Happy New Year!

Ok....maybe not quite yet for us......but in Vladivostok, they were celebrating when we were just getting up this morning (8:00 a.m. CST)! It makes me wonder if our little guy was allowed to stay up (probably not) or if he was tucked into bed at a reasonable time (this would be fine too). :o) It's hard not knowing what he's up to...but we are confident that he's alright.

We hope that you all have a safe and blessed New Year's celebration. Be careful on the roads if you are traveling tonight. We plan to stay home by ourselves. Actually, we are really excited about it! We are never home on New Years! Plus, it's been snowing for a while today....so it could be really dangerous to go out anyway. Please drive safely!

We'll post again in 2008!!

Love and God's Blessings,
Shane and Kathy

In His Time.....

No, I don't have any news. I am just posting tonight to say that I am really trying to work on understanding God's will and trusting His timing. In reality, December would have been the perfect month for me to be gone from work. School is out of session for 1/2 of the month and there's not much going on. Therefore, in my eyes....December would have worked out PERFECTLY! What a great plan! And...in all reality, January wouldn't be so bad to be gone for a month because it tends to be fairly quiet as well.....and, for Shane, car sales are slow in January as well. So, January....could work out fine too. However, I'm a little leary that we will be gone for part of February too....which wouldn't necessarily be in my "perfect plan."

Nevertheless, I am going to try my best to "let go and let God". This is extremely hard for me to do because my plan seemed to be pretty awesome (if I do say so myself)! Even though, I would like to think that I am an intelligent person.....God knows so much more than I do about what is best for me, for Shane, and for Trey. He knows our circumstances now and in the future. He has laid out the perfect plan. And...even though, it's excruciating to give up any type of control, I know that if I give it to Him....everything will work out just fine. Plus, there's not a whole lot that I can do about this wait anyway. Worrying certainly won't help.

This does not dismiss the fact that we miss Trey SO MUCH! And....we can't wait for the day that we can bring him home. We are "GA-GA" when we simply think about our reunion. We know that everything will work out just fine and God is in control.

Ok....I just had to put a "positive post" out here.....Whew! I hate when I leave you all on a negative note. We hope that you all have a Blessed and Happy New Year! May you be safe and may 2008 be a prosperous and happy year for all of you!

Take Care and God Bless......

P.S. A special thanks to Carey Vaughn and Alicia Marlowe for your words of encouragement, your understanding, and your Christian witness throughout all of this.

Yet Another Set-Back

Ok....so you know that we have been dying to get "the call". We have had our lives on hold for 2 months now....not making too many plans because we assume that we will be traveling soon. Well, I contacted Janiece, our social worker in St. Louis and she didn't have good news for us. She said that we may not hear anything until after the Russian holidays (after Jan. 10th or so....). I just don't understand. All of the documents are completed on the U.S. side and on the Russian side. Nevertheless, they don't want to set the court date yet because apparently, the Vlad courts are going to change their requirements in January. Therefore, we have to wait and see what will be required and then go and fulfill these requirements. I am completely at a loss right now. Why does this have to take so long????

This just doesn't seem fair. There is a little boy on the other side of the world just waiting for us to come back. Isn't that "reason-enough" to hurry up and place him in a loving home?

Wow.....my posts are get more and more depressing all the time. I'm sorry that you have endure reading this, but right now, this blog is all that we have. It's our way of connecting with this adoption. There's no more shopping to do. There's no more preparations that need to be done. We are ready! Therefore, when we just sit and wait....the only thing to do is pray alot!!!! (which we do) and to blog about this experience. Someday, our little son will understand why it took so long for us to return for him.

Thanks for your thoughts and your prayers in this process. Please keep them coming. We hope to post some good news soon....however, I think that it still may be a while before we know anything.

Take Care and God Bless.

All I Want For Christmas...

If you would have told me that we would be sitting here at Christmas, with no son....I would have never believed you. When we left Vlad, I thought that I might not even be able to finish my volleyball season due to our 2nd trip. Then, November came and went. Now, December is rolling by.....and we still don't even have travel dates. This is so depressing. Literally, all that I wanted for Christmas was a child of my own...... I guess that we will continue to wait for our little guy. We just hope and pray that he is doing well this holiday season. We will also continue to pray that we get some news SOON. My next hopeful date is the 26th. We, obviously won't hear anything before then because even if his court date is set in the next few days.....our agency will be closed until the 26th. We REALLY want to hear some news soon.

Sorry to vent....especially during such a festive season. It's just been disappointing. I would have never guessed that we would endure such a wait.

Shane and I are leaving for Minnesota tomorrow morning. We will be spending Christmas with his family. It will be nice to get away and it will be nice to see the Gebhardt side of the family. We're not sure when we will be returning to MN....it may be a while due to all of our adoption events. Therefore, it will be good to make this trip.

We hope that all of you have a wonderful, safe, and blessed Christmas. Even though, our December hasn't gone as planned, we can certainly rejoice in our Savior's birth. He is definitely the "Reason for the Season". MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You Will Never Believe This....

I have a confession to make...... Tonight..... I baked! For those of you who know me pretty well, you probably just fell off your chair! This is a rare occurance....like...this might be the only time that I baked in 2007! Anyway, I have been wanting to make something "Russian". So, the other day, I looked up the recipe for Borscht--a type of Russian soup. After reading the ingredients, I opted to pass on the Borscht--Beets? Cabbage? Yuck! No Thanks! Therefore, I kept looking. I came across a recipe for Russian Tea Cakes. They are like little cookies and they are really good! They weren't too difficult to make either! :o) I'm so excited for my little Russian Tea Cakes! I may have to bring some to the Gebhardt Christmas this year! YUM!

I should mention that it's not like I can't cook or bake....it's just that it's so much simpler to keep meals easy....such as: frozen pizza, spaghetti, ordering pizza, etc.!! However, I am attempting to make a better effort in the culinary department lately. Hey! I'm going to be a mom any day now! I need to increase the options for dinner. Don't you think?

Anyway, I just thought that I would pass this wonderful little event on to you. Ok...now, you can get yourselves off the floor (from disbelief) and move on with your day! :o)

News...No News....Progress????

We received an email from Janiece (CHI Coordinator in St. Louis). Janiece heard back from Irina (in Vladivostok). It appears that the orphanage signed the "Conclusion for Court". Therefore, they have been instructed to send the "Conclusion for Court" to the Ministry of Education. Once it arrives at the MOE, they will look over everything to make sure that we are all set. If this is the case (LET'S PRAY THAT IT IS....), then they will go ahead and schedule our court date. They are still optimistic that we will go to court in January.

