Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and have a joyous new year. I was reading the other day about new years, and how it is a time to wipe the slate of the past year away, and start fresh. I couldn't help but think of how Christ has done that for us as well. The gift is set out on the table, and all we need to do is accept it, and our slate is wiped clean. What a gift. What a Christ-mas gift.

We are busy getting the next phase of paperwork together, and getting some things for the girls. We need everything, so the task is a bit overwhelming at times. We found a great deal on some crib bedding last night, and my brother is loaning us a crib. We have an umbrella stroller and some bunk beds, but that is about it.

We have developed pictures, but are not allowed to post them on the blog until the girls are officially ours. Sorry:(

This part of the waiting is extremely difficult. We knew it would be, but now comes the true test.
I think the key is to stay busy, and we are. There are project to finish, day care to research, house to prepare, cloths to buy, etc. We are not complaining of course, knowing that it is all worth it, and in short time we will have the girls. Just writing this makes me smile :)

It seems like after New Years everything in our lives kicks back up again, although MaryEllen will not have class next semester. It is nice to have a break from some activities for a few weeks, but we do miss Bible study with our friends.

We wish you all a blessed New Year, and pray that you will accept the gift of Christ's redemption for your lives.

Home again

Well, we finally made it home, almost. We had to stay at my sister's house in Chicago because our car keys went to SC with my niece. Long story... We had a good trip home without event for the most part. It is great to be in the US where people speak English easily, but sad to leave our girls behind. We are told by our coordinator in Kras that we may be looking at a late January or early Feb court date, which would be great. We have some remarkable pictures to look back on, and some precious film which I will probably watch every day. We are so blessed to have been chosen to parent such beautiful children. Many have prayed to long hours for this to occur, and we thank you all. Your prayer for discernment and safety have been answered.

I met a man on the plane from New Orleans, a electrical engineer working with the oil industry, who was my first victim to show our pictures of the girls. He was endearing, having two grown girls of his own. A man just a few years older than myself, he held great wisdom in fathering. I talked with him about many aspects of fatherhood, and relayed my story of taking care of Deb when she was sick, and ME's about caring for Doug. I said how people seem to warn us about taking on the responsibility of two young ones all at once, and the caution each has for us. Even the director of the baby home cautioned us of parenting two new souls. This man I met said a very profound thing. He said, "you understand commitment". It is true, I believe, that MaryEllen and I understand commitment well. It was our commitment to love always, that helped us care for sick and dying spouses. It was our commitment to love that brought us to gether in the first place. And it was our commitment to God which allowed us to open our hearts so He could work in us and create the desire to adopt. This same commitment will allow us to open our hearts and love two new members to our family. We trust that God will lead the way, and pray that we are aware enough to follow.

From myself, MaryEllen, S and D,
we wish all of you a Merry Christmas, and pray that the Child, the one we celebrate, would be the center of your worship this year.

We have made contact

We met the girls yesterday, and they are as lovely as you could imagine. We spent about 3 hours with them, playing, reading, and holding. The older one, Sasha, would sit on our laps, play games, and read a book. She walked us into the room where her bed was, and held MaryEllen's hand. The younger one, Dasha, is very cute too, and a little more inclined to be with a woman, but has warmed up to Pete. Sasha told all her friends this morning that she was going to meet with her Mama and Papa. How sweet. They have b0th stolen our hearts. We met with them again today for about 2 hours, and had already decided we want to bring them home. Saying goodbye was too quick to get emotional. By the time they were gone we realized we will not see them again for several months. Everyone seems to be excited about us taking the girls home, and want to expedite the process as best they can. We are hopeful for an early Feb. court date, but who knows. Both girls appear to be healthy. Dasha has a small cold, but otherwise no concerns. Tomorrow we will sign some more papers, do some shopping, and prepare to leave early Sat. By the way, the temp is -25c, and expected to start getting real cold by the weekend. Too bad we are leaving. Perhaps we can experience some of that when we come back. See you all soon.

