Home Stretch; Bring Nikiforov/Sabela family home!!
Donation protected
Hey guys. It's Official!!! Lily and Adam are officially parents of Angel and Joshua!!!
Now, lets help bring Lily, Adam and their Beautiful family home. All funds will go towards visas, flights, travel expenses.
Complete story from Lily Nikiforov and Adam:
OUR STORY
We are the Sabelas. We all came from three different continents but all met in Tanzania. Lilia my wife and I met when she was here in Arusha volunteering at an orphanage, and I was volunteering at a local school in a remote area called Dongobesh. After we met, we went our separate ways not knowing weather we will see each other again. Soon after, Lilia met our future babies Angel and Joshua. They were two children that were recently rescued from a very poor home, abandoned by their parents and brought to the orphanage. Lilia went home with a huge weight on her heart to adopt Angel.
Six months later, God showed her dreams about her going and adopting her little girl. She was thrilled because she couldn't get Angel out of her heart. Single at the time, Lilia had to make a huge decision to go through with the process. Not many on board with her plan and vision at the time, she still went ahead with it. Knowing for sure God is calling her there and will be by her side every step of the way.
One year into the process of her adoption of Angel, Lilia and I started talking more through Facebook and occasional Skype calls. Our love grew for each other as we remained friends. I was waiting to come to Africa as a volunteer again to the same school in Dongobesh. Having health complications I couldn't leave my country. I could not wait to see her face to face so I could tell her how I felt about her. The waiting was becoming longer and harder. Finally we decided to start dating through Skype. We were both excited and curious at the same time. Lilia was a little nervous about me joining her journey to adopt Angel because it was something that God told her to do, and didn't want to push it on me. She didn't know that even before I met her I was talking about wanting to adopt kids in the future as well. During the Christmas season of 2016 I asked Lily if I can fly her out to meet my family and spend the holidays with us. That was the first time we'd see each other in two years and two days since we met. We ended up hitting it off, and having an amazing time together spending time with family and enjoying the holidays. We were best friends, happy to have found each other. We talked about everything; things we love about life, family and God. It was like we were the same person.
Before Lilia returned to Tanzania I proposed to her on her favorite spot in Prague, which totally worked!!! Yay for me!!! She then returned back to Tanzania and I planned to join her soon after. Before leaving to Tanzania I went to see my doctor and she said that I am in good health and can now travel. My health issue was and is still a mystery because the doctors never found what was wrong with me before and couldn't understand why I was totally fine later. A miracle in timing is what we call it now.
One month later I met my fiancé in Tanzania. We started planning our wedding right away and told her family that our wedding will be in August. In July we went back to Prague together to finish planning the big day. Our wedding ended up being the most wonderful event. More amazing then we ever thought possible considering all the circumstanced with planning/financial restrictions. Our friends and family came from the United States and we had an amazing time hanging out in Prague and celebrating before and after the wedding.
Everything we received from our guests covered the rest of our expenses and was enough to have an amazing honeymoon. It was just straight magical.
Returning back to Tanzania we had a few court hearings about Angel and received guardianship. Our dream came true and we were beside ourselves. We couldn't believe what God told my wife can be achieved came through right in front of our eyes as we all became a family.
After a short celebration we got a new surprise. Joshua (Angel's cousin that was also in the same orphanage) needed a family and there was no one to take him. Angel's relatives ask our lawyer if there is a couple like Lilia and I, that would like to adopt Joshua. Side story on Joshua; we were thinking a lot about him while in process of adopting Angel. Lilia had a few dreams about him and he was strongly on my heart as well.
Because it's been a long and difficult journey to adopt Angel, we considered waiting a little while before proceeding with plans to adopt Joshua. Our plan was to give it a year to adjust to parenting and then come back and proceed with the adoption plans. But God had other plans for us. And, as you can see now, we took a sooner opportunity to complete our adoption for Joshua as well. We are so ecstatic that we were able to adopt Joshua as our Love for him grew stronger and stronger as we spend time with him in our new family.
The Tanzania court systems reschedule and postpone these types of hearings very often, so we decided to settle in and become part of The Joshua Foundation and get involved in the community while we are in the waiting period. On March 8th, 2019 (3+ years in the making) we finally received our long awaited victory. Angel and Joshua officially became our adopted children. With this huge accomplishment we are now facing our final few challenges, which require passports, visas, flight tickets and a few miscellaneous travel expenses to finish our journey here in Tanzania and come home. We appreciate any support and we LOVE you guys!!!
