I meant to get online on Christmas Day, but our holidays were too filled with the blessings of family to spend time on a computer. :-) We were able to celebrate Christmas on three different occasions with all of our parents in the month of December--what a gift.
We are hoping and trusting that 2007 will be the last year we will celebrate Jesus' birth as a family of two. Next year we look forward to experiencing Christmas through the eyes of a child.
In Russia, the two big winter holidays are New Year's Day and Orthodox Christmas, which is on January 7. So, the government offices will be closed there from December 29 through January 9. Once they are back in business, we hope to hear news of our registration sometime in Jauary. May 2008 be a year of many blessings for each of you!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Document delivered!
Our document was delivered in Russia at 12:30pm local time today (Thursday). Woo-hoo! Now we're just waiting on the news that we are officially registered there. I would think it would happen soon, and we'll keep you posted!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Document update--good news!
Thanks for your prayers. I just got off the phone with DHL, and we got good news. They are going to mail our document to Russia for us, and will also cover the shipping charges to get it there! They think it should arrive by Thursday or Friday. It's being sent to our agency contact there, who will translate it and get it to the Ministry of Education to get us registered. I have no idea how the timing will all work out, but it looks like we should be registered by early next week. Praise God!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Hard day
Today has turned out to be a hard day. To explain, I need to back up.
On Thursday, I called our family coordinator to ask about our progress in getting registered in Russia. She said they really did want to get us registered in December, and so we needed to complete our final document quickly. So yesterday, I got up early and made the 2 1/2 hour trip (one-way) to Tallahassee. I was able to get the document apostilled (certified). Another America World family is flying to our region on tomorrow, so our plan was to overnight/Saturday delivery the document to them. They would get it today, and then take it on the plane with them and hand-deliver it for us in Russia. What perfect timing!
I've been tracking the package all day: 6:11pm last night it left Tallahassee and went to Ohio. Great! 6:20am this morning it left the facility in Ohio. Progress! 10:38am it was with the delivery courier, in a town only 45 minutes away from the family. Almost there! 2:38pm: "address information needed, contact customer service." What?
I called at 3:05pm and was told the facility closed at 3:00 and there was nothing they could do until Monday. My heart sank. There is no way the document will be on the plane tomorrow.
They did agree to refund our money, but that doesn't get our document to Russia. On Monday, I can call back to find out more. We are planning to ask them to cover the cost of shipping this document to Russia, as that's now our only option. Please pray that they will be understanding and willing to work with us. It looks like it only takes 3 days to get to Russia, so we still may be registered this month. God brought this great quote from Warren Myers to mind as we were driving home from a friend's party today:
"The Lord may not have planned that this should overtake me, but He has most certainly permitted it. Therefore though it were an attack of an enemy, by the time it reaches me, it has the Lord's permission and therefore all is well. He will make it work together with all life's experiences for good."
Last night as we were praying for the document to arrive today, we acknowledged that it would be easy for God to have it delivered, but if He chose not to do that, we would trust Him. I shed some tears today, not understanding why God allowed this, but I do know that He is good and His plans for us are good. This will not stop us from bringing our son home. He'll be here before we know it!
On Thursday, I called our family coordinator to ask about our progress in getting registered in Russia. She said they really did want to get us registered in December, and so we needed to complete our final document quickly. So yesterday, I got up early and made the 2 1/2 hour trip (one-way) to Tallahassee. I was able to get the document apostilled (certified). Another America World family is flying to our region on tomorrow, so our plan was to overnight/Saturday delivery the document to them. They would get it today, and then take it on the plane with them and hand-deliver it for us in Russia. What perfect timing!
I've been tracking the package all day: 6:11pm last night it left Tallahassee and went to Ohio. Great! 6:20am this morning it left the facility in Ohio. Progress! 10:38am it was with the delivery courier, in a town only 45 minutes away from the family. Almost there! 2:38pm: "address information needed, contact customer service." What?
I called at 3:05pm and was told the facility closed at 3:00 and there was nothing they could do until Monday. My heart sank. There is no way the document will be on the plane tomorrow.