Moscow

We made it to Moscow so far. We have a 10 hour layover, but are getting to the time for our flight to Krasnoyarsk (Kras). We met a real nice couple from CA who are adopting from a region near Georgia. They have had some problems, but are getting ready to take their daughter home. We will be at that point soon. For right now, we are anxious to meet our little ones. Sleep is coming hard on the plane and in the airport, but hopefully we can sleep on the flight tonight. We arrive at 6:45am Tues and go to the Ministry of Ed (MOE) to get the referral officially. I passed the internet cafe test, so hopefully more updates will come soon. I do feel like high school typing test though.

We miss you all.

Just a little stress

We are waiting for our visas and passports to come back, and the overnight carrier said they are in St. Louis, and should come in today. "God, we trust you with every detail." We are scheduling Dr. appointments and getting the next phase of our paperwork in order so we can send in the dossier part 2 in as soon as possible. Our court date can not be scheduled until all our paperwork is received in order. We are starting to deal with fingerprints expiring, so go new prints last night, but the officer forgot to sign the form. Oh, well, we will do it again. Better to find out now rather than 2 or 3 weeks from now. We feel relatively prepared to leave, but of course have some details left to put in order. It's not like we are leaving for a month or anything. That will occur in a few months. We can't wait to see our little girls, and when I start feeling stressed, I have come up with an image in my mind of my little girls sitting on my lap. That brings a smile to my face every time.
The Lord laid on my heart a week ago or so that I have the option of choosing joy in my circumstances. Satan is trying to steal that joy, but I can choose to focus on Christ, my Lord, and see joy in my challenges. As we head into the Christmas Holiday, MaryEllen and I wish you all a blessed season.

Getting closer

We have been busy getting things ready to go meet our new little girls. They are sisters, 9 mos. and 2 1/2 years old, and very cute. We were just told yesterday that the girls are in the town of Achinsk, which is a few hours ride from Krasnoyarsk. We have our final travel plans, and are getting lists together so we don't forget anything. We are praying for our visas to come in any day now, and continue to pray for our health and MaryEllen's back. She is doing better, going to therapy every day the last two weeks. The flight will leave from Chicago to Moscow (12 hours), and then we will have a 10 hour lay over before leaving for Krasnoyarsk (5 hour flight). Hopefully we will get some sleep on the plane. We are packing some toys and snacks to share with the orphanage, and some diapers a friend gave us for the girls. Typically there are a few months between trip one and trip two, so we anticipate going back to get the girls sometime this spring (March?) We cannot post pictures, but will have lots of good info when we return I'm sure.

Wow!!!

We are still trying to get our arms around the idea that we may have two very little ones in our home this spring. We are working hard to get information together, get last minute signatures, visa information, and prepare to get airline tickets. MaryEllen has been hampered by a injured back since Sunday just to make life interesting. God has given us a peace throughout this process, and we trust that He will make our paths straight. The girls are younger than we expected, and in fact younger than the Russian gov't regulations, however, we are told that that will not matter. We just talked to the adoption Dr., and although she has some concerns, she said there is no reason we would not travel to meet these girls. So, we are going to Russia!!! They are talking like we will be leaving sometime during the week of Dec. 15th. We will probably not post the exact dates, but stayed tunes for an update shortly after that time. We are expected to be gone 5-7 days. Please pray for discernment, and for travel plans and visas to come in on time. Thanks to all.

God is good

We received news today that we have been given a new referral. Two little girls again, but this time they are 9 months and 2 1/2. They are both beautiful, and barring anything unusual, we should be traveling before Christmas. That should be a good time to see the decor and snow in Siberia. We are again cautiously optimistic, and are taking prudent steps to make sure the girls are healthy and ready for our family. MaryEllen is very happy to have an infant, and we are both happy to become parents. We are anticipating a travel date around Dec. 15th or so, and will be gone about a week. We will meet the girls, and make a final evaluation and acceptance. Thank all of you for your continued prayers.

Many people have expressed their sympathy over the loss of the girls. Thank you all for your prayers and support. Our current status is that we are waiting again. The person in charge of referring children in Russia has been on vacation the last part of October and first part of November. She is back to work now, and our agency expects to see more referrals this month and next before they shut down for the Holidays in the first few weeks of January. We are encouraged by our coordinator that they will begin right away to find us two more children. We are not pushed to the back of the list.

