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So when that text came through, I burst into tears. What was God’s plan?<br />
Arsenijs was too old to be adopted. We had no idea how to bring him into<br />
our family for good, but we all felt that our family was indeed where he<br />
belonged.<br />
When we got home, we immediately started researching ways to bring<br />
Arsenijs to the United States to live with us long-term. We quickly learned<br />
that he could come on a student visa, and that is where CHCA came into<br />
the story.<br />
We started praying and contacting schools who would be interested in<br />
helping us get Arsenijs here on a student visa. We called all of our local<br />
private and public schools in Northern Kentucky. We contacted local<br />
Catholic schools, public schools, and Christian schools. We even contacted<br />
NKU hoping he could just skip straight to his freshman year there. With<br />
doors closing, we quickly began to lose hope.<br />
Then my husband mentioned CHCA, because he knew someone with<br />
whom he worked whose children attended CHCA. We looked at CHCA’s<br />
website and got so excited about their International Student Program<br />
(ISP) and their mission to glorify God through their work with international<br />
students. But we were still not sure if we could even make it happen. We<br />
called anyway. The first person we spoke with ISP Admissions Director<br />
Kim Vincent. She was so kind and sincere and was genuinely interested in<br />
Arsenijs’ story. Though we were unsure because of the costs and logistics,<br />
we continued to pray and talk with the ISP staff. My husband John David<br />
and I started feeling hopeful that this may actually be where God was<br />
leading us. We could tell that both Kim and ISP Director Todd Bacon were<br />
sincere believers in God and truly had a passion for international students.<br />
One day, as I hung up the phone with CHCA, I remember bowing my head<br />
and praying. As a family, I knew we loved Arsenijs and wanted him to have<br />
a home with us, but I couldn’t see how we were going to afford two years at<br />
CHCA and four years at NKU. CHCA was our final hope because we had<br />
contacted every other school in our area even as far as Lexington and none<br />
seemed interested. A lot was riding on this. I bowed my head and prayed,<br />
“God if You want Arsenijs here, You are going to have to pay for it. We<br />
cannot afford it. We need You to provide $20,000 a year. I know that’s a<br />
crazy amount but You own the cattle on a thousand hills so what’s $20,000<br />
to You?” I will never forget that prayer.<br />
Shortly after, Kim and Todd asked us to come in for an interview with them<br />
and Dr. Dean Nicholas. On our way up there, I looked at John David and<br />
asked him if we should even do this because we didn’t have the money<br />
to afford it. He said we should just follow this road and see where God<br />
takes us. The interview went so well. We left feeling that Dr. Nick, Todd,<br />
and Kim were such sincere, passionate Christians, even if this didn’t work<br />
out, it was so encouraging to see fellow believers involved in such an<br />
amazing ministry to students from around the world. Not too long after<br />
that interview and after many more emails, Todd called me and said that<br />
they thought they had found a way for Arsenijs to go to school there. That<br />
a generous donor had contacted them and offered to help international<br />
students in need come to school there. This generous donor had offered a<br />
$20,000 scholarship.<br />
I still can’t tell this story without crying. I asked God specifically for<br />
$20,000 and this generous person - who we didn’t even know - would give<br />
Arsenijs $20,000 to go to school at CHCA both his junior and senior years<br />
of high school. God had answered us so specifically!<br />
We are still in awe of God’s amazing answers to prayer and we are still so<br />
thankful to EVERYONE who made it possible for Arsenijs to be here with<br />
us. There’s so much more to this story. We would need a full book to fully<br />
tell of God’s faithfulness and His mighty works to bring Arsenijs here to our<br />
family and to the amazing family of CHCA. Todd, Kim, Dr. Nick, everyone<br />
on the Robotics team, teachers, tutors, students, and parents of students<br />
loved on Arsenijs his junior and senior years in a way to which we could<br />
never give justice with mere words.<br />
Arsenijs loved his time at CHCA. God had brought this little boy who had<br />
suffered things we still don’t know from a little village in Latvia to a place<br />
of love and kindness and generosity beyond anything of this world. Only<br />
through the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ could this be possible.<br />
Through CHCA, Arsenijs enjoyed learning, competed on an amazing<br />
Robotics team, learned to fly, travelled to California, spent the night<br />
with the Sequeira family every week during Robotics, where he learned<br />
he loved Pop Tarts, had the most amazing graduation party through the<br />
generosity of the Gunlock family, was treated to a Latvian lunch through<br />
the international program, learned he loved Kings Island roller coasters<br />
when the international students went to Kings Island, went to plays, and<br />
incredible dinners, helped himself to snacks in Mrs. Vincent’s office every<br />
afternoon, learned so much more about his love of computers through<br />
Mr. Cool’s amazing teaching and kindness, and we could just go on and<br />
on. Everyone from the janitorial staff, to the students, to the teachers, to<br />
the parents, and to the whole staff of CHCA loved on Arsenijs in some<br />
ways even more than our family did during his first two years here. John<br />
David and I were so worried the first day we dropped him off at CHCA,<br />
because although we knew the staff and leaders of CHCA were kind and<br />
loved God, we feared he might not be embraced by classmates, but even<br />
the students at CHCA were so incredibly kind and gentle with Arsenijs. As<br />
a result, Arsenijs has changed so much from the guarded kid he was two<br />
years ago. He’s outgoing, hysterically funny, open, and kind. God has used<br />
everyone at CHCA to shape him into more of the amazing human being<br />
God created him to be. While we are excited for Arsenijs’ next adventure<br />
at NKU where he started this fall, we will miss CHCA so much. Everyone<br />
who knew and loved Arsenijs at CHCA will forever hold a very special place<br />
in our hearts. Through the incredible generosity of so many, Arsenijs knows<br />
the love of Christ through the family of God. We do not know how God will<br />
use Arsenijs in the future, but we do know that God has big plans, and has<br />
given him a very powerful testimony to the Lord’s ability to take what was<br />
broken and make it beautiful.<br />
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