Nikita Frederick - In The Arms Of Jesus

Dear Nikita,
       
You stole our hearts.  You looked like your soon to be brother, Johnny, and sister Carolyn. You were lifted up in prayer constantly. You are LOVED. You are MISSED.  You no longer have Lukemia.  You are Happy. You are now in the arms of Jesus!

     
We grieve - not for you but for us!  We never got the chance to hold you.  We never got to kiss your sweet face.  We never got to tell you how much we love you.  We never got to celebrate your birthday WITH you.  We never got to give you the bear we made. We never got to play with you.  We never got to clothe you, feed you, change you, or wipe your tears.  We never got to hear you laugh or see your smile.  We never got the chance to hear a judge tell us that you were our son, however in our hearts you will ALWAYS be our little boy.  You are an arrow in our quiver, Nikita Frederick.
  
"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD... Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" Psalm 127: 3 & 5
     
We praise God that our grieving is not hopeless.  "so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:7 Because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay for our sins we know that some day we will spend eternity together!

We love you, Nikita!


Hugs and Kisses, 
Momma, Daddy, Johnny, & Carolyn Joy
      


Dear Friends and Family,

  
It started out as a wonderful day.  Johnny, Carolyn and I drove down to Richmond to get  the LAST papers Apostilled for the Dossier.  The children were excited.  They knew that all this paper work stuff getting finished meant that it was getting closer to getting both their brothers home!  While waiting for the Apostille seals - Carolyn was holding and kissing both pictures of her soon to be brothers saying, "Dusty, Niki, Dusty, Niki..."  over and over again.

Then we drove back to Fredericksburg with ALL of our documents for the dossier and met Daddy at Fed Ex!  We put them in an envelope and sent them off to Eastern Europe!  

It was later Friday evening when we received word that it was NOT Dusty who had Leukemia, but it was Nikita.  They had mixed the boys up.  Then we were told that Nikita had been in a coma for a couple of days and passed away that day - Friday, February 25, 2011.


We are thankful to so many people for their prayers of healing for our little guy.  Yes, everyone was praying for Dusty, however, God knew who had Leukemia and He heard the prayers.  We were hoping for healing - this side of heaven.  It was God's will that he be healed - in heaven.  We are not at all sorry that we decided to pursue adopting Nikita.  We do believe with all of our heart that it was what God wanted us to do.  Nikita's life and our efforts were not in vain.  It was because of our love for Nikita that we found and fell in love with Dusty.  


"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28 

Thank you for your continued prayers for our growing family!  We love you and appreciate all of your support as we grieve and as we heal!

In His Name and For His Purpose,
Amy, John, Johnny & Carolyn

"Not So Good News"

"An adopted child grows in your heart."  You probably have heard that sweet saying before, well we are experiencing it.  It is amazing how God places a child, or in our case, two children in our hearts and the love for them just grows and grows.  

We know Dusty and Nikita are not technically our sons yet, but in our hearts they already are!  So when we got some "not so good news" our hearts broke.  We received word that Dusty is in the hospital and that he has been diagnosed with Leukemia. We are praying without ceasing that we can bring them home quickly
 ... so they can receive the best medical care that can be provided
 ... so they can experience the love of parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and most importantly
... so they can know the love of their Heavenly Father!
  
These fragile children have been a precious gift to us and our family - they have strengthened us. It becomes more clear that God has brought us together with these children to care for them and to tell them of Jesus' love.  


Please pray for healing!  Pray that we can get there soon!

   

Happy Birthday, Nikita!

A Baby Picture of Nikita!

Today, February 4th, is Nikita's 3rd Birthday! How we wish he was home with us!  We would have woken him up with a Birthday song!  Johnny sang loud enough - Nikita may have heard him!

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Nikita!  Happy Birthday to you!  May God Bless you! May God Bless you! May God Bless and keep you the whole year through!"

We made cupcakes to celebrate the day - Johnny wanted to know - "How will we get them to him!?"  I really wish there was a way we could!  

Johnny thought Nikita would like BLUE cupcakes!