We are looking forward to visiting with some family over the next few months, and are ready if necessary to make our first trip to Russia before Christmas. Of course, we are not in charge of the timing, but we know that our God, who is a God of order, has a perfect plan. We wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving, and pray that you will remember the true reason for this established Holiday beginning in 1863. If you have children, or are curious yourself, you may want to do some research and read Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day address from 1863. Scholars believe he was a committed Christian by this time in his life, and certainly his address reflects his beliefs.

Happy Thanksgiving

Sadness Strikes

We are burdened by sad news this week as we were told that the girls were taken off of the adoption list. We can only speculate why this is so, but our hearts are torn. We truly had taken these girls into our hearts. This feels like a miscarriage, except we have seen the pictures and prayed for them by name. I suppose many would cry out and ask God why, but then again, if we do that we must also ask why God blesses us so much everyday. We are not interested so much as to the why, but allowing ourselves to grieve, and moving forward in the process of adding two children to our hearts and home. If anything, this setback reinforces our desire to adopt, and reminds us that God has filled our hearts with the necessary love to nurture two precious young souls.

We are assured by our adoption coordinator that they will continue to search for children right away. We are unsure of a time line for a referral, but trust in God's perfect timing. We continue to believe that He has already chosen our children, and they will be His chosen blessings for our family. Thank you for your continued prayers for healing and progress in our adoption process.

Waiting on answers

Our agency has forwarded our questions looking for background information to Russia. We are waiting on answers to finalize our decision. I spoke with our coordinator yesterday and waiting over a week to hear back is common, she had already sent a follow-up request. All is being orchestrated perfectly...

It's amazing how you can fall in love with the little ones based on photos alone. It is so easy to start imagining them as part of our family. "Family" wow, we will soon have more than just Pete and me. A friend shared with us that no matter what happens, these two precious girls now have us praying for them. We pray for them daily and I have been known to toss up prayers throughout the day as I wonder what they are doing. Bless their little hearts.

Praise The Lord!

Well, what were we saying about God's timing? This afternoon we received the call that they have found two beautiful little girls for us to adopt. D, who is 4, and her sister A, who is
2 1/2. We are gathering medical information to send to an adoption Dr., and then after our approval we will be traveling to Russia in a matter of weeks. We have some internet friends who are picking up their son right now in Kraznoyarsk. We are very excited, and scared, and happy, and worried, and etc. This is very exciting! Thank you for your continued prayers as we discern the information on these little ones.

Pete and MaryEllen

We are still waiting. Our agency recently informed us that the woman who is in charge of referring children from Krasnoyarsk is on vacation in October. This sounds strange to us, however, vacations are very important in Europe and Russia, and can last for weeks. Sounds good to me. The agency assures us that they expect to see some referrals of children in the next few months. We may be in that batch. MaryEllen and I continue to trust in God's perfect timing, and await the call that will start us on the next phase of our journey. Many of you have voiced your concern over the length of time that has elapsed since we first started down this path. However, we are on a normal time frame of international adoption.

I remember taking a mission trip to Haiti, and being prepared by words like, be patient, things move slower in other countries. As we prepared to take our mission trip in June '07 to Russia, the same sentiments were conveyed. We live in a world, and especially a nation, where we expect things to come to us instantaneously. I get upset if my computer is too slow. MaryEllen and I are learning to have peace in the moment. We are learning to trust that God has a purpose for this time of waiting, and we are enjoying the calm before the storm. We have learned that life has many seasons, and this is a quiet time of preparation.

MaryEllen continues to enjoy her new Russian class, and I am enjoying doing some stained glass projects. We are busy studying God's Word in BSF, and hosting a small group Bible study with some friends from church. These are the things God has for us to do now. But in time, we will be busy on other things. We look forward to instructing our children in spelling, reading, math (Pete),Jesus, and the many other things our children will need to learn. It is interesting to see all the educational tools that are new over the last 40 years!

Thank you for your patience and prayers along this seemingly long journey. It will be over before we know it. In the mean time, take a break from your busy schedule and listen to what God is calling you to do. Take a walk in the new fallen leaves, lay back and look at the stars, or spend some quiet time in God's Word. Enjoy the season.

God's Providence

We don't have any new news at this time, but just wanted to update all of you on how God is working in our lives regarding the adoption. Each week it seems God places more people in our lives to help us in our preparation. Just recently we talked to some friends who adopted a boy from China, and then two days later we talked to two different families who each adopted. Each story and experience is different, but each family we talk to in an encouragement and reinforces what we are doing.

