The Johnson Family is Now A...Family!

Last Sunday, I posted this tweet:

"Starting tomorrow, the Johnson family is going internet free on Sundays. Here's to investing in our two new daughters and our new family!"

I received a few comments, messages, and texts about this tweet, not because of our idea to go internet free for a day, but because of the part about our two new daughters.

As of June 30th, Byron and I became parents...sort of :)

For a long time, Byron and I have wanted to have a transitional home for older girls. We wanted to turn our apartment into a place where girls could come and live after graduating from a shelter, or orphanage, and throughout their university years. When we were in Donetsk, you might have read some of our posts about The Good Shepherd Shelter in Makeevka. While we were serving the kids there, we got to know one teenage girl named Yana. Yana and I hit it off right from the start. The first time I met her, I remember saying to Byron, "I wonder if she'll be the first girl that will come and live with us."

Yana and I started to become friends, and soon, the three of us (Yana, Byron, and I), started to become very close. Before I knew it, I realized that I loved Yana like she was my own daughter, and I no longer hoped she would live with us to fulfill a ministry dream - I hoped she would live with us because we were turning into a family. 

But, when the war came, and when Byron and I had to flee from Donetsk, we were literally torn from Yana. We didn't even get to say goodbye to her because of a rebel checkpoint that had gone up on the highway that we had to use to get to the Shelter. 

After leaving, I (as you've read) was totally devastated by the whole event, but even more so, my heart was longing for Yana. She had become a daughter to me, and in a matter of hours, I went from thinking about how we could all become a family to how I may never see her again. 

Throughout last year, Yana and I stayed in contact as much as we could, but the looming question was always, will I ever see you again? In my heart, I always hoped the answer was yes, but in my mind, the reality was often no. 

But, the Lord did an amazing work in our lives and in Yana's life over the last year. I see now that we all really grew in the Lord over the last year, even though it was extremely difficult and painful in many ways. And in May, the Lord brought us back to Ukraine AND we were reunited with Yana. I had imagined this moment for a whole year - how would it be seeing her again? Would she be angry at me? Would she be glad to see me? Would we still feel like a family?

It was like no time had passed at all. We still understood each other, we still wanted to be in each other's lives, and we still felt like a family. As Yana finished high school, we started praying about asking her to move in with us. We were so nervous that she would say no! But, Yana decided that she did want to move in with us, on June 30th, she did!

Back to the tweet though. I wrote "our new daughters," not "our new daughter," which indicates that there are not one but TWO girls living with us. Don't worry, it wasn't a typo! :) We, in fact, have two girls living with us now. 

From Left To Right: Byron, Yana (II), Emily, and Yana (I)

About a month before Yana moved in with us, she told me about her friend at the Shelter, also named Yana. We'll call the first Yana, Yana (I) and the second Yana, Yana (II). Yana (II) was in the same situation as Yana (I). They both were just about to graduate from high school, they both were hoping to go to university in (or near) Kiev, and they both knew each other from the Shelter. 

We started to pray about it, asking the Lord what He wanted us to do. After much prayer, we felt the Lord tell us to invite Yana (II) to also move in with us. This was a pretty big step of faith for us because we actually hadn't met Yana (II) before, but we knew the Lord wanted us to invite her to stay with us, so we chose to be obedient and trusted that He would work out all of the details. 

We had all kinds of questions leading up to the Yanas moving in with us. Would they fit our personalities? Would we all get along? How will giving up most of our privacy affect our marriage? Will Yana (II) like us? Will we like Yana (II)? As each question came up, we felt the Lord keep reminding us that we just needed to trust Him, and He take care of the rest. 

June 30th finally arrived, and Byron and I were pretty nervous. As we ate breakfast that morning, the reality of how our lives were about to change started to hit us, but we also had this feeling of excitement that we'd never had before - we were about to become parents (sort of! Haha the girls are both 18, so we use the word "parents" loosely :))!

Right after breakfast, my phone buzzed and I had a text saying, "we're downstairs," meaning that the girls were at our apartment building, in the lobby with their bags, and ready to move in. We ran downstairs, met the girls, and in an instant, absolutely everything, and yet nothing, changed. 

We immediately could see that Yana (II) was a total sweetheart and we were really excited to get to know her better and welcome her into our family. And we already knew that we loved Yana (I) and were so excited to be in her life and have her in ours. We brought the girls up to our apartment, helped them get settled in, and life continued on, and, in a lot of ways, continued on just like normal. The only difference now is that our little family of two, quite suddenly, grew to four. And I'm totally sure, that the Lord knew what He was doing when He chose to match Byron and I with Yana (I) and Yana (II) - we all really do fit together well, and the Lord really is turning us into a close family. 

It's been so cool to see how the Lord has (and is) worked everything out and how He brought both of these girls into our lives. It also has taught us a lot about faith and prayer. 

Byron and I went for a walk a couple days ago and Byron shared something with me that really spoke to my heart. He said, "You know, for a whole year, we prayed that the Lord would bring us back to Yana (I), and the whole time the Lord was probably thinking, 'why just ask me for one Yana, that's nothing for Me. I will bless you with Yana (I), and I'll send you a second Yana.'"

And then Byron said, "You know, we should have been praying for ten Yanas. That still would have been nothing for the Lord."

I'm so blessed by my husband's faith, and I'm so amazed by the wonderful work that the Lord has done, is doing, and will be doing in our lives and in the lives of our girls. And, I'm so blessed to now say that I'm officially a "mom." 

The Lord is good, and worthy of all praise!

-Emily

P.S. This post was published with the full authorization from both Yanas :)