Regarding our documents, apparently, Janiece doesn't know what will need to be updated because it's all relative to the judge. If the judge requires certain things to be updated, then we have to update them. However, some judges will take "year-old" documents. So, let's pray that we don't have to re-do too many things.

So, we have no news....but we'll just say that progress is taking place. At least, we have some information. This is soooo helpful during this wait! We are praying that we will hear about our court date by Christmas. Wouldn't that be a GREAT Christmas present? :o) We think so. :o)

Just wanted to update you all! Have a GREAT Day!

PAR-TAY!

Yesterday, we had a Surprise 40th Wedding Anniversary (for my parents)/ Surprise 60th Birthday Party (for my mom). It was a blast! For the most part, we pulled off all of the surprises. My dad knew about the birthday party for my mom. However, he did not know about the anniversary surprise! So....we pulled it off! :o) We also surprised my mom by having her sister fly in from Florida for the event. My mom was sooooo excited to see her sister! All in all, the day was a success and everyone had fun! We were a little concerned about the weather because there was supposed to be freezing rain and it was definitely very icey everywhere. In fact, there were many guests who didn't show up due to the weather. Nevertheless, the party went on....our entire immediate family was there and it was a very special occasion. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful parents and it was awesome to celebrate these two big events together.

So, if we aren't in Russia, at least we are getting some good parties in! Last Sunday, we had the volleyball team over for a party. Yesterday, we had the big birthday/anniversary bash! And...next Sunday, is Shane's work Christmas party. So, these events are also helping the time to pass.

All in all, we were very glad to be able to attend my parents' party. We have been planning it for at least 6 months. I was fully aware that I might not be able to be there due to our travel situation. So, as much as we wish that we were in Russia, it was good to be at the party for our parents.

We hope that you like the pictures! Have a GREAT Day!

P.S. My mom's knee is healing fairly well. She's still experiencing some pain and has a lot of swelling...but all in all, she's doing well. She was a trooper at the party yesterday! I admire her willingness to make the most of this despite her circumstances.

Prayer Requests

Well, I met with our social worker today. (She had to reschedule from Tuesday). Our meeting went well and it was great to catch up with her, as we have not talked a lot lately. As I suspected, she didn't have any news to give us. She is working extremely hard to get more information for us. She is also trying to get us the details on what documents need to be updated prior to our court date. Our social worker is awesome! She has had an extremely trying year...as she found out late in her pregnancy that she had breast cancer. So....in May, she gave birth to her son. Then, shortly after, she had a masectomy and has been undergoing chemotherapy. She truly is an INSPIRATION! She has seen some big "ups" and some real "downs" in 2007. Her name is Pam....please pray for her continued recovery.

One thing that Pam said that really stuck with me was after one of my comments. I said that I believe we picked the most complicated and the most expensive country for international adoption. She agreed that Russia is difficult (there's no doubt!), but she said that she has even less confidence in some of the other countries. It appears that International adoption is getting more and more difficult EVERYWHERE. This is so sad...because there are SO MANY orphans in this world. These children could really benefit from families here in the U.S. who can care for them. Please also pray that the situations surrounding International adoption improve...so families can continue to bring these children home.

One last prayer request. I should have mentioned this earlier in the week....but my Mom had a knee replacement surgery on Monday. She is doing very well and she will be going home from the hospital today. Please pray that she continues to recover well and starts feeling better soon. My mom is an INSPIRATION too! She has had quite a year as well! She has had both hips replaced in 2007. She also had the battery in her pacemaker/defibrillator (from open heart surgery in 2005) replaced. She will be a brand new woman when this knee is healed! I keep teasing her that she is going to run a marathon after all this is done. :o) Anyway, please pray that she continues to do well. She has had an "eventful" year.

Thanks again for following our journey! We can't wait for the day when we will post travel dates! Hopefully, that day isn't too far off. :o) Take Care and God Bless!

Volleyball Party!

Last night, Shane and I hosted my entire volleyball team for our annual "End of the Season Party"! So, we had 22 people (including ourselves) in our tiny house! I have to say, everyone found a place to sit and we had a blast! It was so good to have the team together again. We had dinner (I ordered catered food from Portillo's Restaurant. YUM!), then the girls all exchanged their "Cougar Pal" gifts, then the team held a "surprise" Baby Shower for us, then we gave out some awards and senior gifts. We ended the night with a photo slideshow from the season and a devotion. The night couldn't have gone any better! It was so much fun to have Shane see my team in their element. He sees them play lots of volleyball....but he has not been around their humor and their quirkiness nearly enough. He laughed A LOT! They are such a fun group of people! I definitely embrace the times that we have together.

I can't wait for Trey to meet his "big sisters" on the volleyball team! He doesn't know it yet....but he has lots of babysitters just waiting for him to arrive home! I told the girls that I definitely want them to be a part of his life. I want him to know them and they are so excited to meet him! I'm sure that he will become a little gym rat...chasing volleyballs around the gym...and learning to play the game as well. He's destined to be into sports, living with us. :o)

We have our regular DCFS Monitoring Visit tomorrow with our social worker from CHI. We are anxious to talk to her to see if she can give us any more insight about to our 2nd trip. We're pretty sure that she won't have any news....but we'll ask anyway. We'll let you know if we find out anything new!

Take Care and God Bless!

Day By Day

I apologize that my last post was such a "downer". We were just so hopeful that we would travel before Christmas. I emailed our social worker in St. Louis and she gave some more explanations as to why this is taking so long. Basically, she said that they really need 3 consecutive weeks in order to complete our trip before the end of the year. Between the US holidays and the Russian holidays, it can get pretty difficult to do much in December. She said that basically "nothing" happens between Dec. 21st and Jan. 15th....so this is why we will most likely wait until 2008. It's not the news that we want to hear...but I guess that there's not much that we can do about it.

As I look for what God might be teaching me in all of this....the word, "Patience" comes to mind. I have always thought of myself as a very patient person. However, I am definitely learning otherwise lately. I guess that I am a "work-in-progress" and God is saying that I have SO MUCH to learn. In the end, we know that we will be parents.....it's just going to be a little longer before we can fulfill this dream. I can tell you one thing....we will NEVER take our parenthood for granted. We have had so much time to prepare, pray, and value this wonderful responsibility.

