Day One Bonding

We arrived in Ust Kamenogorsk at 2 this afternoon, were taken to the hotel and then went to meet Tanya. Galina will be brought from her orphanage tomorrow to Tanya's orphanage for our bonding. Our impression of Tanya is very good. She is a very gracious young girl. She is shy but made eye contact and answered our many questions. She came over and sat between us and at one point started crying when the social worker was explaining to her what being adopted entailed. For her this is a last hope for a family and a chance in life. The social worker asked Mark and I many questions about why we wanted older children, if we were scared and how our grown children felt about it. After Mark answered these questions she said that if we were OK with it then they were too.

Today's the Day

Wow, what a week!!! First I want to thank everyone for their prayers and calls of encouragement. We are 11 hours away from takeoff and less than 72 hours from seeing Tanya and Galina. We received our passports with visas by special courier last night at about 8:30p.m. We also celebrated Mark's birthday last night since today with all the last minute details he might be forgotten. Everything's packed thanks to Beth's experienced hand. We have 4 pieces of luggage all weighing close to the max. Brent and Beth will take us to the airport and drop us on the curb. They want our truck for the month. LOL! We are looking forward to meeting Mike, Vonda and Luke at McDonald's in Frankfurt. We became blog friends back in February and soon discovered that we were moving along step by step together. We prayed that we would travel together and God has answered our prayers!! We will also meet another family that has been in Ust for 2 weeks already. Several months ago we all dreamed of sharing a pizza together at Pizza Blues. As we tried to work out all the details God already had it done.

Prayer Requests:
1. Safe travel.
2. Protection for our kids left back in the states. Lacey and Nichol will be moving into new apartments while we're gone. Gabe, Christine and Cash will be coming to Michigan for a wedding.
3. Discernment when we meet the girls and God's peace that passes all understanding that they are meant them for our family.
4. That Tanya and Galina will know that they will be loved and cared for.
5. Anything else you can think of because at this point we are beyond words that God has blessed us with this opportunity!

I probably won't post again until after we meet the girls. We are hoping it will be Monday when we arrive in Ust. Ust is 10 hours ahead of Michigan. Look for an update when you get up on Tuesday morning.

Off and running!!!

I called in the troups. Brent, Beth, Ty and Chelsea came to our house today to divide and conquer. Lacey, Beth and Chelsea went and got the last few gifts we needed. Me, Brent and Tyler went and got a laptop. Our flights have been purchased. We will leave from Detroit at 6p.m. on Saturday night then on to Frankfurt where we will meet up with our blog friends Mike, Vonda and Luke. From there we will all travel together to Almaty and arrive at 11:55p.m. on Sunday night. On Monday we will fly to Ust Kamenogorsk where we will meet our daughters. Our visas are being picked up tomorrow by Fedex same day delivery. They will board a commercial jet at Washington Dulles airport and be picked up at Detroit airport by a courier who will deliver them to our home around 10:30p.m. Friday night. It has been a day filled with joy, fear and excitement. We ended our day today with our small group having dinner at our home and great fun and fellowship.

We Have Been Given Faver!!

Just a quick note to everyone who has been praying for us. WE ARE going this Saturday, the 8th. The man at the embassy is expediting our visas. I will post more about soooo many answers to prayer that we have received over the past several days when I can calm down.

Office Closed Due to Vacation...AGAIN

Really truly I do not like drama but the past 24 hours has been full of it. Maybe, I should say, the last 6 years of our adoption journey. As I posted yesterday we received our LOI and were told that we would travel on August 15th. That changed today. We have been told that the judge in our region will be leaving on vacation on August 31st so that wouldn't allow time for our court hearing. We were first told that if we couldn't leave by this Saturday, August 8th, that we can't go until September 20th. Our visa application is en route right now to Assistant Stork and the embassy is closed tomorrow. The embassy no longer will expedite a visa. I asked what our options were and if we could travel on Monday or Tuesday if that would leave us enough time. We could be on that plane tomorrow if we just had our visas. AA told us that they will call Ust tonight and get a cut off date for us. In the meantime, AA told us to call Assistant Stork and ask them if it was possible for them to request our visa overnight. The man at Assistant Stork was wonderful. He had me print off our flight itinerary for August 8th which Eldo at Golden Rule Travel is able to hold for us until Friday. He then told me to write a pleading letter to the man at the embassy. He said it will depend on what kind of mood he is in whether he will grant us an expedited visa. Assistant Stork will let us know by Thursday at noon whether we will have our visas by our flight on Saturday. If not, we are hoping that we can still go the beginning of next week. So close! On the positive side all of our papers are in order and we will go... it's just a matter of Gods' time.

LOI

WE GOT IT!!!!!! I received a call this afternoon. We will be leaving on Saturday, August 15th to be in Ust Kamengorsk on the 17th. Two weeks from today we will be hugging our girls. PRAISE GOD!!!!! More details to follow.

Questions?????

We've had an interesting week. Last Friday we received a call from an associate pastor at our church asking us for help. There is a teenage boy in our community that was adopted from Ukraine 6 years ago and has disrupted from his family. The principle at his school has been caring for him for the past 6 weeks and they are looking for a family for him. He immediately thought of us and called. Mark and I were very perplexed by this, asking God, why now when we are maybe a week or two away from going to get our girls would you put this on us. I met with 3 ladies on Thursday to talk about this child's situation. We brought it to our small group for prayer on Thursday evening. The tables have been turned to where Mark can't stop thinking about him and I am thinking... not an option. We've been talking and really praying about it and went our separate ways to do errands this a.m. and Mark just called me from his cell phone. He said he was driving and praying and God really spoke to him about this situation. He referred to Nehemiah 6:3 I'm doing a great work and I can not come down. We have a plaque as you enter our home that was made by Mark's best friend after studying Nehemiah in our small group and this is what the plaque says. We need to keep to the work that God has given us and not get distracted. When Mark shared this with me I got chills. Our adoption has been a HUGE walk of faith for Mark. Thank you Lord for speaking to Mark and him being open to listening to your voice!