BY JODIE TRANA

NE LOOK INTO 3-YEAR-OLD ELENA'S acquiescent eyes, and wonder fills my heart. She is so trusting, adaptable, and resilient. Her eyes sparkle as she scrunches her face and waves her hands to aid in telling me of her latest escapade. I still don't understand all of it, as she hurriedly jumbles Russian phrases from the past with newly learned 3-year-old English. I don't mind, though. We will have many years to tell each other stories, my daughter and I. Right now I will simply enjoy her exuberant love for this new life she has begun.

As she runs off to start another adventure, I think of our lives before her. It hasn't been that long ago that the thought of adopting a child had not even entered our minds. And now Steve and I tuck four children into bed each night: Elena, adopted from Russia in May 2003, and her three brothers, Jacob, Brett, and baby Cort, our biological sons.

God has miraculous ways of speaking to His children, if we will but listen. In our case He used friends, family, and even the Adventist Review to communicate His plan for us. God had His hand in the entire adoption process. Sometimes we knew it. Other times we didn't. Still, He worked in us and through us to bring a child to her forever family.

I Have Plans for You
God began working out His plan for Elena before she was even born by making a place for her in our home. Steve and I purchased our first home a few years into our marriage. We loved the neighborhood, the yard, and the home's 45-year-old style. But after enjoying the house for more than 12 years, it suddenly felt small. The four of us were literally running into one another—especially in the morning as we all shared the same bathroom. We had no idea what God had in store for us, so we took a conservative approach and began looking for a lot to purchase. We felt that if God wanted us to move, He would make it possible.

During the time that Elena was born in Novokuznetsk, Russia, we found an acre lot for sale located close to church friends. We weren't convinced that we should move, so we held the lot as an investment. A year later we started talking to builders, and before we knew it, a new house was built on the lot.

Just months before Elena entered the orphanage we moved into our larger home. I knew the new house with the huge yard would be great for the boys, but I still wasn't happy about leaving our small house. The new house seemed so big and empty. There was even an extra bedroom that we used to store my childhood furniture. It took us some time to realize why God had led us to this house.

It was now time for God to make a place for Elena in our hearts. I had always read stories about foster care and adoptive families, and marveled at these people. Still, we had never considered adoption for ourselves. Weeks before Elena entered the orphanage, God began working on our hearts. He used another adoptive family and the Adventist Review to plant the first seed.

In an article called "When Will My Mother Come?" in the July 11, 2002, edition of the Adventist Review, Branka Vukshich wrote about her experience adopting four boys—two from Bulgaria and two from Russia. It was this article that got me thinking that maybe we, too, could adopt. Branka and her husband adopted the boys after their two daughters were grown. I tucked this information away, thinking I would consider it when the boys were older. God must have smiled as He realized that He would have to make His plan a little more obvious to me.

Later my sister-in-law handed me a magazine that included another story of international adoption. This story told about a family that adopted a child only 2 years younger than their biological daughter. The story talked about how beneficial it was to have a little ambassador at home for the newly adopted child. As the older daughter played with her new sister, lessons of love, acceptance, and even English were being taught. I could hardly contain my excitement when I read this article. All of a sudden it all began to dawn on me. God had a plan for us that we never would have noticed on our own.

Now I just had to tell Steve about this plan! I have to admit that I was a little nervous. We were both very happy with our family of four. We were both glad to be out of the "baby days" when a diaper bag is always needed. I wasn't sure what he would think about adding a third child.

Before talking with Steve, I gathered information from the library, the Internet, magazines, and books to learn as much as I could about international adoption. I learned that many countries are open to international adoption. Information about Russia kept coming up. I was amazed to read that there were as many as 750,000 children in orphanages throughout Russia, including babies and older children.

Steve was very receptive about the whole idea. When he learned that we could request a preschool-aged girl, he was convinced. We felt that if it was God's plan, He would surely make it happen. We would do our part by starting the paperwork. We also needed to tell the boys. Again, the Review came in handy. For worship one night, we read Branka's story of adoption to Jacob and Brett. They were very interested and began asking lots of questions. We told them what we had learned about Russian children. Suddenly, Jacob's face lit up. "Are we going to adopt?" he asked. We were relieved by the happy response from both boys when we told them our plans. We were on our way to becoming an adoptive family.

Plans Not to Harm You
If all this wasn't convincing enough of God's leading, His plan for our lives carried us through the uncertain times that can accompany international adoption. Neither of us had traveled internationally, and a Russian adoption would require two trips. The first trip was to meet our child, selected by the Russian Ministry of Education. On the second trip the adoption became final, and we would take our child home forever. Right before our first trip, America waged war in Iraq. There were many antiwar demonstrations, and some cautiousness was encouraged for Americans about traveling to Russia. It took faith on our part to go through this when so much was uncertain. We didn't know where we would travel in Russia until one week prior to leaving. Also, information about our daughter was very minimal. We learned only her birth date before we traveled to meet her. Still, none of this seemed to deter us. God was holding our hand and leading us through.

Plans to Give You Hope and a Future
It seems that when we are willing to carry out God's plan for our lives, He gives us so many blessings in return. We will never forget the wonder and excitement of meeting our daughter for the first time. We were led into a room where she was playing with a ball, her back toward us. The moment she turned around and I saw her blue eyes, it was as if I had known her my whole life. I couldn't anticipate her moves or understand her language, but I knew her. She was my daughter.

The scenes around us at Elena's orphanage—one of five in a city of 600,000 people—also touched us. The orphanage staff was very loving and caring toward the kids. The building was well kept and beautifully decorated inside. Still there was such sadness when we met Elena's entire group of friends. They all ran toward us crying, "My mama! My papa!" knowing that they were all waiting there for the same thing: their mom or dad to take them home.

Many people have told us, "We have always thought of adopting a child." We find this so ironic that we had never considered it, and yet here we are. Just think of all the children we could bring home if just a few families followed through on God's plan for these kids.
Every child deserves a family.

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Jodie Trana lives with her family in Shawnee, Kansas, where she is a home educator and self-employed business consultant/trainer.