So, again...I apologize. Please bear with me during my "melt-downs". I am a control freak and, right now, I have no control........ The saving grace is that God is in control. :o)

Bad News

If you read Alicia's latest comment, you are aware that we don't have good news. She talked to Irina and apparently the plan for the rest of the year is to have 2 first trip families per week for the rest of the year. They are only going to have one family go to court....a family who has been waiting since April to return. Therefore, it looks as if we won't return to Russia until after the New Year. I'M SO FRUSTRATED RIGHT NOW. Not only did we want to have Trey home for Christmas....but also, our documents are going to start expiring at the end of December. Therefore, we most likely will have to re-do just about everything! Also, Russia's Christmas is on Jan. 7th....so we won't return until after their holidays are complete and the judges are back to work. It appears that we will be waiting for quite some time....... PLEASE PRAY that something will change. We are so ready to go back and pick up Trey! We really don't want to wait until mid to late January or later.....

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving! Ok...I'm a little early. However, I'm sure that I won't have time to post a blog entry tomorrow morning. Throughout this week, I have really spent some time reflecting on all of our blessings. Please humor me as I list some of the things that I am thankful for:

1.) My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (With Him, Everything is possible.)

2.) My husband, Shane (I have been truly blessed with a loving and wonderful husband!)

3.) Trey (Of course, I had to mention this little guy! We miss him soooo much and can't wait to bring him home.)

4.) My parents (who have been married for 40 years!!! and....who are truly great parents!)

5.) My 6 siblings, along with their significant others and their children (Wow! What a group! I love when we are all together! Yeah for holidays and family-time!)

6.) Shane's family (I couldn't ask for better in-laws and extended family. What a great group, as well.)

7.) Shane's daughter, Nika (We've grown over the years and it's been fun watching her grow up.)

8.) All of our friends (especially Nikki, Marshan, and Brad--You have always been there for us!)

9.) My health and the good health of our family and friends (We especially Praise God for my mom's health, as she has endured quite a few health issues over the past 3 years.)

10.) Our home (It's little, but we love it!!)

Ok....I will stop there because I am probably boring you by now. However, please note that I could go on for a while! We really have so much to be thankful for! Health, Happiness, Family, Friends, and above all....Jesus Christ, who loves us so much! We don't deserve this kind of love.

We hope and pray that each of you has a very Happy, Blessed, and Safe Thanksgiving! Shane and I are heading down to Pekin, IL to be with the Krohe side of the family for Thanksgiving. However, this will come after I run in a 5K Race tomorrow morning. (That is...if I survive the 5K!) Nevertheless, it should be a fun day, filled with food, family, and giving thanks!

Take Care and God Bless,

Kathy (and Shane)

Happy Anniversary!

We just want to wish Kathy's Mom and Dad (Maxine and Richard) a very Happy 40th Anniversary! We love you so much! Have a WONDERFUL Day!

Saturday Night....

Well, it's Saturday night and we are enjoying a relaxing evening at home...doing nothing, but eating dinner and watching college football on TV. We don't really feel like going anywhere because 1.) It's cold and rainy outside and 2.) I have a nasty chest cold--coughing and feeling under the weather. Therefore, this is a nice way to spend the evening. :o)

I'm not sure if you read the latest "comment" from the Marlowes. However, they did some checking on our situation. Apparently, our agency has collected the necessary documents from Trey's family (not sure what these documents are....) and now Irina (our Rep) is working on the next set of documents to get us registered for a court date. Hopefully, this doesn't take too long. We are still optimistic that we can go before the end of the year. It sure would be nice to go before Christmas....but we'll just keep praying about this and trusting God's Plan. We really want to thank the Marlowes for asking Lana and Irina about our situation. This was an extemely nice favor! Thanks so much!

Well, I'll sign off for now. I hope that you are all staying warm and dry tonight. I know that we will! Take Care and God Bless!

What a Nice Weekend.....

We had a really nice weekend and definitely enjoyed ourselves. On Friday night, I took my team to the Penn State vs. Northwestern volleyball match. What a blast! Penn State is amazing! (They are the # 1 team in the country right now!) We had such a good time! And...afterward, we got to go onto the court and take a team picture!

On Saturday (Shane's birthday), I went to a wedding during the day. Shane had to work (I know.....on his birthday!!!), so I attended the wedding of one of my former athletes. It was really nice! I was very glad to be invited and it was awesome to see her walk down the aisle. She was beautiful! I was able to sit with several other former and current athletes, as well, which was fun!

On Saturday night, we went out to Texas Roadhouse for Shane's birthday! We joined another couple and had a nice time. Shane chose Texas Roadhouse (I'm sure that our nephew, Luke, would be proud---as it's his favorite restaurant too!!!). Shane's friend told the waitresses that it was his birthday, so they made him sit on the saddle and everyone gave him a "Texas-sized YEE HAAA!!!" I think that Shane enjoyed it, even though he really didn't want to disclose that it was his birthday.

On Sunday, we went to church and then settled in at home for our usual---football and pizza. It wasn't the best day for Shane's Vikings (shut-out by the Packers).....but nevertheless, it was another relaxing Sunday afternoon.

So, life is good. We are keeping as busy as we want to be. Now that my volleyball season is over, I am usually able to leave work by 4:00 or 5:00 p.m., which is nice. We still wait for "the call", but we also understand that it will all happen in God's perfect timing. Our friends, the Marlowes, are in Vlad right now for their second trip. You may want to check out their blog to see how everything is going. You can find a link for their blog on the right hand side of our blog. We are sooooo excited for them and their reunion with their son. They have waited a LONG time to go back to Vlad. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

We hope that you are all doing well! Take Care and God Bless!

Toddler Shower

Yesterday, the ladies that I play volleyball with threw us a "Toddler Shower". The shower was held at Giordano's Pizza and there were about 20 people there. It was really fun...and my teammates were so generous. They really are excited about Trey's arrival and definitely can't wait to meet him.

I've included a picture of our little buddy, Owen. Owen picked out his own gift for Trey and decorated it as well. He was pretty excited to see us open it. (By the way, it was a match box car and a ramp-type of thing that you can put these cars onto. It is pretty cool!) All of my friends brought their husbands and kids. It's going to be neat because most of the kids are about the same age as Trey. He will instantly have friends!

I also want to publicly thank all of my teammates for throwing this nice shower. We appreciate your kindness and your support. Thanks BNL!!

I hope that you are all doing well! I'll post again later.

Take Care and God Bless!

