Max's Visit

Two weeks ago today, we were frantically cleaning like mad because we had a very special guest coming! I mentioned that in this post... And he came, and he left Sunday, and I never blogged about it! Shame on me!

If you didn't know who the guy in this picture was....

...it's Max!!! Max is an AMAZING young man, who has a ministry called True Hope Ukraine, in Ukraine. Max is native to Ukraine, and he is the one my dad and I went on our mission trip with when I met Logan. But instead of spending all day telling you who Max is, just go watch this video I made about him to show in church when he came last year.

He also has a new ministry video, that he should have up on his website soon.

When my parents were in Ukraine adopting Elijah, Max came down on the overnight bus, visited the orphanage with them (that would be the pictures in the video of Max and his coffee, and Max hold the little boy with casts on his legs, who is now Shea Kulp), and went in, talked to the director, and got them a tour of Elijah's orphanage! He also came to visit my parents when they were over there adopting Jonathan.

Anyways, back to when he came. Rachel stayed with us for the weekend, so she could help clean, help with the kids, and because she wanted to see Max too! :) We had invited Gary and Terri, the head of the mission committee at church, out for supper as well, and they got here, and we were outside with Gary drawing chalk... when they finally came!! I had fully intended to get the whole "THEY'RE HERE" thing on tape, but it was about 5 seconds after I squealed that when I remembered to turn the camera on. :P

Oh, but before I move on, I have to share the self portrait Gary drew of himself....

And this is who it's supposed to look like -

And for those of you follow my crafting blog too, yes, this is the same Gary who helped with the Block Party borders.. ;D

Oh yes, and this is me shortly before they came... umm I was kinda excited..... and REALLY hyper... hehe

Moving on.

After Max shared at church after supper, we came back home, and stayed up late talking! Max answered a lot of our questions (we had a list), and we learned all kinds of new stuff!

The most significant for me was when we asked about Logan and the priest... Max knows who Logan/Bogdan is, and also knows the priest personally. There is more I might share eventually, but I am very reassured Logan is in the best place he can be (outside of a family of course), and he is loved and well taken care of. I was still struggling with a lot of things related to that whole saga, but after talking with Max about it, I had a huge turn around personally. Now I'm looking want even more to going back to Ukraine  (I'm not sure if that's possible!), because Max said he'll take me to see "my" baby when I come back. :D

We learned a lot about different orphanages, and a whole wealth of other information from him. :) We were also able to skype with Elijah's birth mother having Max as a translator and learned a lot from her. Max preached in church on Sunday morning, and then they had to head back home right after church. While none of us were happy our visit was cut short, we are grateful for the time we had with Max.

My sibs, Max, and I -  L to R: Anna, Isaac, Max, lil Rachel, me, Elijah, Jonathan, and Rebekah
Elijah wasn't to keen on the 30 second photo shoot after church right before Max left!

Max always says that you have two choices - you love me, or you love me. And we all love him so very much and were happy it was us he got to stay with!! Jonathan wasn't so sure of him, but unlike last year, little Rachel (2) loved him, and she wouldn't eat her breakfast Sunday morning unless Max helped her. :)

My 5 yo sister Rebekah, "the quiet, shy one of the family", loved Wayne, and ummm let's just say things got interesting with Rebekah on Saturday night around 9:30. We thought she was in bed (ok, maybe we know her a little to well for that, but we thought she was in the basement playing or something), and instead she was outside chasing Isaac (my 7 yo brother), and the two teenage boys that came with Max around with a water gun in the dark! ahem. Shy, quiet one indeed!