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!