Now, lets help bring Lily, Adam and their Beautiful family home. All funds will go towards visas, flights, travel expenses.
Complete story from Lily Nikiforov and Adam:
OUR STORY
We are the Sabelas. We all came from three different continents but all met in Tanzania. Lilia my wife and I met when she was here in Arusha volunteering at an orphanage, and I was volunteering at a local school in a remote area called Dongobesh. After we met, we went our separate ways not knowing weather we will see each other again. Soon after, Lilia met our future babies Angel and Joshua. They were two children that were recently rescued from a very poor home, abandoned by their parents and brought to the orphanage. Lilia went home with a huge weight on her heart to adopt Angel.
Six months later, God showed her dreams about her going and adopting her little girl. She was thrilled because she couldn't get Angel out of her heart. Single at the time, Lilia had to make a huge decision to go through with the process. Not many on board with her plan and vision at the time, she still went ahead with it. Knowing for sure God is calling her there and will be by her side every step of the way.
One year into the process of her adoption of Angel, Lilia and I started talking more through Facebook and occasional Skype calls. Our love grew for each other as we remained friends. I was waiting to come to Africa as a volunteer again to the same school in Dongobesh. Having health complications I couldn't leave my country. I could not wait to see her face to face so I could tell her how I felt about her. The waiting was becoming longer and harder. Finally we decided to start dating through Skype. We were both excited and curious at the same time. Lilia was a little nervous about me joining her journey to adopt Angel because it was something that God told her to do, and didn't want to push it on me. She didn't know that even before I met her I was talking about wanting to adopt kids in the future as well. During the Christmas season of 2016 I asked Lily if I can fly her out to meet my family and spend the holidays with us. That was the first time we'd see each other in two years and two days since we met. We ended up hitting it off, and having an amazing time together spending time with family and enjoying the holidays. We were best friends, happy to have found each other. We talked about everything; things we love about life, family and God. It was like we were the same person.
Before Lilia returned to Tanzania I proposed to her on her favorite spot in Prague, which totally worked!!! Yay for me!!! She then returned back to Tanzania and I planned to join her soon after. Before leaving to Tanzania I went to see my doctor and she said that I am in good health and can now travel. My health issue was and is still a mystery because the doctors never found what was wrong with me before and couldn't understand why I was totally fine later. A miracle in timing is what we call it now.
One month later I met my fiancé in Tanzania. We started planning our wedding right away and told her family that our wedding will be in August. In July we went back to Prague together to finish planning the big day. Our wedding ended up being the most wonderful event. More amazing then we ever thought possible considering all the circumstanced with planning/financial restrictions. Our friends and family came from the United States and we had an amazing time hanging out in Prague and celebrating before and after the wedding.
Everything we received from our guests covered the rest of our expenses and was enough to have an amazing honeymoon. It was just straight magical.
Returning back to Tanzania we had a few court hearings about Angel and received guardianship. Our dream came true and we were beside ourselves. We couldn't believe what God told my wife can be achieved came through right in front of our eyes as we all became a family.
After a short celebration we got a new surprise. Joshua (Angel's cousin that was also in the same orphanage) needed a family and there was no one to take him. Angel's relatives ask our lawyer if there is a couple like Lilia and I, that would like to adopt Joshua. Side story on Joshua; we were thinking a lot about him while in process of adopting Angel. Lilia had a few dreams about him and he was strongly on my heart as well.
Because it's been a long and difficult journey to adopt Angel, we considered waiting a little while before proceeding with plans to adopt Joshua. Our plan was to give it a year to adjust to parenting and then come back and proceed with the adoption plans. But God had other plans for us. And, as you can see now, we took a sooner opportunity to complete our adoption for Joshua as well. We are so ecstatic that we were able to adopt Joshua as our Love for him grew stronger and stronger as we spend time with him in our new family.
The Tanzania court systems reschedule and postpone these types of hearings very often, so we decided to settle in and become part of The Joshua Foundation and get involved in the community while we are in the waiting period. On March 8th, 2019 (3+ years in the making) we finally received our long awaited victory. Angel and Joshua officially became our adopted children. With this huge accomplishment we are now facing our final few challenges, which require passports, visas, flight tickets and a few miscellaneous travel expenses to finish our journey here in Tanzania and come home. We appreciate any support and we LOVE you guys!!!
Organizer and beneficiary
Ivan Didyk
Organizer
Vancouver, WA
Lilia Nikiforov
Beneficiary