They did agree to refund our money, but that doesn't get our document to Russia. On Monday, I can call back to find out more. We are planning to ask them to cover the cost of shipping this document to Russia, as that's now our only option. Please pray that they will be understanding and willing to work with us. It looks like it only takes 3 days to get to Russia, so we still may be registered this month. God brought this great quote from Warren Myers to mind as we were driving home from a friend's party today:
"The Lord may not have planned that this should overtake me, but He has most certainly permitted it. Therefore though it were an attack of an enemy, by the time it reaches me, it has the Lord's permission and therefore all is well. He will make it work together with all life's experiences for good."
Last night as we were praying for the document to arrive today, we acknowledged that it would be easy for God to have it delivered, but if He chose not to do that, we would trust Him. I shed some tears today, not understanding why God allowed this, but I do know that He is good and His plans for us are good. This will not stop us from bringing our son home. He'll be here before we know it!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
The power of one little word...
I am so glad that we do not serve a little God. One who is weak or unable to move mountains on our behalf. Just as we were getting adjusted to the idea of a long wait ahead of us in this journey to our son, God chose to move a huge mountain and shorten our time line considerably! In my last post, I acknowledged that God could choose to move mountains, but we didn't really expect Him to. Thankfully God is much bigger than my faith!
Last Thursday, we received a phone call from our family coordinator at America World. We small-talked a little, and she asked how we were doing with waiting patiently. I told her we've really been working on it, but of course it's never easy to wait. The next word out of her mouth was, "Well..." Oh, the power of that little word! She said it in a way that made it clear she had some news. (You can imagine the inflection.)
She told me that one of the regions in which our agency works in Russia has a number of infant boys in their orphanage right now. Our contact in Russia said he thinks he might be able to register one or two dossiers for families by mid-December. Because we are requesting an infant boy, and all of our paperwork is in order, our dossier might be registered in just a few weeks! So, she was calling to let me know we have one additional document we need to fill out in order to be registered. She emailed it to us, and we got it notarized and in the mail to be apostilled that same day. As soon as we get it back, we'll send it to our agency, who will then mail it on to Russia.
As a reminder of our process, we can't be matched with a specific child until our dossier gets registered in a specific region. Our paperwork has been done since May, but with so many other families waiting, we haven't been registered anywhere yet. Recently, once families have been registered in this region, they have been receiving referrals of children anywhere from two weeks to two months later. This means we could easily be traveling on the first trip to meet our son in the next several months!
Even if we aren't registered in December, it looks like we should be registered in January. We won't know more for several weeks either way. We would appreciate your prayers for a registration in December. What a great Christmas present that would be!
Last Thursday, we received a phone call from our family coordinator at America World. We small-talked a little, and she asked how we were doing with waiting patiently. I told her we've really been working on it, but of course it's never easy to wait. The next word out of her mouth was, "Well..." Oh, the power of that little word! She said it in a way that made it clear she had some news. (You can imagine the inflection.)
She told me that one of the regions in which our agency works in Russia has a number of infant boys in their orphanage right now. Our contact in Russia said he thinks he might be able to register one or two dossiers for families by mid-December. Because we are requesting an infant boy, and all of our paperwork is in order, our dossier might be registered in just a few weeks! So, she was calling to let me know we have one additional document we need to fill out in order to be registered. She emailed it to us, and we got it notarized and in the mail to be apostilled that same day. As soon as we get it back, we'll send it to our agency, who will then mail it on to Russia.
As a reminder of our process, we can't be matched with a specific child until our dossier gets registered in a specific region. Our paperwork has been done since May, but with so many other families waiting, we haven't been registered anywhere yet. Recently, once families have been registered in this region, they have been receiving referrals of children anywhere from two weeks to two months later. This means we could easily be traveling on the first trip to meet our son in the next several months!
Even if we aren't registered in December, it looks like we should be registered in January. We won't know more for several weeks either way. We would appreciate your prayers for a registration in December. What a great Christmas present that would be!
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