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!