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.  

We're in Russia!

We have arrived in Russia. It was a long trip. Charles was able to fall asleep on the plane. I had a much harder time. We had a nap at our hotel then had an early dinner at a little Italian restuarant.

It is extremely cold here! They have snow everywhere! It's supposed to snow while we are here this week.

Last night while walking to dinner, Charles and I wore our matching Sorel snow boots. We past a lady walking with her child and she stared at our matching boots and laughed out loud at us. Oh well, our feet were very warm, I bet her feet were cold.

We are supposed to be sleeping right now, it's twelve o'clock and we are both up. Charles is working on emails.

Tomorrow is a big day for us. Keep us in your prayers. God is watching over us every step of the way. He knows exactly what's going to happen next for our family. As matter of fact, He knew even before we were born. He's in total control. What a wonderful feeling.

A Little Girl Might be Available!

We received an email from Anna on Dec 23rd.  They have a little girl that might be available for adopiton.  As of right now, she is still available for domestic adoption thru Jan 18th.  On Jan 18th, if she is not adopted locally, we will receive an invitation to go to Russia .  We did not recieve any other information on her age, health or anything else.  We are rushing to get our visas.  If she is still available on Jan. 18th, then we will travel to Russia on Sunday, Jan 23rd through Saturday, Jan 29th.

Gracie is very excited.  She especially can't wait for her grandparents to come and take care of her. 

Paperwork....paperwork!!

The other day we were told that we needed to update our home study by basically starting all over again.  I was extremely frustrated, but willing to do what we needed to do.  Then last night we found out that we only need to do an addendum to the home study.....hip hip hooray!!!!  This will go faster and cost less...yeah!  We still have lots of paperwork to put together before the court date.....but it's a managable list.

Last night we put together the crib in the nursery!  It was very exciting.  Gracie loved to see that her sister is going to use her crib.  The room is starting to come together.  It's real exciting.

We're still thinking about names.  Gracie comes up with some real sweet ones.  I'm so glad she is so excited.

We're Back Home!

Wow....what at long flight home!  I thought we were never going to get home.  We were up for 24 hours straight!  We were exhausted last night.  But we were so excited to see Gracie.  I gave her the biggest hug and kisses!  She did a great job while we were out of town.  My mom and dad were amazing with her.

Last night Gracie could not stop talking about her sister.  She said she is going to teach her how to walk and talk.  And she is even going to teach her how to jump in the deep end of the pool!!!  The last three days of school, she has taken new pictures of her sister to show everyone at school.  She is so proud.

Life is GREAT!  God has blessed us in so many ways.  We are so very thankful. 

Today, Charles flies to India....yes....India!!!  Bless his heart.  He has two 9 hours flights.  His poor body is going be a mess.  His mind is going to have no idea what time it is.  He is a trooper.  He could have taken a flight from Russia to India, but he wanted to share the moments with me on the flight back and also see Gracie's face when she talked about her new sister.  He is the GREATEST!!!!

Well, we are not sure when we get to return to Russia.  We have two more trips to Moscow before we get to bring her home.  But our translator told us it could be July or September.  In the meantime, we are going to get our house ready for a baby.  Cribs, high chairs, changing table....etc.  Wow...I have my work cut out for me!!!

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers.  You all are amazing!