Our first 2 pieces...

of GOLD :) All our documents, have to be notorized and then sent to the Secretery of State to be Apostilled..pretty much to certify the certified....we got our first 2 back from Superior Court today!

When we get all our documents gathered/notorized and apostilled...then we will send this..our "dossier" to the Uk*aine to our facilitator...he will then hand carry the translated documents to the State Department of Adoption in the U*raine...we will then, Lord willing wait on them to issue us an appointment date to travel.

My thought at the moment....

I want both the boys :( AND if the Lord would open doors we would have to see open...we would do that ....however for this time, we are peaceful He has us going for one boy, and that is A.

Back in May when we first heard our call to adopt...someone we know who knows "A" said..."Misty, I know a sweet 9 year old who is blind..." AND OFCOURSE my response was "that is too old"....interesting, huh ? When she asked me the same question a couple weeks ago I suppose the Lord had tenderized our hearts to His will, so we were open to praying about "A". Often times we are seeking our own wills and not the will of the Lord...His ways are not always our ways. May our hearts always be tender to hear HIS will.

Our home study is done...

we are waiting on our FBI clearance to come back...it has been 8 weeks, pray clearance comes back soon we can submit our home study to immigrations.

I woke up...

to several treats....

1. a form I have been working on to get right...got our facilitator's approval this morning :)
2. We were given our son's full name (and it is long :) and real birthdate :)
3. We saw a video of him today...it was from 4 years ago..however we LOVED it!

I am sad..

to make this blog private....long story......we were told it to be best at this time in the process to do so, as so much is on the line with this being an international adoption. Hope you all understand and it is not too complicated for you to sign in...thanks for understanding :)

Just in case...

you are running out of things to pray for...then remember us :) We are on a paper chasing spree...some of the things we need we are having an interesting time getting since living in base housing..military.....etc...Pray the Lord will give us a smooth sail and we can get all our paperwork, lab work, finger prints (for the 3rd time..one more time to go :)...all done in a timely manner...we are so ready to get moving!

Today is a good day :)

I had become so overwhelmed with everything going on, I decided last night I needed to get "us" back on a schedule....we started today and it has been a good day :)! I did some shopping today on Amazon...love that site...I can get so many resoures for this adoption at a fraction of the price. We ordered some books for our kids pertaining to the adoption and some biography books for them on some well known people who were visually impaired...did you know many people who achieved much in their life time, were blind. Ofcourse Mike and I got some more books on adoption that were recommended to us by a good friend we have meet on our journey...who have adopted 2 girls from Eastern Europe. We also got some informative books on working with blind children....we have SO much to learn and we are so eager to help our son in anyway possible. We also were recommended to http://www.littlepim.com/ .....we ordered the Russian set of DVD's....mainly so we can have some "basic" communication with our son...we need to understand some of what he is saying in order to meet his basic needs such as love, hunger and ofcourse bathroom :) These will be great tools for any child wanting to learn a foreign language..they have many languages available.

We are also very thankful, so dear friends have ordered for us the English/Russian bible and the Russian bible on CD for us to have in the house for "A". Ofcourse we want "A" to learn English but no need for him to learn english before we can share the bible with him :)...AND our dear friends also ordered a Russian bible and Russian bible on audio to leave in our child' s visually impaired facility. We are very thankful and humbled at their kindness...thank you!

A Better day..

Thank you for your prayers...today is a better day :) If anyone that reads this and is local, we would love to have a Russian translator some when we return home. Yes, I know that is a while from now..however, because of A's blindness we really want to make sure he is aware of what is going on...we are praying the Lord would begin a work in his heart now..in that A would be very comfortable and trusting towards us.

Please pray

Mike and I peacefully have made this decision to persue A...pray for me...Mike is doing well and I am really struggling with these tormenting thoughts of how we are leaving little D to basically die. I literally get very nauseous when I think about leaving D in the condition he is in. Physically and emotionally this is draining me. I know this is not from the Lord! The fact is, we cannot take every child home...I am sure when we get to our chlid's country we will have a harder time because then we will actually be with all those children who need families.

A quick update...

Like I said, Lord willing...the Lord has had many surprises in store for us through this process. Please continue to pray for us. The process is alot! We found out from our facilitator that our country will continue processing adoptions for some time longer, we are not sure for how much longer...we are working hard in hopes to be submitted before they close down for a period of time.

This new little boy we are seeking for....we will call him A. He is dear, we know someone who has known him personally for 8 years. A has a brother that was adopted into the states about 6 years ago...they were 11 months apart and look like twins!

Update on wreaths....we have decided what we need now is prayers..that being said...if you are interested in one of the wreaths on this page, let me know and it is yours....we are only asking you to remember to pray for us and for A everytime you see the wreath on your door. If you are not local and need the wreath mailed out...we do ask you to cover the shipping costs. Currently I have 2 wreaths available but will be making more, when I find time :)

How to pray.....please do...prayer is needed more than anything in this process.

1. Pray for A and pray for D (the little boy we had to leave to the Lord)...pray the Lord would be preparing A's heart for the changes ahead of him. Can you imagine...being 9 years old and leaving your country, your friends and all you have ever known...to come to America with 2 people you cannot see and you cannot understand ....this could be very scary to him! Please Please pray for a smooth transition for him. Pray he will feel safe, comfortable and protected with us.

2. Pray for Anna, Naomi, Luke and Beth as this will be a huge change for them..especially for Anna.

3. Pray our country stays open long enough for us to be submitted...pray there are no delays with our paperwork and we sail smoothly.

4. Please also begin to pray for our judge, that we mind find great favor in his sight.

5. Pray also for our children as we will be leaving them for many weeks to travel to get our son.

Bottom line is pray pray pray!

The Lord...

as I have said throughout this whole adoption process....we are seeking for this boy who is 5 and blind but we were much aware the Lord could change our steps at any moment....

3 days ago I was chatting with someone who specifically said to me that night....Misty, will you consider a 9 year old boy who is blind???? OFCOURSE we will consider anyone ! To make a very long story short we had to make a VERY hard decision...one of the hardest Mike and I have made together...knowing to choose life for one child, will choose to leave the other to perish...

After many many tears and much praying...we are thankful and peaceful in that we have heard the Lord's direction for us. We will seek for this 9 year old boy now and leave our little 5 year old with the Lord...we had to make a decision, we have to trust the Lord and move foward with our process.

This new little boy is 9 years old and has no other special needs other than he is blind. He is very active and we feel we can offer him so much, though I know the real blessing will be him blessing us !!

Continue to pray for us as this whole process has been an emotional one...one thing we do know is GOD is faithful...tonight we rest in Him.

The Lord....

always seems to have surprises for us, nothing comes as a surprise to Him.....We are trusting in Him as we continue to get new open doors during our adoption process and are resting in the sovereignty of our Lord...SO thankful for that!

Our newly adopted daughter.....

a much easier process than our soon to be son :) We are thankful for this little creature...the Lord answered the desire of our children's hearts for free :)

Praise to our LORD

We were never going to post about the financial aspects of our adoption...however the Lord has been too good to not proclaim His goodness and provision through this adoption process. We felt we needed $28,000 to be fully funded...with humble thanksgiving and all glory to our Lord...if/when our van sells...we will only need about $4,500!! We post this to honor and bring praise to the Lord...HE has provided this!!

AND HE answered the desire of our children's hearts today by providing a purebred registed choc. lab for free!!

We are.....

Home study approved!!! We are still waiting on a couple things to come in and she has to do seperate interviews next week...but she did say she was approving us for what we wanted :) She was here for 3 hours so much in depth talking and home inspection...we are thankful that the end result was one of approval.