This week I was reading in Exodus about the adoption of Moses in chapter 2. I was moved at how God orchestrated the people in and around Moses to carry out His plan. He prepared Jochebed, Moses' mother to give him up. He placed Pharaoh's daughter along the river and opened her heart to take Moses in. He allowed Jochebed to nurse Moses and raise him, and receive money for doing it. All these things give us confirmation that God is in control of our adoption destiny, and He is working out all the details, from uniting us with our kids, to raising them and loving them into our family.

We have been in contact with some new friends we met on the blog who are getting ready to pick up their son in a week. They have been great encouragers, and have let us know the lady who places kid from our region is very nice and fast in placing children. They are going back for the second trip in only 7 weeks! We are blessed to have so many encouragers on our side. If you would like to make a comment please do so by clicking "comments" just under this entry.
We will let you know when we hear something more.

And we wait ...

I met a man this week who adopted 3 kids at once from Russia in 1997 in a region near ours. It was interesting how much he remembered. He remembers that it is cold there, and the women will scold you if any skin is showing on your child, even if it is not cold. He remembers the judge, and her kindness, as well as the women who worked in the orphanage.

Many have asked how our progress is going, and it is going according to plan. Maybe not our plan, but surely God's plan. We are hopeful to receive a referral this fall or winter, but of course there is no guarantee. We would like to travel before or after the dead of winter. If you have looked at the weather link you notice that it is starting to get cold in Krasnoyarsk. Mondays high is expected to be 44, and low of 25. It actually snowed there the other day. My friend said they are in the permafrost region, which I think means cold.

Some people have asked if the political instability will effect our adoption. We don't know at this time, but if for some reason Russia closes its doors to international adoption, we will probably change to a neighboring country. We will cross that bridge when we get there. God has our children picked out, so we are open to whatever path He leads us on.

We will wait and pray for the call to come.

And we wait . . .

Things shut down in August in Russia due to vacations. But we are told that September through November should be a busy time for referrals. There are several families adopting siblings ahead of us. However, we are hopeful that we will hear something this fall and possibly make our first trip before Christmas! We won't let the Siberian winter keep us from our children. =)

In the meantime we are doing all we can paperwork wise to be ready for news that our children have been matched to us. While we wait, we are finishing up projects around the house. MaryEllen is taking a class in Russian this fall at the Community College.

We will probably have about a week to accept the referral of the children. Then two weeks notice to travel. During those two weeks we need to arrange air travel, visas, medical exams, children's names etc. We are just trying to have as much done in anticipation of this flurry of activity. We try to hold back our excitement and await God's perfect timing to add to our family. Praying for patience.

Dossier translation complete

We received word this week that our dossier has been translated and sent to Krasnoyarsk!!! Yea!! We need a couple of additional documents but they can be sent later. The team in Krasnoyarsk will now start looking for our children. It's possible we could make a trip this year yet as an approximate wait is 2 - 6 months. At this point it looks like we will get the kids early to mid 2009.
Thank you all for your continued prayers. Now we wait.

Russia/Georgia conflict

Some of you have shared concerns for our adoption plans due to the crisis between Russia and Georgia. Here is an update from our Agency. We are not concerned as our faith is strong.

Dear Families in the Russia Program:
"We are all saddened by the news of violence between Russia and Georgia that has been reported since last week. Our thoughts go out to the innocent families and children affected by this unfortunate unrest.
The US State Department has not issued any further travel warning beyond the June 2008 statement that “travel to the Caucasus region of Russia is dangerous”. None of the regions in which our Agency operates adoption programs are in this area. In addition, we have consulted with our Russian staff and they do not anticipate any immediate impact on international adoption in Russia. Other than the potential for increased security measures with air travel, we do not expect any changes or disruptions to your adoption process.
As you can imagine, the long-term impact on US-Russia relations and the possible implications for international adoption is too difficult to predict at this point. As always, we will continue to keep you updated on any developments that we expect could impact your adoption process.
Please contact your specialist for questions regarding your specific case.
Best regards,
The Russia Team"

Blessings along the way

I took a break from reading Adoption/Parenting books to read a book given to me by my sister-in-law Linda. I just finished reading this awesome book called "The Shack" by William P Young. You may have heard some controversy about this story regarding God being portrayed as a woman. Get past that, there is so much more to this book. I count any thing that brings me closer in my relationship with God a blessing and this has blessed me in so many ways. . . I know our children will reap the blessings through me. =o) I will let you find your own blessings in it.

