Our little girls name

Some of you may of noticed that I have been calling our little girl Josie.  That will be her nickname.  We are not allowed to put her legal or pictures on internet until the adoption is final.

Paper Chase

This week has definitely been the most stressful part of the entire adoption process.  Our case was "lucky" enough to be given the new judge that our agency had just dealt with a handful of times.  We had all of our paperwork completed weeks ago but she has since requested so much additional that I can't possibly imagine what else she could possible want.  Having our own business has thrown her for a loop. We have all but one thing in the process of getting Appostilled  (a seal from the Secretary of State).  The last piece WILL be in the Fed-X box tomorrow to make the deadline of being apostilled and in OH by Thur.  I will feel so much better when all this paperwork is complete and we can just focus on our upcoming trip and our boys.  I have heard adoption paperwork called paperwork pregnancy.  I now agree.  I don't mean to complain.  We feel so fortunate to be going thru this process and know that God will help us see it thru.  We could use some prayers for our court that is Jan 26th in Russia.  We are told this judge will give us a run for our money. 

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I did not realize I had it set so you had to be registered to leave a comment.  I have now changed it. 

Our dreams

I had mentioned in an earlier post that Chad and I had been having the same dream about adopting and did not realize it.  I will share a little about that.  I (Kelly) had been having dreams that I was in an orphanage and would meet our child but could never see her face.  I had those dreams for years but knew Chad was not really on the same page about adoption for us so I didn't talk to him about the dreams.  I had begun to pray to God that if adoption was not something that was right for our family that he take it off my heart.  I just did not want to have the same feelings when it was too late in life to do anything about it.  I could not imagine there being a child that God had for us and never finding her.  I bought adoption up to Chad occasionally during our marriage but we always said we would pray about it and if it was what God had for us we would know. Some time ago I finally mentioned the dreams to Chad and as soon as I did his face got white and he got very quiet.  He told me a couple days later that he had been having the same dream but just could not figure out where he was and why he could not understand the language that he heard.  In his dreams he had been walking in a hallway and up a long staircase, but he could never get to the top.  Chad then began to wonder if God really was trying to show us something.  Then one Sunday we sat in Sunday School and our teacher gave us a lesson that was about following God's path and trimming everything else from our lives.  The teacher had brought in a peach tree branch for demonstration and is sure made in impact.  Chad felt as God had put this lesson in his life at this time to help show him what he had planned.  Later that day in church Chad had an overwhelming sense that God had a child he wanted us to go find. He pulled my into our wonderful pastors office and told me what God had been revealing to him and thus our journey began.  Fast forward several months.  While in the orphanage we were going to the room where we would spend our time playing with Josie and on our way we opened a door and there was that hallway from his dream with the long stairway that he could never get to the top of. Only this time he did reach the top, and I got to see our Daughters sweet face.  What a wonderful day that was!

Court Date!!

We got our court date!! It is Dec 26th.  We were told we would not hear a date until after the shut down was over so this was a very nice surprise!  After court we will come back home and then return to St Petersburg about 2 weeks later to pick her up.   This last trip will be about 10 days to 2 weeks long as there are a lot of appointments we will have to take her to such as getting her passport and visa.  We are guessing she will be home by mid Feb.  We are very excited!

Christmas

Christmas this year was bitter sweet as it just seems there is a little someone missing.  We had a wonderful time with our boys and have enjoyed having them home but it is hard to think that our little girl just spent her 2nd Christmas in an orphanage.  There are presents the boys wrapped up for still waiting for her under the tree.  We are praying that we get a date for court soon so we will be able to bring her home soon. 

No News.

We have not heard a travel date for our 2nd trip.  All Russian governmental agencies shut down for their New Years Holiday from Dec 17-Jan 11 so we predict we will not hear a date until they get running again. The 2nd trip is for court and we also get to visit our little girl.  God willing, when that trip is complete we return home for about 2 weeks and then get to go back to pick up our little girl and bring her home!! The 3rd trip is about 10 days long so the plan is for me to go for the beginning and Chad will stay with the boys and work.  Toward the end of the trip Chad will come join me to bring our girl home.  The boys are very excited and have been helping me get her room ready and pick out special toys for her.  The wait to find out a court date has seemed very long but we just remind ourselves that she is God's Child and when the time is right he will make it all work.  Also we were told that the adoption process would take about 18 months and has gone so much faster than we would have ever predicted.  If we would not have fallen into the Holiday shut down we would have gone even faster.  Our dossier just left US on Sept 22.  Despite, this we are very excited to get her home to be part of our family.  Please pray that all will go well and she will be home soon.