her. 

It is my prayer that we the church would step up to rescue these precious orphans.  Oh to see how they are living without a mom and dad causes my heart to ache!  Please don’t say this is our families calling.  We are all commanded to do something to help orphans and adoption is one practical way to forever bless the life of a child who needs the love of a family and most of all needs to hear about the love of our Savior.  How can they hear if we don’t go and bring them into our family where they can see the gospel lived out?  Please look at these sweet photos and know there are many other precious children just waiting for a mommy and daddy to say yes!   

Thanks for praying, 
In the grip of His grace,


Dawn and Tim