Last night we were blessed to spend an evening with some dear friends who were being visited by their son and toddler grandchildren, Nathan and Natalie. It did my heart good to spend time with them just watching kids be kids, they are so precious. My heart is so looking forward to children of our own. . .

We were recently on vacation in the Carolinas. We spent time with Peter's sister Kathryn and her family - we are so blessed to have their love. Being included in their family outings to the lake house and to Charleston gave us more insight into being a family. They have three lovely daughters who will make wonderful cousins for the children they are excited to meet.

We also spent time in Nags Head, NC with my brothers Joe and Dave, and Dave's family, and my cousin Al and his family. Everyone is so excited for us and looking forward to meeting the special children waiting for us so far away in Russia. We are looking forward to showing them the ocean and how to make sand castles! I'm sure their Uncle Joe will enjoy teaching them how to fish.

In the meantime, God has blessed us with incredible patience. Peter and I are thoroughly enjoying each other as we wait. We have been reminded time and again ;-) that we are in for a BIG change. We are so very happy to have each other to spend our lives with and pray our families and friends all experience the joys of a blessed marriage.

MaryEllen

We are learning how to blog, and realized what some of you already know. If you want to leave a message for us or our kids you can click on "comments" under each post and blog away. Happy blogging.
Pete and MaryEllen (ME)

CIS Approval

Well, it took a while - but 7 months later we have received approval for our I-600A "advance processing of orphan petition" from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. We have been deemed suitable adoptive parents!!! This approval is only good for 18 months so we hope we receive the children God has chosen for us by then, or we'll have to resubmit.

To complete an international adoption and bring a child to the US, prospective adoptive parents must fulfill the requirements set by the USCIS, the foreign country in which the child resides, and sometimes the state of residence.

So at this time we have been approved by the state of IL and the US, we are now waiting on Russia. We are told our dossier is in Moscow being translated and additional forms may be requested from us, we will just have to wait and see.

Dossier Part 1

We have completed our dossier part 1, and sent it in to our agency. They should receive it today and forward it on to Russia to be translated and submitted to the Dept of Education. This process takes around 2-4 weeks depending on vacations and other potential resending of paperwork. Our counselor says that a referral could come in 2-6 months! Wow! this is coming fast.

Although we have done a lot of preparation for our children, we still feel anxious about becoming parents. I suspect all new parents feel that way. There seems to be so much that can burden us and take our eyes off the Lord, who has led us up to this point. Perhaps this is similar to the Israelites as they wandered in the dessert continually forgetting how God had just covered their needs.

We continue to pray for strength and wisdom as we proceed with our adoption. Please pray with us!

All for His glory,
Pete and ME

Happy 4th of July

Well, we thought we were going to Springfield, IL to get our documents stamped with the "apostille", but we are delayed due to an error in how Peter's name is listed on the documents. Usually the problems are with MaryEllen's name, but in this case they used Peter David, instead of Peter D. . Picky, picky. We hope to have the documents ready next week and we can go to Springfield and get the apostille stamp. Then the documents need to be translated to Russian by our agency. Our agency liaison said we would have set a record for getting our dossier done that quick, but we are still moving along fast. We will keep you posted on our progress. Notice the picture of the kid's room. We have been busy nesting again.

June 28, 2008

We have been in contact with our "agency", and have received instructions for our dossier. Much of what is necessary needs to come from our social worker and getting her supervisor to sign some papers. We have to take pictures of our home, kid's room, park, library, etc. and have that submitted. Some documents need a special stamp from the state called an "apostille". We may go to Springfield on Tuesday to have that done if we get the forms from our social worker. We would like to get it all done this week.

Today we put the kid's beds together so we can take a picture of them. We were given bunk beds by Pete's brother and wife, so we plan to separate them and put them side by side in the same room for now. The kids are used to sleeping together in the same room so hopefully that will make them more comfortable. We will include a picture of the room at some point.

Steps of Faith

This is the first of many blog updates of our adoption process.