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.