End of the Season

Well, our semi-final match didn't go exactly how we wanted it to go. We lost to Lakeland College in 3 games. Our first game was very disappointing. We did not play at all...... However, our team battled back in games 2 & 3 and made for some exciting volleyball and close scores. We actually led at times in both games 2 & 3. We just didn't have enough to take down those Muskies..... Therefore, the conference championship will be played tomorrow afternoon between Lakeland and Benedictine University. Unfortunately, our season is over. Nevertheless, I must say that I am extremely proud of my team! They battled all year long through thick and thin. They worked hard...supported one another....and really had great chemistry on and off the court. I am already looking forward to next year......(that's how much I love my team!). :o)

Now that our season is over, I am just doing some housekeeping things in the office today.....cleaning out the locker room, collecting all of the uniforms, etc. In addition to that, I am looking forward to spending some more time preparing for Trey's arrival. I plan to get some housework done, do some early Christmas shopping (in case we are gone to Russia in Dec.), and get a few more things for him. He really has no toys yet....so I want to make sure that he has some things when he comes home. In addition, I want to pick up a few items to give to Trey's orphanage (toothbrushes, combs, maybe some puzzles...etc.). I'm sure that I have plenty to do to fill my "free time" now.

My volleyball team is anxiously awaiting his arrival as well. They have been asking about him a lot lately and all are debating who has first "dibs" on babysitting him. He is going to love all of his "big sisters" on the Cougar Volleyball Team. He is one lucky boy! I can't wait for him to meet all of them.

Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for checking in on us! Take Care and God Bless!

God's Timing

Well, first of all.....WE WON LAST NIGHT! Yeah! My team really came together and it was so much fun! We are now advancing to the semi-finals of our conference tournament. We are facing the # 1 seed, so we definitely have our work cut out for us. Nevertheless, I have confidence in my team. They are young...but they play with so much heart! They are really coming together and I am so proud of them. Wish us luck! GO COUGARS!

Secondly, and the bigger reason that I am posting today...is that God is teaching me a few things in this wait. I receive daily devotionals from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Today's devotion really hit home with me and our adoption. Please read this devotional. It definitely impacted me and my understanding of "God's Timing". I hope that you also gain something from it.

God's Fingerprints Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."-Romans 8:28

Game four of the 2007 World Series featured a pitching match-up of two men who had faced more pressure than their current big stage could offer. Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox and Aaron Cook of the Colorado Rockies both had life-threatening illnesses they had to overcome in order to make it to the pinnacle of baseball. "I don't think it's a coincidence," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "I think this game drips with irony. I believe in a lot of different venues that God's fingerprints are all over a lot of things if we are able to open our eyes and recognize it." "This is going to sound funny," added Boston reliever Mike Timlin, "but God blessed Jon Lester with cancer just to show a lot of people that you can overcome something that's so hard in your life you think, 'I'm not gonna make it.' He's going to be able to take his faith in God and the strength God gave him and tell a lot of other people a great story."

Have you ever asked the question, "Why does God allow suffering?" Most of us have questioned God during difficult times in life. But on the other hand, have you ever asked the question, "Why does God allow joy and peace in life?" Kind of interesting, isn't it? Even though we live in a sinful world, we still automatically assume that we should experience the "good things" in life, but when any pain comes we begin to question God and His plan.

God sovereignly orchestrates the events in the lives of His people to bring honor and glory to Himself and to bring us into a deeper relationship with Him. Keeping this in mind, may we continually trust in God and His plan even when it doesn't make sense to us.

Have a Great Day!
Love,
Kathy

The Wait May Be Longer Than Expected....

Just a quick update....

I received an email from Janiece at Children's Hope International today. She said that currently many families are having to wait an average of 5 months between visits. YIKES! This may put us in Russia over Christmas! Please pray that we can go sooner than that..... We are still praying for a "Thanksgiving trip".

Just wanted to let you know.... We'll post again later....

Love,
Kathy

Conference Tournament

Well, our regular season has ended and now we are in the Conference Tournament. This season has gone by so fast and has been a blast. We are currently 17-13....which may not sound impressive....but we have such a young team. I'm really proud of their accomplishments! We are going into the Conference Tournament as the 4th seed overall (out of 13 teams). We are hosting tomorrow night's match and we are definitely pumped for this match! I hope that our team comes out with the intensity and desire that I have seen recently. We have a great shot at winning the whole tournament if we play like we can. Wish us luck! :o)

Still no news on the adoption front. We are still optimistic that we will travel by Thanksgiving. We pray about this everyday. I was looking over all of our documents last night (from our dossier). I believe that we have everything up to date...so hopefully, we won't need to provide any extra documents in the next couple of months. Hopefully, we will just get the call for a court date and then, start making travel plans!

We hope that you are all doing well! Take Care and God Bless!

Love,
Shane and Kathy

Waiting.....Waiting.....

Ahh...each day still seems so far away from the date that we get to return to Russia! It's so hard when the date is "unknown". We don't know if we will be waiting until Nov, Dec, Jan, .....who knows? We are really praying that we will be able to bring Trey home by Christmas. We are SOOOOOO ready!

I was talking to my brother, Mike, the other night about the waiting. It's not like we have been waiting 9 months, such as a traditional pregnancy. We have been in the adoption process for 16 months! (and counting....) Also, when we really look at it, Shane and I have been trying to have kids for over 3 years now. We have spent so much time with doctors, so much money (again with doctors....and with mounds of paperwork and investigations), and so much time in prayer about this. WE ARE READY! We really want to reap the benefits of all of this and get the reward.....our little guy! :o) We know that the time is coming. We just have to be patient.

It's been a wild ride to building a family......and with all of our frustrations, Shane has kept me grounded to remind me that "this was God's plan all along". It just seems as the most difficult process. For all of you reading that could have kids easily or even had an "accident", you can consider yourselves blessed. You will never understand the heartache that others have to go through to complete their dreams of parenthood. I try my hardest not to be bitter....because again....It's all in God's plan, right? We know that there was a reason in all of this. And....in the end, Trey needs a home. We have lots of love to give and we feel that we are the perfect parents for him. It's going to be so much fun to raise him! :o)

I just keep my eyes on the prize.....our little Trey! He's the most adorable boy and soon he will be ours. We can't wait! Hopefully, we will have good news soon.

Take Care and God Bless!

Go Vikings!

I just have to mention how cute Shane is..... Yesterday was the big "Vikings vs. Bears" football game! Therefore, Shane invited a couple of his friends over (Bears fans, of course) and was prepared to cheer his Vikings on to victory! In Shane's preparations, he dressed himself in his new "Adrian Peterson" jersey. Shane also wanted some "strength in numbers". Therefore, he hung Trey's tiny little "Adrian Peterson" jersey up on a hanger in the living room as well! Shane is so excited to have a "little Vikings fan" in the house in the near future.

Needless to say, the Vikings won! It was an exciting game and Shane was particularly happy to have this victory---living in Bears' Country, of course! :o)

Anyway, I just wanted to share this cute little moment (as Shane brought out the tiny jersey for the occasion). We are getting VERY EXCITED for his arrival!

Have a GREAT Day!

Each Day is One Day Closer....

