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.