Well, we had to go and update the boy’s medicals and part of this was a TB test. :o( They were both so very brave, and understood why they were having to do this. They were both willing to sacrifice and did so with courage. Not even a single tear. I told them as they were getting it, lets pray this will be the last time and that before it has time to expire again we have her home. It is not so bad when I myself have to go and have bloodwork and whatnot…but I hate it that my boys have to endure it as well. :o( But boy, if two little boys had to, I’m sure glad it was these particular boys, since they were so brave. I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I’m thankful God was so gracious in giving us these boys for our own. If I could choose, I would choose them over and over again.
We should have all the paper work necessary for our Home study update in by Friday, and then we begin the other paper work that will go along with our dossier that we have to keep updated. So we keep pluggin’ along.
Keep us in your prayers. I have been pleading so that the Lord would send us our referral and so that everything would work out just so…I think I’m holding on too tight…and have come to a point of realizing I needed to confess my desire to control the situation. Yesterday I gave up the fight to hold on and finally did what I know is right, and handed it back to God. What peace this brings. I’m so thankful He loves us unconditionally and waits for us to give it back to Him and doesn’t walk away from us when we take too long. He is so good…always.
In His Watch Care,
Joy

Well, the Lord continues to show Himself faithful. No referral yet…but another gift of money was given to us today. Though no names are mentioned this side of Heaven…thank you for the blessing it is to us. We love you…
We continue to pray that God will show His might and mercy, allowing us to receive a referral before the expected time frame.
Keep us in your prayers.
In His Watch Care,
Joy

We are doing well. My TB skin test reading went well. I just have to get the blood panel work-up so my doctor can sign off on my paper work.
I just heard from a fellow adopting family that some of the homestudy agencies that have been used in the past are no longer being accepted by Russia, so many are having to find other agencies to complete another homestudy. Be praying for them as this means more time and expenditures. As far as we know ours is fine.
Be praying we will be able to bring our girl home soon.
In His Watch Care,
Joy

I just wanted to say hello. We are still working on our updates for our paper work. I forgot just how much brain power it takes to get everything gathered. ;o) I told Brent, my brain is just not wired for this figuring. I’m good at last minute details, creative inclings, and anything, well, unordered. With this paper work, the dates and expirations can be kind of tricky, to be sure they won’t expire while we are in the middle of our trips. Most things have an expiration of a year. But some of them are only good for 3 or 6 months. Some of them will have to be completed or updated again between our trips.
We’ve been home most of the weekend, one with the croup, the other with a cough, and me with a stomach bug I think. Thankfully, we had today off. Tomorrow, only three of us will go back to our normal schedule. My oldest will be home with Nana for one more day to try to regain some strength.
We are praying we will hear something of a referral in the next few weeks. We know that in the adoption realm, it seems unlikely, but we are abiding in another realm…one controlled by the Almighty! We are praying He will move mountains once again. All we need is the faith of a mustard seed…I’m holding onto that promise.
In His Watch Care,
Joy

Test post from Blackberry.

We’ve recently come from our dinner for eight (though there were 11 of us there tonight). This is a fun activity our church does to allow members to get together in groups of eight at someone’s house to have supper together and get to know each other better. We do this once every other month. Anyway, we had a lovely time fellowshipping with everyone.
So…update on our barbecue…believe it or not, it looks like we may have to wait until after March. The original two weekends we looked at, both Brent and I will be out of time (him one weekend, myself the other weekend). So we looked at the weekend between, and my dad will be working shutdown and won’t be able to help us with the cooking, nor my brother. The first weekend of March is too soon at this point. Hmmmm…wonder if the Lord is trying to tell us something…It seems last time we felt like we were being held up on purpose we indeed were…We will see what we will see…
In His Watch Care,
Joy
PS: we did find out that Krasnoyarsk is 12 hours ahead of us. So when we are awake, she is sleeping and obviously vice versa. Goodmorning Sunshine!

Well, we have been busy getting things together for school, fundraisers, and our adoption. I’m excited to say we only have 24 lipglosses left to sell. I have been able to take my jewelry to a consignment shop called Trendys in hopes of selling it to go towards our adoption. We have also come up with a date for our barbecue dinner plate. We will have it March 14. Now we just need to finalize where we will have it!! And of course begin to advertise. It seems a little scary. But, I know the Lord will see us through on this, as He has every step of the way. We have seen blessings come our way in regards to out journey to our daughter, and it has been truly so refreshing!!
One blessing was in regards to some paperwork we had to complete. As we approach a year marking turning in our dossier, documents will begin to expire, thus updating them will be necessary. The first document is our marriage certificate. So…we were trying to get that thing mailed out on Thursday, then on Friday, and again on Saturday. All to no avail. I was telling my mom about it, and mentioned, “you know, it is almost as if the Lord Himself is holding us up on this for some reason”…and no kidding, just as I was saying this, it came to my mind we had completely forgotten to include a self-addressed/self-stamped envelope for which the Secretary of State Dept. would use to send us our apostilled paper work back in!! I’m so thankful the the Lord WAS holding us up on this one. It serves to remind me, He is even in the details of the fine print of our lives!! I’m so glad He is in control, as you can see what will happen if I am…we’ll forget pertinant details of life!!
We also received word of another blessing coming our way, though we are unable to share the details, suffice it to say…God is so good to us, and we know, here again, it has come straight from His almighty hands.
In His Watch Care,
Joy