Craziness...

We have been so busy getting ready for our trip to meet our little girl! Most of the paperwork is done, and luckily what isn't finished can be sent over after we come back. Tomorrow I am headed downtown to have our stack of papers sealed by the Dept. of State. We are supposed to get our VISAs in the mail on Wednesday...pray that they arrive on time! Here is our travel itinerary:
April 2-we will leave STL at 10am and fly to JFK., our flight then leaves for Moscow at 4pm
April 3-arrive in Moscow at 10am, go to a hotel for a few hours to rest and shower, and then leave that same night at 9pm for Krasnoyarsk.
April 4-arrive in Krasnoyarsk at 5am (finally!), then have the rest of the day free.
April 5-travel to the Ministry of Education to officially receive our referral...then we go the orphanage to meet our girl!
April 6-visit our girl
April 7-visit our girl for the last time before we leave :(
April 8-leave Kras at 7am and arrive in Moscow at 7am (four hour flight and four hour time difference!), then stay in Moscow overnight.
April 9-leave Moscow at 10am for the USA
When we get home we will probably sleep for a really long time, and then start getting ready to bring home our little sweetie! I ordered a pink giraffe lovie for her, and it came in the mail today. It's really soft and super cute. We are going to leave it with her, along with a photo album with pics of us and our family. I talked to a mom who just adopted their little boy from Kras last year. It turns out that he came from the same orphanage! She said that the caregivers really care about the children, and that her son was well taken care of. We were so thankful for that knowlege, and for all of her help and great advice. Please pray for their family, as they have already started the adoption process again, and hope to get another referral from Kras soon!

Referral!!!

It has finally happened! Last Friday we were on our way downtown to renew our immigration fingerprints and my phone rang. I knew immediately that it was the agency because I gave them a special ring. :) Mark and I looked at each other and said "this could be it!" Only it was the Bethany director, Donna, not our social worker, Aimee. So, initially I was disappointed and thought she was calling about something else. Then she said, "this always happens to Aimee when she is out of the office...believe it or not, I have a referral for you guys!" I cannot even tell you how amazing it was to hear those words! Then she gave us a HUGE surprise when she said "it's a girl!" Since we were on the highway near the Bethany office, we went straight there to see her picture and get her information. Donna had phoned Aimee by the time we got there, and even though she wasn't able to be the one to share the news, she was excited to tell us congratulations. :) I can't describe how we felt when we first saw her pictures...she is beautiful! We aren't able to share her name or pictures on any public sites until after court, but we can tell you that she is 19months old and has the cutest little smile. We had such a great time telling our families! On Monday we spoke with Aimee and she told us not to expect to travel until late April or May. Then, Tuesday morning she called and said "how would you like to leave April 2nd?" OMG!!! We are leaving next Friday! Needless to say it has been craziness in our house. We are up to our elbows in paperwork! We will post more about our travel plans soon...

Soon...

Our social worker received an update from the Russian coordinator...we should be getting a referral soon! We don't know what "soon" means, but we are optimistic. I need to start preparing for the super cold weather in Kras...the high this week is -6, the low -22. I can't even imagine how cold that is! How do people live there? Our poor little Vlad is so chilly!

Living Life

Mark and I have been doing just that! He has been home a lot more, and we have been so thankful for the extra time together. We're really lucky that he isn't flying on the east coast this weekend...snowy craziness! Tomorrow we're going to my parent's house for the Super Bowl, and are excited to spend the day with family. We're still waiting for our referral, but amazingly enough, that's ok. From the start, Mark has been so much better at this. I have really envied his patience! But, recently, a sense of peace has come over me about it. All along I have told myself (and others) that it will happen when the time is right. Finally, I'm listening :) I have accepted that it's just not up to us. God has already chosen the perfect little boy (or girl) to be our child, and we just have to trust in His timing!

Perfect timing

We got an update the week of New Year's....probably no referral until the spring. According to the Russian coordinator the process is moving slowly in our region right now. Plus, the Russian Christmas is celebrated in early January, so most of the officials are off for the first two weeks. This was really frustrating news for us! The upside was, that we left for a much needed vacation on the 4th and were able to just relax and put things into perspective. Our cruise came at the perfect time, and really helped us get our minds off the waiting!

News

Well, the good news is that we heard from our social worker today and we are near the top of the Bethany waiting list for Krasnoyarsk. The disappointing news is that we are not expected to get a referral for a few more months, as there are several families from other agencies ahead of us. We were thankful for the update, and at least now we know where we stand. Pray that these other families get their referrals soon!

Homestudy update

Our homestudy update was yesterday and it went well! We feel extremely lucky to have such a great social worker. She always makes us feel really comfortable, and is so patient with all of our questions. There haven't been any updates as to when a referral might be coming, but she promised to at least try to find out something for us. We did get a little more info about our region and travel. A few other Bethany families have recently adopted from Krasnoyarsk and said that the orphanages are clean and the children seem well taken care of. We were SO grateful for that information!
We are going to try to use Mark's flight benefits to fly United from the US to Moscow, but then we have to take a Russian airline from Moscow to Kras. That should be interesting! The agency will put us in touch with someone to help with our travel arrangements, and we will have an interpreter most of the time we are there. We were also very excited to learn that we will have a driver. I can't imagine trying to drive around Russia ourselves!