Hello,

We don't have any news on the adoption front. However, we are hoping to hear something soon. Please continue to keep this in your prayers.

We are getting so anxious. We really feel "ready" for the call. We are starting to really miss Trey and can't wait to be re-united with him! We just watched his video again on Sunday and had several laughs at all of the fun things he does and enjoyed seeing his beautiful smile.

In the meantime, life is very good. My volleyball team is playing very well lately and we are hoping to really "peak" as October progresses. I'm having the best time with this group of young women! They are so much fun to coach and they are improving daily. I am including a picture of my team...so you can see them! They also have been extremely supportive of our adoption ventures and are so excited to meet Trey as well.

We hope that you are all doing well! Take Care and God Bless!

Trey's Bedroom

Hello,

I am including a few pictures of Trey's bedroom! It's not too much to look at....but still, it's exciting for us! We have decided on a "baseball theme". You can see the MLB teams on his comforter. Also, he has a baseball piggy bank! :o)

This Sunday, I am going to get out and start to get a few more things for him. It's just been so crazy lately. I haven't had any time to shop. I haven't had a day off in 2 weeks....so I am extremely excited for Sunday! Also, on the agenda for Sunday....is some Russian language time. Shane and I need to brush up on our Russian and learn some more key phrases. We said that we would try to learn 2 more Russian phrases per week....and of course, we have neglected to learn any since we have returned home. Therefore, we will start cramming! We really need some key words and phrases to bridge the gap and to communicate better with Trey. So....the studying will begin soon! :o)

We will, hopefully, have more news on travel dates soon. Thanks for checking in on us! We appreciate your love, support, and prayers! Take Care and God Bless!

Court Petition

Well, just as I report that we have no news..... we are starting to make progress again! Yesterday, we received our Petition for Court! :o) We needed to proof-read it, make corrections, then--sign, notarize, and apostille this document....then send it back in. Obviously, I hustled up to get this done. I left our house this morning at 7:00 a.m. to get to the Secretary of State's office in downtown Chicago. It's about 45 miles away. IT TOOK ME 2 HOURS to get there! Yikes! (I love road construction...coupled with Chicago traffic!) I didn't get to work until 10:30 a.m. What an ordeal! Nevertheless, I put the court petition in the mail...and hopefully, it will get to Russia soon.

We still have a few more things to complete before travelling on our 2nd trip, but we are just waiting for the "go ahead" to do them. Everything is so time-sensitive. It's like, "hurry up and wait".....then, "hurry up and wait".

Anyway, I just wanted to pass along the good news that we sent in another document relative to our court hearing! :o)

Have a GREAT Day!

September is Rolling By!!!!

Hello Again.....
It's been a while and not much has changed. Life is going by so quickly, but there is no news on the adoption front. We were told that our 2nd trip would be about 4 months after our first trip. However, there was such a delay in our paperwork....that we are assuming that it might be longer. Nevertheless, we are PRAYING that we can bring Trey home before Christmas. What a wonderful Christmas gift! Please put this into your prayers, if you haven't already done so. We would love to get him home before the holidays.

Trey's room is basically set up. I will need put a picture up on our blog. It's rather boring because he doesn't have much for toys or other cute things.....but his furniture is up and the room looks nice.

At this point, we have some clothes....but not many. I have bought a couple things and Sheri (my sister-in-law) has loaned us some outfits as well. (She has 4 boys......so she had plenty to offer!! Thanks Sheri!!)

When I get a free weekend, I am going to hit the shopping centers to get better prepared for our little bundle of joy! :o) Also, in the near future, I need to take care of some final adoption paperwork details. Shane and I both need ANOTHER physical and we both need to go to a psychologist. Weird, huh? It's a requirement.....I guess to see if we are sane..... I have no idea..... So, these little items will keep us out of trouble for the next few months. We are really hoping to hear about a court date soon, so we can then know our travel dates.

We hope that you are all doing well! Shane and I have been well. Shane's friend, Brad, has been visiting for a few days. They have been to the golf course twice and are enjoying some R-and-R. My volleyball season is still going strong. We are currently 4-6...but we are hoping to improve on that tonight in our match vs. the University of Chicago. GO COUGARS!!

Take Care and God Bless! We love you all!

Making Progress

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We have been extremely busy (volleyball season, work, preparations, etc.). However, we have made some progress recently...which is exciting!

First and foremost, we finally got the documents that we were waiting on! We expected them about a week after we got home. However, it was more like a month after we got home! The documents were the official documents that indicate that we would like to adopt Mischa. They included his medicals and we also had to indicate what we would like to officially name him. We completed everything, had them notarized, got them apostilled in downtown Chicago and mailed them off! Originally, we were told that we could plan on our 2nd trip being about 4 months after our first trip. However, with the delay in the documents, we have been told that it might be longer. We are still praying that it will be sometime around late November or early December....but we have no control on when this might actually happen. We really don't want to wait until after the New Year! We want to bring Mischa home so badly! Plus, in Russia, their holidays are mostly in January...so judges take nearly the whole month off. Therefore, if we don't get him December, it will likely be February....... We really hope that we get him before then......

In the meantime, we have set up his bedroom and got a few more items for the little guy. It's so much fun to look at things for him. His bedroom has a baseball theme. He has MLB sheets and comforter.

It is starting to get harder lately with the waiting. At first, it wasn't too bad because we had just been in Russia. However, now, we find ourselves watching his video more often and missing him more and more.

We know that everything will happen with God's perfect timing...so we have confidence in this. Look at how far God has guided us! There's no reason to doubt His perfect will and His always perfect timing.

Thanks again for keeping up with our journey. It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure! We'll post again when we have some more news! Take Care and God Bless.

Preparations

I'm sorry for the lack of new posts, but there's not a lot of new developments with the adoption. So, as we wait for documents, etc......we are beginning to work on Trey's bedroom! We ordered a bedroom set for him (a twin bed, a dresser, and a night stand). We are going to pick it up on Sunday. Therefore, we will be assembling these items for several days, I'm sure. I also ordered his sheets and comforter. We are going with a baseball theme for his room (GO FIGURE!). His sheets and comforter have all of the MLB teams on them. They are blue, so they will go well in his room. Once we have his room set up, I will have to post a picture of his room.

Even though, we are in the waiting phase and life could seem to drag on.....we are still very busy. My volleyball players will move back onto campus tomorrow, so I will get very busy with my season very soon. I'm so excited to see all of the players again and to get started on another big season! This will also help the time to go by faster as we wait. Volleyball season always seems to go by way too fast because we are having so much fun!

Well, I'll try to post again soon with any new developments. Take Care and God Bless!

In the Waiting Phase...

