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.