Unforgettable...

We picked up Sophia this morning.  Yeah!  It was an exciting and emotional experience.  We are so excited to be bringing her home to her new family, but yet we are sad to see her leave the only people and place that she has ever known.  The care takers were crying, but very happy for her.  She cried while we were leaving, but after being in the car for a little while she stopped and just enjoyed looking out the window.  Then she fell asleep in my arms and slept the rest of the way.  While we were driving from the orphanage the song "Unforgettable" was playing on the radio.

When we got back to our apartment we fed her some lunch and played a little with her.  She is doing great.  She seems to be okay with us right now.  After lunch we called Gracie.  Gracie is so excited.  She does not understand why we have to stay so long.  Gracie was excited to hear Sophia laugh on the phone.  After the phone call, Sophia began crying.  We did not know what to do, we were trying everything and then we layed her down and she cried herself asleep.  She is sleeping right now.  She looks so sweet.

Tomorrow we will have her medical examine for the US Embassy.  Bless her little heart.  Tomorrow is going to rough for her and us.     

Well, we are going to take a nap too.  We need to sleep at any moment that we can....who knows what tonight will be like?  Talk to ya all later...

Yeah!!! Our I-600A has been extended!

This is fantastic news....immigration has extended the paperwork for us so we can bring Sophia home!  Thank you to all our church family and friends for your amazing contacts.  The governor, senator and state reps stepped in and rushed the paperwork.  We are so very thankful, otherwise it would have taken up to 75 days to process.  Thank you, thank you!

We are scheduled to leave for Russia in two weeks.  We will be in Russia for 10 days and then we will bring her home.  The next trip will be filled with applying for passports, visas, a medical check up and interview with the US embassy...then home.

Gracie Has A Sister!!!

Praise God! We are a family of four! Sophia is officially our daughter! We survived the court hearing! I was so nervous this morning! I had a dream last night that I fainted in the court room! Luckily that did not happen today.

I can't remember everything about the hearing...it's all a blur to me right now. The judge asked Charles questions and he did great. He stood in the middle of the room so proud and confident. I was so proud of him. He answered the questions perfectly! Then it was my turn. I did okay. I had the question about punishment and will Gracie be jealous. Plus several others that I can't remember right now.

Then we drove to the orphanage. We picked up Sophia and drove her to get her passport photo taken. We did not know we were doing that today. It was a surprise to us. Sophia took a beautiful picture. But bless heart she cried a lot when we walked her out of the orphanage, while we were riding in the car and at the photo place. It's was so crazy...Sophia just sat on our lap, not in a car seat! This is strange to us.

Charles and I are enjoying a Coke and French Fries from McDonald's right now...ha! We are soooooo tired. This has been a very emotional experience.

Finally Gracie has a sister!!!!! We are a family of four!!!!!! God is so good!

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers! We really appreciate them!

We have arrived!

We are here in Russia! It was a long flight. We slept just a couple of hours on the plane. But once we checked into our hotel, we took a five hour nap.
We did not get to see Sophia today. We are supposed to get to see her tomorrow afternoon.
We will have more details tomorrow. It's almost 11:00pm here, so I'm going to bed.

Everything has been sent to Immigration!

Last night we picked up our updated home study and overnighted all the requested documents to Immigration.  Hip Hip Hooray!  They should receive everything by this afternoon.  We are so thankful for our home study adoption agency.  They have worked so hard for us.

Our friends and church family have been so sweet to provide contacts for state representatives, senators and governors.  We are so grateful.  We appreciate everyone's support.  This will help to move the document through faster.  Charles and I are so thankful for all of you.  We have received so many blessings from God.

God's grace is so present in our lives.  He is in total control.  He was providing the path for today long before we even realized it.  Glory to God.

We have a Court Date!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

We got the call yesterday.  Our court date has been scheduled for April 28th!  This is fantastic news.  We still have some paperwork that needs to be processed.  We are praying that it moves through the system quickly or otherwise we will not be able to bring her home until it is finalized.

This next trip is just for the court hearing.  We will be able to visit her once at the orphanage then go to our court hearing and then we come back home.  It's a fast trip.  Then we will return after a 10 day waiting period to bring her home (if everything goes well with the last document).

We need everyone's prayers.  Please pray for our sweet little girl in Russia, our court hearing and for a fast turnaround on the last document.  God is in control.  He knows exactly when this precious little girl will find a home in our family. 

Praise God - we have a court date!!!   

Sorry we have not kept up with blog...

Here's an update...

While we were in Russia last month, we meet a sweet little girl.  As of today, she is almost 13 months old.  She has dark eyes and dark hair.  She is so beautiful.  God has truely blessed us.  We will add pictures of her once the adoption is finalized.

All of our paperwork has been sumbitted...yeah!  We are waiting to hear back from Russia for a court date.  We are hoping to return in about 4 to 5 weeks.  We will go back to Russia for our court date and then come back to the USA for little over a week, then go back to Russia to bring her home. 

We have been working on the house to get it all ready for a baby.  The nursery is coming together.  We have pulled all the things down from the attic.  We are putting up high chairs, car seats, toys and cleaning and putting away sweet little clothes.  Gracie is helping with the shopping....she loves all the sweet little clothes.  I have been stocking up on diapers and wipes. 

Here is a picture of Charles' hat that he bought in Russia.....  The hats and coats were amazing in Russia.  They were beautiful! 

God is AWESOME....His love is so amazing!  He is guiding us through this journey with His love and grace.   We have so much to be thankful for.