Happy July 4th to everyone! As you all celebrate at home, it is just another day in Ukraine. But not for the Stinsons. This is perhaps the most poignant Independence Day we will ever celebrate. Not only because we appreciate our home country more than ever, but also because we are waiting for our own Independence Day, for the freedom to move forward as a family.
Yesterday we went to the US Embassy in Kiev. As we drove up and I caught sight of the American flag flying in front of the building, I was overcome with emotion. After spending so many weeks outside the country, everything that flag represents means so much more to us. I can hardly wrap my head around the freedoms that we enjoy as Americans. We like to gripe about politics and media and the price of gas... but most of the time we pay no attention to just how good we have it, in all areas of life!
The most amazing gift that we have been blessed with as Americans is freedom. We are free to go where we want, when we want. We are free to pursue any vocation that we want. We are free to have relationships with anyone, regardless of their class or status. And most importantly to me, we have the freedom to worship however and whenever and wherever we want.
We can appreciate our freedom more than ever, given that we are now experiencing what it feels like to NOT be free to come and go as we please. We are not free to leave Ukraine, and we have absolutely no control over when we WILL be able to leave. It's out of our hands and all we can do is wait for things to turn around. If we have learned nothing else through this process, we've learned that God's timing is perfect even when it makes no sense to us! So we trust him that he has a reason for us to be delayed, and our eyes are wide open to seeing what that might be.
While America is celebrating its independence today, the Stinsons are instead celebrating our dependence, on a God who is bigger than all of these circumstances.
But His word also says, Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. - Matthew 7:7-8 So I've been asking away, and I won't be shy about asking you to pray for us too! I may be unhappy about being delayed, but I can handle almost everything about it. The one thing that is breaking my heart however is being separated from Sophia and Claire, with no definite end in sight (and this separation has given me a whole new appreciation for military families). Even though the girls have been handling it better than I could have ever hoped, I know it is very hard for them to have both their parents away for so many weeks. It's because of them that I pray incessantly for God to clear the path and allow us to bring Sasha and Anya home soon. It's time for all the Stinsons to be under one roof!
No comments:
Post a Comment