After Daddy got home we went to FAMILY PIZZA.  The Millers, Schwenzers,  Grandma & Papa Hinz came to help us celebrate Nikita!

BIG Pizza for a BIG celebration!

Then we went to Build a Bear and got Nikita a very special teddy bear for his birthday!
  

We wanted to record our voices to put inside the bear.  Johnny wanted to test it and he said, "Hello Nikita, we miss you when you're far away."  This was Johnny's original thought, and it brought tears to our eyes! So we didn't even try to record anything else.

Carolyn kissing the "I love you" heart that goes inside the bear.

Carolyn didn't want to let go of Nikita's bear.  She was VERY glad to get the bear back after he was stuffed

Johnny had a blast "showering" the bear.

 It was a day full of emotion.  We all love Nikita.  He is already a part of our family and we haven't even met him!  Johnny said it right - we miss him when he is far away!  God willing - next year - will be oh so different!  Happy Birthday, sweet little Nikita!

Clean Up on Aisle 2010

I know, I know, we have some unfinished business!  The year 2010 came to an end without a peep.  I will try to "clean up" December 2010.  From December 11th we were closely monitoring the Winkle's adoption.  They were adopting two sweet little boys, Yuri & Bohdan from the same orphanage as Nikita & Dusty.  A few days before Christmas we got word from Autumn, that they had seen Dusty!  Autumn was even able to take pictures of Dusty and a few other orphans. She posted them for me in an album on her facebook profile. I looked through the pictures thinking that somehow Dusty's pictures were missing.  Then I figured out which pictures were of him.  He doesn't have the same chubby cheeks as in his Reece's Rainbow picture.

The pictures just left me with tears streaming down my face.  I wanted to jump through the pictures and take him home!

   It looked as though Dusty was saying, "Me?!  You want me?!?"  YES, Dusty!  We want YOU!

  "I'm praying you come quick Momma!"  We love you sweetie!  We are hurrying as fast as we can!

Autumn was unable to see Nikita because he was in the hospital - again - with a fever.  Nikita did return to the orphanage, unfortunately he got the FLU after he got back from the hospital.  How I wished that I could hold Nikita and take care of him as he recovered!  So to say the least my thoughts were far away during Christmas!

December 30th we received a call from our Thrivent Representative that we were close to meeting our matching funds goal.  We only needed a donation of $233.00 by the deadline of the 31st to meet the goal.  Well, the next day we not only met but past the goal with donations of $477.00.  Praise the Lord!  Thank you, Thrivent and thank you to all of you that helped to make that happen with such short notice!

We spent Christmas through January 2nd at my parents house in Pennsylvania.  On New Year's Eve my extended family took the cue from 5 year old Jacob, Dusty's Christmas Warrior, and we chose a child from Reece's Rainbow to pray for each day!
My 13 year old niece, Abby is praying for Warner.
My 16 year old niece, Emily is praying for Cliff.  Cliff's forever family found him!
My 18 year old niece, Hannah is praying for Jayson.
My brother, Andy is praying for Henry.
My sister-in-law, Donna is praying for Dariya.
My sister-in-law, Diane is praying for Brent.
Diane's mother, Connie is praying for Victoria.
My mother, Marilyn is praying for  Shawna.
My father, Peter is praying for Sonya.
My husband, John is praying for Myron.  Myron's forever family found him!
I am praying for Lindsay.
Johnny and Carolyn are praying for their brothers Nikita and Dusty.

 On New Years Eve our family worshiped together at our parish where we grew up, Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Beaver Falls, PA.  My brother, Rev. Andrew Currao, was a guest preacher that evening.  It was a very special way to end 2010.  Then on Sunday, January 2nd, my brother preached again.  The bulletin cover that first Sunday of 2011 read, "He predestined us for adoption as sons." Ephesians 1: 5. It was a wonderful and moving sermon.  It was great to hear my brother preach about how we are ALL adopted sons of God!  Jesus rescued us from our sins.  He paid the ultimate price by laying down His life for us. "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace" Ephesians 1: 7.  We are looking forward to 2011 when we will rescue our little boys and tell them the "Good News" of Jesus' love!