Thursday, April 19, 2007

We're off!

We are leaving for Russia tomorrow. It has been quite a circus to get to this point which is why I have not blogged lately. We are waiting for our passports and visas to come tomorrow morning before we leave. Talk about Stress! But talk even more about FAITH! It is all coming together. I will write more about our experience with travel arrangements later. Right now, I gotta go! I can't believe we will actually be in the presence of our little ones in just a couple days!

Friday, April 06, 2007

A Boy & A Girl!

Well, God has doubled our blessing. We received two new referrals on Tuesday! We only received their pictures, names, and ages. Today we received more info but still not much medical. We will not know anything more until we travel. It is really a miracle the way it came about though especially the swiftness. Thank you so much for your prayers- God is listening and honoring them.

Our consultant informed us that the Dept of Child Care in Russia asked them if they had families for three sets of siblings. They said yes. This is how it came about. These children are not from Ark where we are registered (please pray that this will not cause additional trouble or time delays as you can remember we had to be registered before AAI's accreditation was up, it is now.) They are from Kaliningrad so I am not sure how this will work. As far as I have heard there have not been adoptions out of there (international) since possibly even 2002. But God knows how to work it doesn't he. He had children specifically chosen for us and he found a way to make it happen anyway! Again please pray for ease of process from here on out.

Vadim will be 5-years-old in August. He has light brown hair and brown/hazel eyes. He seems shy, he is not looking at the camera. We are told he is open hearted and kind. He likes to play with cars. He knows he has a sister (Maria) and he remembers her(they are at different orphanages.) The only medical issues it listed was enlarged tonsils, flat foot, and developmental delays from being institutionalized (they all do.)

Maria is 15 months. She was born in Dec. of 2005 (one month younger than my niece- how cute!) She also has light brown hair and brown/hazel eyes. She has a sparkle in her eyes and a gigantic smile. We are told she is kind and is most loved in her group ( I don't know if they mean by caregivers or peers but we did pray that they would be a favorite and well cared for.) She likes to play with her peers. They said the developmental delay she has is speech and that she can only speak in small phrases (What? Most of the children I know this age speak one word at a time so I can't believe they consider phrases a delay.) She can dress and feed herself and is potty trained. They don't think she remembers her brother. I bet she will feel it though.

We are so excited and cannot wait to meet our children face to face. We are beginning to set up their rooms and imaging them in our home. We know this is going to be a HUGE challenge especially at first especially with the language barrier. We are studying harder than ever.

Thank you so much for walking with us on this amazing journey. We could best use prayer in the areas of wisdom (is this right), safety (in travel and our hearts-Please let this one stick Lord), finances (two is more than one), patience (can't wait to see their faces in person), memory (for the Russian language), and endurance (to make it through no matter what the challenge.)