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.