So Incredibly Alone

I should be in bed, but sleep won't come yet.  My heart is aching, but it's not for myself.  It's not even for anyone I'm related to.  The person on my heart doesn't even live in this country.

He lives in Ukraine, he's sixteen, and he is an orphan.  We met him when he was just ten when we were in Ukraine to adopt our daughter.  Over the years, he has watched so many of his orphan friends walk out of the orphanage forever with the families who adopted them.   And this dear young man has asked over and over why nobody came for him.  He gave his heart to Jesus a couple years ago and has been praying earnestly for a family every day, and praying, too, for the strength to handle it if God has a different plan.

More than any of the other children we left behind in Ukraine, this boy captured our hearts.  Such a cheerful boy, and we hear God's been shaping him into a leader other children look up to.  Over the years, God wouldn't let us forget him, and we, too, have been praying earnestly for a family for him.

After years of longing, the answer to his prayers was about to happen this fall.  Just before he turned sixteen, a family filed the necessary immigration papers so that, even though they couldn't come 'til after his sixteenth birthday--the cutoff age for being adopted by Americans--they could still adopt him.   A friend told us that, of all the children she's seen looking forward to being adopted, (and she's seen lots of them), he was the most excited of them all.

Tonight, however, we heard that the family, who had been in Ukraine intending to adopt him, had to leave him behind.  We don't know details yet; but, we have heard that Ukraine's government agency that handles adoptions had closed and nobody knew when it would open again.

This precious boy has no family to comfort him.  He has no earthly father to hold him and tell him that they will get through this together.  The one thing he ever wanted most on this earth was to have a family, and the only American family who can adopt him (because he is now over sixteen) went home without him.

I don't know about you, but I'm afraid I can't even begin to imagine the depth of disappointment he must be feeling right now.  Only Jesus knows how he feels--He knows what it's like to be forsaken, as He went through it for us on the cross.  This dear boy has no family to pray for him, so how about we be his family right now, and ask our Heavenly Father to pour out His comfort. . .

Oh, dear Father, please wrap Your arms of love around dear A.  In Ukraine, his Monday has already begun.  Be his strength.  Reassure him of Your love; don't let him begin to doubt You.  Help him to be able to focus on his school work and trust that You are still in control of his life.  Please be his provider and his refuge.  Help him to understand that You are not looking the other way.  Help him to trust Your heart even though he doesn't understand what You are doing just now.  In Jesus' name we ask these things.  Amen.