Ready to Go!

This will probably be our last post for a few days. We aren't quite packed yet, but have almost everything laid out all over our bedroom - quite a mess! But, we will pack it all up tonight.

This past week has been EXTREMELY busy! Since we received the call with our travel dates last Friday, we have been shopping for items to take with us (catching some good sales on winter clothing). The first thing we did Monday was book our flights. We will be flying out Monday 3/2 from Dulles on Lufthansa and return Sunday 3/8. We overnighted our VISA application on Monday and received them on Thursday (which was a relief). The weather forecast while we are there is calling for SNOW :) and in the 30s....should be fun!

We have been corresponding with our Gladney coordinator daily taking care of last minute items. We will be staying with a host family while we are there. From speaking with other people who have "gone before us" they say that family is great - their names are German and Marina and Marina is a great cook. So, we will get to experience some authentic Russian food :) We are so excited to be finally going over to Russia to see our beautiful little boy. We are also excited about meeting all of the people that are taking care of our little one.

We should have internet access while we are over there and will update our blog as we can to keep everyone posted. We won't be able to send out email updates, so if you want to keep track, save the blogsite as one of your favorites and check it when you can.

Thanks to all who continue to pray for us - please keep them coming as we travel, meet our referral and make the best decision we can for us. We know that we are only along for the ride and God has total control of this journey we are on - but we also know he is bringing us to this little boy for a reason!

RUSSIA....HERE WE COME!!

Looks like we will be heading off to COLD COLD Russia on March 2nd. We received the call from Gladney tonight with our travel dates - we will leave March 2nd and return March 8th. This week will be extremely busy for us getting everything ready for our trip - we have to get our visas, book our flights, pack, make a photo album to leave with our referral, get gifts to leave with our host family/facilitators/drivers/orphanage caregivers, make sure we have enough layers of clothing to keep us warm and I'm sure a million other things. While we are in Russia, we will be able to see our referral for the first time, gather more information on him, spend some time with him and maybe even tour Moscow/St Petersburg before we make our decision. We cannot believe that we will actually be in Russia soon. We cannot wait to see him with our own eyes - I'm sure it will be something we will never forget. We will post one more message before we leave and depending on internet access while we are there, we may be able to keep you all updated while we are there. If not, we will definitely be in touch when we return. Please continue to pray for us this week - for organization, patience, focus, positive thoughts, the health of our referral, safe travels and guidance in making our decision. We love each of you and appreciate all you have done for us.

We got THE CALL!!!!

Let me start off by saying we have experienced God's plan for us in so many ways these past couple of weeks. As you all know, our last post wasn't the best of news, but we were still positive that we were getting closer to our child. It turns out we may be closer than we thought!!! Less than a week later (Wednesday Feb 4th), we received a call from Gladney asking us if we would be interested in a child that was out of the age range we had asked for (we originally requested a child no older than 18 months). This was not a call for a referral - just an "are you interested in changing your age range" call. The child they were asking us about was 2 years old - that is all they told us. After talking about it, we figured "sure. why not!". So, we told her yes we would extend our age range and she said she would let them know. On Friday Feb 6th at 3pm, Dennis gets a call from Gladney saying that they have a referral for us. I was actually on my way to his office to meet with him so he asked if we could call her back before she told him anything so we could hear it together. When I got to his office, we called Jennifer and she sent us an email with the referral for a 2 year old little boy. She discussed with us some of the things mentioned in the email and what the next steps are. They sent us about a dozen pictures, which we can't share right now, but we will as soon as we can - I PROMISE!! But, I will tell you he is ADORABLE - he has big blue eyes and light brown hair. So, what we have done so far is sent the pictures and the little bit of information they sent us (mainly his measurements) to a pediatrician out of Minnesota that was recommended to us by our agency and several others, who specializes in international adoptions. He has given us his feedback (as good as he can from a few pictures and a few pieces of information about him) and tomorrow we are talking with another pediatrician to get his evaluation, along with a social worker at Gladney. From there, we are going to let Gladney know that we are interested in traveling to meet this little guy and see how he is for ourselves. Once they tell the orphanage that we are interested in traveling, they will let us know when we can come. It could be in a week or a month from now - they will decide. So, once that is scheduled, we will go over for our first trip (7 days) and make our final decision from that trip. I can't tell you the emotional roller coaster we have been on the past few days - it's a miracle that all of this is happening so fast. We are feeling everything from excitement to being scared - but mostly excitement. We can't believe that we will soon be traveling to Russia to meet our referral. We know our lives will be changing in a dramatic way, especially because it has only been the 2 of us (and Maggie) for so long! The fact that it will soon be the 3 of us is AMAZING!!!!Once we got the referral, the first people we wanted to tell was our parents, so we made a special trip up to NOVA to tell them in person. It was priceless to see their reactions and just share that moment with them - it is something we will never forget. I think they are ready to be grandparents! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel and that God will give us the guidance we need to make the best decision possible and that this 2 year old little boy is as healthy as he can be. Even though we started this process in August 2007, we feel that this is the REAL beginning of our journey. We will keep you posted when we know our travel dates. Love ya'll!!!!

We wait, we wait, we wait.....

Hello to all! We hope this long and overdue post has found you all doing well and enjoying 2009. It's been awhile since our last post, frankly because there hasn't been much to say! We are still waiting! And it looks like we will be waiting some more. We had a conference call last week with Gladney on some things that are occurring. First, some of our paperwork has expired during this process, so we are currently updating things like fingerprints, medical work and our homestudy. Not a big deal and it's kind of nice to be doing "something" again. Second, on the conference call Gladney discussed the current situation in Russia and how that is affecting adoptions. We will try to explain it as easy as possible: 1) Two years ago, Russia closed down international adoptions and required all agencies to get re-accredited. Since there were no international adoptions occuring, Russia opened up orphanages within the country and Russian citizens began adopting. So, when agencies began to get reaccredited again, it's not like there was a ton of children waiting because they weren't begin adopted - there was actually less. 2) So, with that being said Gladney is no longer taking any new applicants to the Russia program. 3) They will continue to work with the 40 families who are currently in the process 4) They have told us not to expect to get referrals for children under the age of 2 and probably with more developmental/health issues. So, where does that leave us? We continue to wait, keep our paperwork updated and PRAY PRAY PRAY. We have known from the time we began the process that it was going to be a long and trying one and it was all going to happen in God's time. Even though we may think we have a plan, we know in reality He has THE plan for us. So, we look at it as His way to make sure that we are ready, it is the right time, we are able to save the remainder of the money that we need to complete the adoption (THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE HELPED US WITH YOUR "CONTRIBUTION" - it means more to us than you will EVER know) and we use this time to become the best parents we can for our Russian angel. All we ask from our friends and family is to keep us in your prayers and continue giving us the love and support that you have from the beginning of our journey. As we have said many times, we wouldn't be able to do this without all of you and are so grateful for the love that our child will one day receive from you. We love you all!