See how God works!

When you are going through a trial, you really don't see why delays and things happen. For the last 2 weeks I have been wondering "Why did we lose our court date, don't You want us to bring our little boy home?" Well, I got an answer to the first one today. Here is the Why....

IF we would have kept our court date, we would leave on the 3rd of September. Which would have been fine if we had all our important documents. We did receive our KBI reports this week, but we did not receive our updated Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) form permitting us to bring an orphan into the US. At first we were upset that it had not arrived, but we found out the why and can see how God worked this all out. The lady who takes care of the orphan documents was in a car accident. She was in the hospital for awhile, then was moved to the nursing home. Due to her unexpected absence a work, the CIS has had to find someone to take her job and figure out what to do. Since we have not recieved this document we would have had to cancel our flights and court date.

We still have no idea when we will get a new date. Please pray that it will be soon, and that we will receive our CIS document.

A recap

Last week was really a tough week to get through. We went from having a court date one day and losing it the next. Overall, we are hanging in there. As far as we know, the documents that must be in the judges hands for a court date are on there way to Russia now. We have 2 documents that we are still trying to get here. One is from immigrations (which we have been waiting for, for 4 weeks now) and the KBI. We were told that we should get a new court date by the end of the week. I will update as soon as we know.

On a lighter note, my brother Tim and his wife Marcy, with their 2 girls, stopped by for a visit last week. We really enjoyed seeing them and having dinner together. Sure hope my cooking doesn't scare them off from visiting again. I really overcooked the broccoli. Sorry!

One day at a time

We are truly learning what it means to take things one day at a time. We received another call today from our rep in telling us Russia is asking for another document. We needed to do another Power of Attorney for our translator to submit our documents to court. Do you get the feeling that they are just making up documents for us to do? I have had to get so many documents apostilled this week that the ladies in the Secretary of State know me by name.

Bad News

We are learning that adoption is not for the weak or faint heart. Got a call today saying we lost our court date. The judge wants our petition to court in hand before our court date (both Russian and English version). We just received our translated copy today. We got it notarized, apostilled and mailed today. Now we just wait for a new court date. Please pray that we will get it soon.

Document update

On Friday I got 16 documents mailed off to our reps in STL. Now we are just waiting on Russia to send us our petition to court (translated into English), and the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation) to send us our background check.

We are hoping to get official travel dates this week. The sooner the better for our air fare. Today's prices per person is $1200. This is all looking better every day.

A rollercoaster week

Good news, we will get to keep our court date IF we get all the documents, except the KBI report, to them by the 25th. They will allow us to hand carry our KBI report to Russia. This is a BIG miracle for us. Thanks so much for your prayers.

I was able to find an MD to see the kids this Friday. My goal is to get all the documents apostilled right after the doctors appointment and in the mail to STL office. The sooner Russia gets them, the sooner we get travel dates.

Till next time.....

It will take a miracle

The good news is that we got our petition to court!! It is in Russian, but it should be translated this week. Bad news is that the FBI background check we sent off for yesterday is not good enough for Russia. We tried to get fingerprinted for the Kansas background check today, but we arrived at 4:02, and they stop doing fingerprints at 4--no exceptions. We will go first thing in the morning to get it taken care of. We need all of our documents in the mail to Russia on the 25th, and the Kansas background check has consistently taken three weeks. CHI is going to try to get ours expedited.

Other document updates:
-Kids medical: Russia didn't like our family DO, so we had to find an MD to sign off on the kids. Got the appointments for next week!!
-Real Estate license: Got them today!
-Home study update: Needed to add a statement about our first trip. Our social worker is working on it.
-Poverty Line statement for Kansas: Will receive with the homestudy.
-Power of Attorney for our translator: Working on it.
-Letter from CHI about their Kansas license: CHI is getting it.

Document update

Geoff and I managed to get our FBI request form sent off today. Please pray that we get the document back early next week. We must have all our paperwork in the mail to Russia on the 25th in order to keep our court date. Otherwise, we would have to reschedule.

Thanks so much for your prayers!!

Good News

We have received a pre-scheduled court date for Sept. 9th! No travel dates yet. Hope to get them next week.

Prayer request:
Pray that we are able to get our documents completed in time for court.
Russia is in war right now, please pray that that won't effect our adoption.

Anniversary

Today, Geoff and I celebrate 14 wonderful years of marriage. He really surprised me with a one night getaway. What I thought was going to be a dinner date turned out to be a getaway. Thanks so much Daniel and Wande for watching the kids!!

I was reading over my old posts and realized I forgot to mention that we have a new CHI rep in the STL office. Our agency is going through a lot of changes due to fewer adoptions, stricter restrictions from other countries, and of course, the economy. We now have Leslie as our CHI rep. We got her a few weeks ago. She used to be on the China team and was recently moved over to the Russia team.

Visiting family

The kids and I just got back from visiting my sister Katie in Washington, MO. All of us had a great time working at her store. Oh, and of course my sister Sarah too. We also went to visit Aunt Marge in St. Louis on Saturday. Got out in the very hot heat to see Grants Farm and then went to lunch. We love to visit family. Sure wish we could have stayed longer though.

For an update on the adoption:

Now we are being told early September for a possible court date. Please pray that we will get a court date soon.