I just want to update again...and post a few more pictures for your entertainment. The pictures that I have posted are:

1). A view of the Moscow (Sheremetovo) Airport from our plane. You can see all of the buses lined up. In Russia, you do not board the plane at the gate. You board a bus and they drive you out to the plane. This can be a very cramped and smelly ride to and from the plane. (Deodorant is not very common in Europe!!!)

2). A view of Moscow from our hotel. I think that this picture turned out really well! You can see that the area is very developed, much like the U.S.

3). A view of Moscow from the sky. It's funny how all of the buildings look alike. Apparently, if you want to see better architecture...you should go to St. Petersburg. Moscow is not known for great architecture.

I also wanted to update you to tell you that we have no new news. We are just in the waiting phase right now. We have some more documents to sign to make everything official. Then, we will have to do a few more "region-specific" things, like getting physicals, getting psychological evaluations, getting more fingerprints, etc. Then, we will be assigned a court date. Once the court date is set, then we will get our travel dates and move forward.

In the meantime, we are starting to prepare our house for Trey's arrival. We haven't been furniture shopping yet....but we are re-arranging a few things. My biggest purchase so far has been a pre-school back pack! It's so adorable! We are hoping to have everything ready within the next 2 months.....so we are ready for "the call" when it happens.

Well, we hope that you are all doing well! We'll talk to you later!

Proverbs 19:21

I just want to take a moment and explain the reason behind the bible verse at the top of our blog. This verse stems from a conversation that I had with my sister-in-law (Sheri) prior to our trip to Russia. We were discussing Anya and Tatiana and their health. (We shared the medical reports with Sheri, my Mom, and our pediatrician to get feedback on the overall health of our referrals). We were going over our concerns and discussing all of the details that go into this adoption. During the conversation, Sheri told me that she had a good feeling about all of this and mentioned the verse from her morning devotion. It was Proverbs 19:21---"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." This wasn't a verse that I had committed to memory.....however, over the past week....this verse played a huge role in the decisions that we made and our perspective on who was to be our child/children.

As we mentioned before, we felt very restless all week. We enjoyed our time with Anya, Tatiana, Stepan, and Alexei. However, we continued to feel uncertain. We struggled with sleeping and we had numerous conversations about what to do. It wasn't until we met Mischa that we saw God's plan. The moment that we met Mischa, we felt such a peace.....and we knew that God had guided us to that place.

You see, all along, we had wanted a sibling group....you know..."instant family". But, God had another plan. The only way for Him to reveal it was to send us to meet a sibling group (who were awesome, but maybe not meant to be our children). Then, he sent us on a journey to meet our son. Someday, I will have to share all of the "little signs" that God was sending along the way that we were not picking up on....but now are very clear to us in seeing His plan.

For now, I just want to re-iterate how strongly this verse has impacted us over the last few weeks. I want to personally thank Sheri for bringing it to our attention and for helping us to follow God's will throughout this process.

Alternate Photos

Since we can't post pictures of Mischa, we thought that we would share some different photos from our trip. You can see a few photos in the side bar, which will stay there for a while. I am also inserting a couple photos into this post. The photos on the side bar are from Vladivostok. The two in this posting are from Moscow. As you can see, we stayed at a Holiday Inn and ate at McDonald's! Moscow is much more similiar to the U.S. than Vladivostok. Vlad is very primitive and definitely less developed. We were told that the further away you get from Moscow....the further back you go in time. We believe this fact after spending some time on both ends of the country.

Don't get me wrong....we had a fine time in Vladivostok. However, it was very interesting to see the cars, the homes, and the roads in Vlad. These people get "the most" out of everything they use. In a way...we could see how wasteful we, as Americans, are. So....maybe, we are the ones who have it all wrong. On the other hand, we also saw many stalled cars, lots of pollution, and difficulty in getting around. I guess that it's just a different way of life.

We are still recovering from our sleep deprivity. I thought that we would be "back to normal" by now.....but it's Wednesday and I'm still struggling. I hope that we catch up on our sleep soon....I feel like a zombie at times. :o)

Well, Have a GREAT Day! I will post again later!

Photos

I'm in the process of removing the photos from our blog. Sorry!!!! We have read some of our friends' blogs and many of them don't include pictures of their children. Apparently, we shouldn't post them until the adoption is complete. I'm not sure if it is a Russian law or what......some have said that, but we were not instructed on this. Therefore, we better play it safe and remove Trey's photos. We don't want to disrupt anything with our adoption. It's been such a difficult process already. We don't want to make it any more difficult.

If you want to see more photos, you will just have to stop by our house for "pictures and videos". We certainly wouldn't mind your company! It's been fun sharing these with family and friends.

Today, I sent a letter and some photos off to Trey! Hopefully, he will get them within the month. We really want him to remember his day with us. This should help our reunion to go smoother as well.

We'll post again soon! Take Care and God Bless!

We Met Our Son Today!

Our last post indicated that we were going to visit Alexei again today. However, after another restless night, we chose to make the 5 hour trip to meet the 3rd boy. It was a big risk because it was so far away....but we had been told that he was very healthy and didn't want to leave any stone unturned. Therefore, we called Lana at 7:45 a.m. this morning and requested the opportunity to travel and meet the 3rd boy and she set it up for us! Wow! Lana and Irina have been awesome! The trip was grueling. As I mentioned, it was nearly 5 hours! Parts of the road were not paved and some parts were not marked. We definitely felt like we went back in time! We travelled to a little village called Probrazhenta (I think that I spelled it correctly.) This is where we met the most precious boy, named Mischa (sort of like the name Michael in the U.S.)

Mischa is such a beautiful boy! He has beautful eyes and he smiles ALL OF THE TIME! Mischa just turned 5 years old on July 5th (so he can share his birthday with Grandpa Krohe!) We received Mischa's medical report and he is by far the most healthy child that we have met. We also had the opportunity to play with him for a few hours. We played indoors and outdoors and we had a blast! We took a ton of pictures and video (because we were already pretty sure that we were going to accept him). Then, the orphanage ladies invited us to stay for dinner with Mischa. Of course, it was Russian cuisine, so that was very fun! Mischa sat in between us and shared his dessert with each of us. The orphanage workers were so sweet too! They were extremely excited that we were there! (We were the first foreigners to ever visit the orphanage. Of course, the 5 hour trip is a deterrent to many!) As dinner was ending, we knew that we wanted Mischa to be our son, so we accepted him right there on the spot. We gave him a few gifts to have until we see him again...and then, he asked when we were going to get on the plane. HE WAS READY TO GO! :o)

For the first night this week, we have such a "peace" about everything. We have both had trouble sleeping all week and Shane has had a headache everyday. He mentioned that this was the first day that he didn't have a headache. We know that God was taking care of us! His timing was perfect. We worried that we might not find a healthy child, but God provided such a wonderful blessing to us today! We are so thankful!

