Liberty to the Captives
We are in Ukraine on mission to adopt Katya, to bring her into our family, to be used by the Lord to give her a hope and a future. Our kids back in VA are equally on mission as they fix their eyes on Jesus, looking to their heavenly Father when Mom and Dad are an ocean and a continent away. Our friends and church are on mission as they care for our kids so beautifully and sacrificially. And all of you are on mission as you labor in prayer with us to see Katya brought out of the orphanage and into a family. 
We are not forgetting that the battle is real. We are playing with Katya, enjoying time with each other, taking in the beauty of Kiev and Odessa, getting to know other families who are also adopting, but we are ever mindful that this is a mission appointed by the Lord of Hosts. Our eyes are open, aware that we battle more than earthly municipalities, but cosmic principalities whose goal is destruction, death, and darkness.
We are learning more deeply than ever the vital nature of warfare through worship and the practicality of unceasing prayer. Much is at stake here in Odessa, much that we cannot see, but that we sense. Pray for us - for strength, for spiritual sight, for safety. Pray the same for our children. 
We are falling in love with the children of #5 and our hearts break as we are helpless to change their situation. While we can't be Mama and Papa for all of them, we know the One who is Father to the fatherless. These are REAL children. Would you pause for a moment and enter into the weightiness of the moment for these who are among the least of these?
Lord, for Vika, Slavik, Lira, Dima, Vladik, Tonya, Roma, and so many more, we pray. You know them Lord, before the foundations of the world you knew them, and you know them now. Would You come to them now? Would you be their Abba, Father? Would You be their Comfort, Keeper, Shelter in the storm? Would You enlighten their hearts to know you so that even if they are NEVER adopted, they will have a hope and a future, a hope and a future that goes beyond this age and into eternity? And Lord, for Katya, for Kateryna Joy, would you prepare her for her adoption into our family as preparation for her adoption into the Family that matters for all eternity? Lord, would you proclaim to their hearts as you have to ours, and as you did so many years ago in the synagogue ...
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified
Isaiah 61:1-3