Quick Update...

We have sent all of our papers for our 2nd submission to the foreign country to our agency, and hopefully most of them are on their way overseas right now.  And with that step complete...we wait again.  Having finished what was in our control, the process is once again out of our hands.  We so hope for a court date in the near future!  We much prefer controlling the situation...and it's hard to sit and wait while trusting that others are doing their jobs.  But wait, and trust, we must.  We'll keep you all posted...

God Bless,
David and Christy

Another Month Has Passed...

January is drawing to a close, and we are still working and waiting on paperwork.  Our next submission of papers needs to be finished before we can start waiting for a court date.  We need to get several documents apostilled in Nashville this week, and we are waiting for the kids' birth certificates to return from Albany where they were being apostilled in New York.  Then, we should be ready for the submission. 

We pray that a court date doesn't take TOO long after we get the papers in.  We are so looking forward to getting back over there and seeing Anna, and ultimately, God willing, bringing her home.

Playful Anna

We spent much of each visit with Anna just playing with toys.  She LOVES to play, especially throwing toys and watching us pick them back up.  Here is a short video of her that shows off her playful side...

Hope you enjoyed it!  God Bless....

We Are Back Home...And Missing Our Little Girl!

We arrived home in the evening on Christmas Eve, after 24 hours of travel from Eastern Europe.  We were quite tired from the trip and from the week overall...but arrived home to a beautiful white Christmas with our girls!

The trip went very well.  No travel delays, although the airline failed to deliver our luggage on the way over.  They did deliver it to our hotel at 11pm the 2nd day in the foreign country, but we had to wear our travel clothes for our first official meeting and our first visit to the orphanage.  Arghh!!  But, it didn't seem to matter in the end. 

During our first meeting, we found out more background information on little "Claire"...including that her real first name is Anastasia.  So, with that in mind, we decided to name her Anna Loraine.  Anna being short for Anastasia, and Loraine being Christy's grandmother's name.

We had two visits per day scheduled with Anna during the week, which was awesome!  Because of snow and traffic, the drive from the hotel to the baby home could take as much as two hours each way, so we ended up not going back to the hotel the last couple of days and instead toured the area a bit.  We are so fortunate to be traveling to a beautiful area! 

Our visits were incredible.  It was so wonderful to get to spend as much time with Anna as we did.  She is such a lovable and engaging little girl!  And tiny!!  She is the size of a 12-15 month old, but she does walk quite well, and she loves to play with toys!  We did take a LOT of pictures, including these:

Now we wait for a court date.  It will be at least March before that...but we pray it comes quickly and we can go back over to bring Anna home to her family. 

God Bless,
David and Christy

We Have Travel Dates!!!!

We got the call yesterday...and have dates to travel to the foreign country! 

We will soon be meeting our little girl!  This has been such a long journey, but we've stayed true to our mission and soon will be holding little Claire.  Praise Jesus! 

Can you think of a better Christmas gift?

Some More Good News

Well we are moving in the right direction.  Received a call from our agency yesterday.  Now typically when a call comes in from them, I brace myself for bad news.  That's just been the way it goes.  But last week we heard that our dossier had been submitted in the foreign country.  That was CERTAINLY good news.  And then yesterday, the phone rang again.  Uh oh.  And she started out by telling me that the government head of adoptions in our region has been out sick recently.  I thought "oh great, nothing has happened with our paperwork because the person is sick".  But, much to my surprise, there was good news attached.

It seems that our agency's staff overseas reached the government head by phone to inquire about our dossier, and was told that everything was in order and she had instructed her staff to begin putting together dates! 

Yes, you read that right....DATES!  As in, travel dates!  As in, once we receive those, we will know when we are traveling to see our little girl! 

Awesome news, right? 

What a blessed day. 

We'll keep you posted!

Thanksgiving!!!

Our prayers have been partially answered today...in that our dossier has been formally submitted to the officials in the foreign country!!  This is a HUGE step in our journey to bring home our little girl, and one that has been a LONG time coming. 

When we began our journey to adopt little Mindy, it was nearly 10 months ago.  Of course, we hit several roadblocks along the way, including losing Mindy and being told it would not be possible to adopt baby Simon at this time.  But then Claire made herself known to us, and the rest is history.  God's plans certainly present themselves to you if you keep your eyes, ears, and HEART open to them! 

We now await word on our first travel dates.  That will be an amazing step...to actually travel to the foreign country and hold our little girl.  We will keep you posted as that unfolds.  Thank you for your prayers and for continuing to follow us in this beautiful journey. 

God Bless,
David and Christy