I wish that I could update the pictures on our blog and remove the ones of Anya and Tatiana. The problem is that most of our blog is currently written in Russian and we can't figure out which link is the one to remove photos. Also, we forgot our USB cord, so we cannot update pictures with Mischa. However, shortly after we get home, we will definitely get some pictures up on the blog, so you can see him.

This will probably be our last update while in Russia because we are flying out tomorrow. We will stay in Moscow tomorrow night and then fly the remainder on Saturday. We should be back in Chicago around Noon on Saturday.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and thoughts. We really appreciate them. Take Care and God Bless!

New Referral

Hello,
Today, we went to the Ministry of Education. We actually were given 3 different boys to consider. (None are siblings...so we are now considering only having a single child). We went to Artem, Russia to meet 2 of them today. One was almost 2 years old (named Stepan) and the other will be 3 years old in November (named Alexei). We learned some information about the boys from the doctor and caretakers and then, we had a chance to play with both of them. They were both very cute and fun to play with. We decided that we don't want to consider Stepan because he had several FAS facial features. We have been down that road and are not going there again.

However, we feel very strongly that Alexei could be "the one". He was funny, animated, and smart. He has been in the Baby Home since he was 18 months old and has been thriving ever since. (He was extremely neglected prior to that.) Alexei seems to be growing well and has much more potential to flourish than Tatiana. In fact, we imagine that he could live a pretty healthy, full life. We have opted to not take the 4 hour trip tomorrow to see the 3rd referral (a 5 year old boy). We have also sent Alexei's medical report to our pediatrician to look over. Alexei is not without flaws...but we feel that he has some great potential. We are hoping to hear back from our pediatrician soon.

We'll keep you posted on what we decide to do. We are going to visit Alexei again tomorrow (Thursday). Wish us luck! :o)

Tuesday

Well, we woke up this morning around 5:00 a.m. wrestling with what to do with this decision. We have felt very uneasy about what to do. Again...we would take Anya in a heartbeat. She is healthy and thriving despite her environment. Tatiana has given us more to think about...not knowing the severity of her delays and the strong signs of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. After much discussion and prayer, we decided to spend one more day with the girls.

Our visit today was good....good, not great. Anya was the same....enthusiastic, lively, and loving. Tatiana was actually more outgoing and loving towards us. However, we tried some new activities to test her intellectually and we also spoke with her caregiver again and it just seems like she is extremely delayed in many areas.

We have struggled with "the right thing to do" and we have been praying constantly for some sort of sign. We came home back from the orphanage and spent a good amount of time going over everything...and we came to a decision. We have decided to decline these girls. We are still very emotional over this and are grieving the fact that we will never see them again....but in the end, we know that it was the right decision for us. We really can't take on a special needs child.

Therefore, we called Lana (our interpreter) and told her our decision. She was very encouraging and told us to be strong. (They really want us to be happy with our referral, so we can have a happy life together). Lana didn't seem too surprised by our decision because she knows what we have gone through...all of the questions that we have been asking....and all of our concerns.

Now, we are hoping to get a new referral tomorrow. Lana and Irina are supposed to call us around 9:00 a.m. with some news. If we get a new referral, we have to go to the Ministry of Education again to sign some new documents and then, we can go to meet the next child(ren).

We'll post again soon to keep you updated. Please pray for Anya and Tatiana that they will someday find a good home.

1st Visit

Well, our day at the orphanage was awesome! We had a great time playing with the girls and getting to know them! We also had several conversations with the caretakers, orphanage director, and their social worker. These ladies all answered many of our questions and helped us to become better acquainted with Anya and Tatiana.

We have to say after all of this, we are still sitting on the fence with our decision. The reason for our hesitance is because of Tatiana's health. We have no reservations about Anya. We met her and she was exactly as we pictured her. She is a total "ham", in fact, she kept calling us "Mama" and "Papa". She was definitely working us over! She is smart, she colors very well (we brought coloring books), and she is definitely an athlete! Woo! Hoo! We played with her.... She was very affectionate....and the day with Anya was amazing!

Our visit with Tatiana was also good, however, we still have reservations about her potential for physical, emotional, and psychological development. She has some delays and is one of the weaker students in her group. She has a short attention span (this was obvious to us when we played together). And...we know that her mother drank quite a bit of alcohol (which leads us to believe that she has FAS). However, we assume that it might only be a mild or moderate level of FAS because she did show some definite signs that give us hope for her future.

The girls are in the orphanage because their mother's parental rights were terminated. She was an unfit mother and the orphanages actually took her parental rights away from her. Tatiana has been in an orphanage since she was about a month old. Anya has been in an orphanage since she was a little more than 3 years old.

Today, we also found out their correct birthdays. The information that we orignally had must have been an error in translation. Anya was born December 11, 2001 and Tatiana was born June 6, 2003.....so Tatiana is about 6 months younger than we originally thought.

At this point, we are unable to upload pictures to our blog. We are going to work on making this possible. We took some great photos and video footage today....so eventually, we hope to show you some of it.

We are planning to go and see the girls again tomorrow. We are hoping to see some progress with Tatiana tomorrow that will give us more hope in her future. We will pay special attention to her response to us and we plan to test her intellectually a little more as well.

Please continue to pray that God will help us in making this decision. We are completely undecided right now and we really need to have an answer soon on whether to accept or decline these girls. We ask for your prayers as this is such a big decision in our lives.

We hope that you are all doing well! Take Care and God Bless!

Ministry of Education

Hello Again,
We just returned to our room. We went to the Ministry of Education this morning and all went well. We received our "official referral" for Anya and Tatiana. One thing that we noticed right away was that the birthdates on our referral differ from what we were originally given. Therefore, this will be an important question to ask when we arrive at the orphanage.

This afternoon, we are heading to Ussiriisk (city where the orphanage is located). We will finally get a chance to meet the girls and to get many more answers to all of our questions. We plan to visit with the Orphanage Director and possibly the girls' doctor before actually meeting them. They should be able to provide us with valuable information that we need in order to make this most important decision. (We actually have 10 days from today to officially accept or decline the girls. However, we want to make a decision quickly....just in case, we need to get a new referral. We will update again tonight to inform you of our visit to the orphanage.

Just to give you some more details on our trip....here is some more random information:

1.) Russians make their own rules while driving. We are in a town of about 1 million people and we saw only two traffic lights today. Everyone seems to scoot along making it up as they go along. YIKES!

