Three Years

Today we celebrated that on May 19, 2008, God (and a Russian judge) granted us permission to become parents of Polina, Dima and Nastya. I give God the credit because lets be honest, there is no way it would have happened without Him! First of all, He had to touch the heart of young, naive Christian man (Dawn was hard, but not as hard as I was). I tried to ignore Him and then when I started to listen, I thought I would do things MY way. Don't do that - it doesn't work. Here we were, a five person family living on a income of less than $90,000 in a small three bedroom home. Secondly, we had never had a lot of money just laying around and got by because God provided. Now we were facing expenses of over $50,000. Oh yeah, let me add my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and Dawn's SUV caught fire and burned up in the middle of it all.

Mom is home now with our Heavenly Father and her mom - looking down on us all. I think she would be pleased with the way things have turned out. Dawn has a big honking, gas guzzling 1999 Suburban 4x4 that we were able to pay cash for. Not fancy, but it runs and hauls 8 people around. As for us, we are doing good. There have been many, many ups and downs. I don't think we have ever written much about the "downs" because you know, with God's help, we got through it all. He died on the cross for my sins and all He asked of me was to be a father to four children without an earthly father. I think I got the easy part no matter what tomorrow brings.

To Polina, Dima and Nastya, thanks for letting me be your dad. I am not perfect and I know I have made mistakes, but never, ever doubt what you mean to me and your mom. No matter what some may say, you are my real kids and I am your real dad.

To Jeremy, Christina and Sarah - this was a big change for our family and I am sure it has been hard on you. You sacrificed a lot and had very little say so in matters. I hope we did our job in explaining why we did what we did and you understood. Thanks for all you have done to help us.

God Bless -

Tony B.