2.) There is a lot of pollution in this area. It's amazing that these people breathe such dirty air everyday.

3.) Our hotel has been great! We have no complaints. The staff speaks English. They are very friendly. The food is good. And...the rooms are clean.

4.) Our hotel is within walking distance from the Ocean. We walked to the beach last night. It's about 1/4 of a mile down the road....which is very cool. We even get some American channels on our T.V. We get ESPN, so Shane is very happy! It is a little weird, though. It is about 11:30 a.m. here on Monday and we are watching the Sunday night game of the week! :o)

We'll try to keep you posted with more exciting news! We are still adapting to the time change....we actually both woke up around 4:00 a.m. and couldn't sleep...which is so weird!

We hope that you are all doing well! We'll post again soon!

We are here!!

We finally made it to Vladivostok! What a trip! It's about 12:45 p.m. on Sunday now (about 8:45 p.m. on Saturday for all of you back home). Our flights all went well. It was just a very tiring trip.

We were greeted in Moscow by a lady named, Sophia. She helped us transfer to a different airport. In addition, she gave us a great deal of helpful information about our trip. She helped us to exchange our money and buy lunch. She was awesome! We will see her again on our trip back through Moscow.

When we arrived in Vladivostok, two ladies by the names of Lana and Irina picked us up. They drove us to our hotel and will be with us throughout our time here in Vlad. They will take us to the Ministry of Education tomorrow morning to register our dossier and then they will take us to the orphanage to the meet the girls.

Now, we are checked into our hotel and it is very nice. It's a western hotel (owned by Canadians) so they speak English, which is awesome! There are also two other American families staying in our hotel. They are both on their second trip, so their kids are staying with them. We will definitely have to visit with them.

Well, we are going to sign off for now. We both agree that it's "nap time". We have only slept about 4-5 hours since Thursday night. We are exhausted!

We'll update again soon! Take Care and God Bless!

Passports/Visas!!!!

Ok...I lied....I have one more post before we depart. I just want to let you all know that our passports and visas arrived this morning at 8:30 a.m. Whew! What a relief!
Now, we just need to finish our packing and we are all set! :o)
God's Blessings to all of you!
Love,
Shane and Kathy

Off to Russia!

Well, the date is almost here. We are leaving on Friday! Shane and I are getting very excited about this trip and, especially, the first meeting with the girls. We had a conference call with our adoption agency yesterday to finalize the details and to ask any last minute questions. Our only real concern now is that we haven't received our passports and visas yet. Our adoption agency said that we should receive them tomorrow (Thursday). Yikes! That's cutting it a bit close, I think! Children's Hope International had our passports in order to get our visas. It's out of our control right now. We are just praying that they arrive tomorrow!



Our next blog will most likely be on Sunday (after we arrive in Vladivostok). We will update it, so all of you know that we made it safely to our destination. We'll try to post updates daily while we are in Russia.



Take Care and God Bless!

Travel Dates!

We just found out that we need to be in Vladivostok on July 22nd. Therefore, we will be departing from Chicago on July 20th. Yes....as you can tell...it takes a LONG time to get there! Our travel itinerary is about 35 hours! We will be in Vladivostok until Friday, July 27th and will arrive home on the 29th. Whew! What a trip! We have our I-Pods loaded and are bringing a few books/magazines. It will be an adventure. ;o)

Regarding our concerns about the health of the girls, we have been emailing with our pediatrician and she strongly suggests that we talk to Dr. Ira Chasnoff. He is an expert in International Adoption (and more notably....Fetal Alcohol Syndrome). Therefore, we are probably going to schedule an appointment to meet with him and get his advice. This is a HUGE decision and we want to gather as many facts before we travel as possible. So.....we'll see what he says! Then, once we meet the girls we will combine our instincts with the knowledge that we have gained, along with A LOT OF PRAYER as to whether we should accept these girls or not. Yikes! What a big decision. We'll keep you posted on everything.

Pediatrician Visit

Well, today we took the girls' medical reports to a pediatrician who has some expertise in International Adoption. We weren't terribly surprised with her review....however, she did note some "red flags" that she wanted us to think about. The older girl (Anya--age 5 1/2) seems to be in very good health. She is smart and seems to be doing very well. The younger girl (Tatiana--age 4 1/2) has some issues that may be cause for concern. Basically, Tatiana is developmentally delayed and has some difficulty with learning. We expected that these children might be delayed due to being institutionalized....however, Tatiana might be further behind than we want to handle. Although, she may be just fine. Her medical report is hard to decipher.....and the information that we have on the girls is fairly vague.

Nevertheless, the only way to truly tell if they are "the ones for us" is to meet them. Therefore, we are still planning to go to Russia to meet them. We will then trust our instincts on the health of the girls and the state of their development. I will now go ahead and post their pictures...so you can see what they look like. Again, we want you to know that we are only going to Russia to meet them. We will not/can not officially accept them until after this meeting.

At this point, our travel dates have not been set. We'll let you know when we are heading to Russia! :o)

Our First Blog!

Hello Family & Friends,
Wow! This is so exciting! I am blogging!

We decided to use The Blog Spot as a place where you can check in on our adoption progress. We are also very hopeful that we can add information to our site while we are in Russia, so you can get up-to-date information on how our adoption is going. We will try to update you as often as possible and to add pictures, etc. as well.

So, for my first blog, I should update everyone on where we are in this big adventure. Most of you know that we got "the call" on June 14th from our adoption agency. They asked us to consider two girls (sisters) for adoption. We received pictures of them and absolutely fell in love with them! This past Monday (June 25th), we received their medical reports. We have some slight concerns, but overall, the girls seem to be very healthy! We will be visiting with a pediatrician on Friday (June 29th) to get her professional opinion on the health of these two girls. If all goes well with the pediatrician, we will continue to march on in this process. At this point, Shane and I can't find any reason to not accept these girls, though. We both are so excited about them and are dreaming of the day when we can bring them home!

Regarding our first trip to Russia...we will most likely be travelling in July. We are waiting for an official invitation to travel. Once we get the invite with travel dates, we will pass along that information.

At this point, we will not put the girls' pictures on the web. We want to make sure that everything is going to happen. Once it seems as though we are going to make this official, we will pass along more details about the girls, such as: pictures, names, ages, etc.

Please keep us in your prayers through this process. It's scary and exciting all at the same time. There are so many "unknowns" for us.....it's quite the "leap of faith"....but we feel God's presence through all of this and know that He is watching over us. Please also pray for these two girls, along with all of the orphans in Russia. They have a tough life and they could certainly use our prayers.

We'll keep you posted as everything occurs! Have a GREAT Day!