Already???

With extreme pleasure I announce to you that

we have received a referral!!!
(in other words, we were matched with a child)

We got the incredible, jaw-dropping news last week when it was confirmed that we were registered in the region (see a couple of posts below) but before posting about it we wanted to spend some time listening for God's direction as to whether we should accept the invitation to visit the child.

You want the scoop on this precious one? We can't say a whole lot because of Russian laws on privacy but here's what we feel comfortable sharing. He's an adorable boy and is about a year old. Sorry, that's all we can say!!! You wouldn't want us to get in trouble, would you?

We are hopeful as we prepare to visit him in Siberia. We are super excited! We are also listening very closely for God's leading as we will have to ask several questions regarding his health and medical history. We know God is Faithful and we are trusting that He will give us the unmistakable peace as to whether this little one should become a part of our family. Please pray with us about this huge, life altering decision, as we must hear God's voice.

We'll post the travel plans as soon as we find out what they are, but know that we'll be flying out probably in a week or so. Crazy! Again, please pray for our trip and for the decision that we must make once we meet this precious little boy. God is so good!

As we wait

David and I went out today to get updated cell phones AND to look for provisions for when we travel on our first trip . We're not sure when that will be but thought it would be wise to start gathering.

I finally got a camera phone!!! Here's a shot I took of David looking at luggage. We already have luggage, just not the right sizes, so we thought we'd take a gander at some other things. We didn't end up get anything but I think the phone takes a pretty decent picture! :)

I found the cutest little blanket at Target. I just knew when I saw it that it should go to our child while he waits for us to bring him home. If anyone knows David, you'll see what I'm talking about... David is a cartoon monkey fanatic. :) Of course, as a baby blanket should be, it's SOOO soft and cuddly. I hope our child likes it! It's sitting in my arms right now! *sigh*
We also picked up some other things we thought would come in handy. It's not near everything, but it's a start. I have a whole list of things to collect, thanks to those who have gone before!

Map Spree

David was at Barnes and Noble last week and he broke down and bought several things that will help us on our trips to Russia. I think he's really getting into this travel stuff.... :)

The Region

We are officially registered!!! We know what region our child will be coming from!!! This was the next step we were waiting for and David and I are both ecstatic!!! I won't get into specifics but our child will be coming from the Siberian region of Russia! Very cold! brrrrr (isn't all of Russia cold... haha)

This region's recent visiting families have had to stay in country for more than 28 days on the second trip, so that's something that we will have to be prepared for. That means more money due to hotels and food and such but again, we know God will provide. I think the technology side of things are more advanced there so we'll be able to have get online a little easier and that's nice.

So what does this all mean? Well, we can now start preparing our region-specific paperwork so that when we do get a match it won't take AS much effort during the time in between trips. SOOO, I would venture to say that we'll most likely be traveling there for our first trip before the end of the year.

Woohoo!

Have a Vote

With such emphasis on the election this year, I thought it would be fun and fitting to take a poll. You even have the opportunity to write in your own choice! (If you choose 'other', be sure to type in the name you like in the box below it.)

First purchases

Hey everyone. There hasn't been anything much going on with the process. Since I finished the huge project I was working on this past week, David and I decided to go looking at baby stuff. One reason was to make the adoption seem a little more real than it has been. So, we went to Babys-R-Us and then stopped in to Target to glance at some stuff there. We looked at Cribs and Car Seats and Jogging Strollers, Sippy cups, utensils and even little people clothes. Everything was very cute, and also a little daunting. In the end, I wanted to just buy "something" since we've not made any purchases for our child, but have received several gifts from our friends and family. So, here are the little things we bought and I think they're really fun, even if they aren't major purchases. :)

More Paperwork... -revised

Got an email from our Family Coordinator saying that some things have changed on the paperwork front. We have one paper we have to re-do and another form we have to provide a second original. What does that mean? More apostilles! yay... not.

Something else that changed was that we will have to pay the foreign fees before any travel. It was my understanding that it wasn't ALL due until just before our second trip, but that has now changed, according to my new understanding, to being ALL due before the first trip. We're trusting God to provide. :) REVISED: Thanks to Heather's comment, I got clarification that the money is NOT due sooner than before. So, that's a relief. (Thanks Kristen for clearing that up).

This leads me to our new fundraiser page. I'm in the process of working out the kinks in the form, but if you'd like to see what I'm up to so far... please visit our fundraiser homepage here.
I'll be adding more products as things progress, but here's where we'll begin. TFL!

Please pray during the conflict

As many of you might know, there has been a difficult conflict between the little country of Georgia and Russia. Since the USA is an ally of Georgia, that doesn't speak well for our relationship with Russia. Please pray that adoptions from Russia aren't affected by this invasion and that things will continue to go as smoothly as possible for those of us waiting to bring our children home. Also pray for all parties involved who are having to suffer in this war-like time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/atoothless;_ylt=Ajb7Gv5EbAJn3Rm8GNrkOwpbbBAF

Lovely Getaway

This post is about our vacation. You might be wondering what this has to do with our adoption, so I'll explain. This was probably one of the few remaining vacations that David and I will have as a couple, until after our child(ren) are grown. So, in some sense, this does have to do with the adoption. It's what we did during our Wait. woohoo!

With David's work schedule being so full these last few months, and the big project finally completed, David was able to take several days off and we decided to head to the beach. David's brother and sister-in-law had been to Sanibel Island a while ago and recommended a small resort and that's where we landed. We would also recommend it to anyone who is interested. Here are some snapshots of what our time away was like.

They had bikes for us to use, and the first thing we did when we arrived was head around the corner to the beach!

This is where we ate dinner one night. Good food, fun atmosphere.

Path to the beach...

Time....

It's been a very full couple of months here at our house. Time has literally flown by! The last time I looked at the ticker at the bottom of this blog, it said 7+ months... Now it says 9+ months! Where did those two months go?

Work, for David, has been extremely hectic, with very late work hours and work weekends. It has also been very busy for me, with graphics work and also party planning and craft jobs. It's finally starting to slow down, and I have been able to find some time to get some required reading done.

I've also been able to spend some time watching youtube videos of other Russian adoptions. One in particular made me cry just thinking that one day we will be those people, bringing home our little one.

I encourage you to take just a moment and go to youtube.com and search for "russian adoption". I'm sure you'll find it interesting to see some video of what it's like over there.

Wanna hear something new?

Me too! So it goes during the "waiting period". Haven't heard anything except that there are about 15-20 people ahead of us waiting to be assigned a region. Things have been very busy around here. I'm getting a little nervous that I'm not going to have enough time to study up on everything that I need to know before bringing a little one home. One day at a time!

Excited/Freaked

Hey everyone. As many of you know, I like to figure things out. I like to try to figure when things will happen or how long it will take, and work things "just so I know", etc. So, when I heard that a family on our adoption message board got a referral early this week, I started my mental calculations. I've figured that if everything continues as it has with Russia and our agency, then we might receive our referral in 3-4 months!!! When I say 3 months, it sounds like such a short period of time and that makes me nervous, but when I say October, it sounds so deceptively far away. Time just flies by... it's already July and I feel like it should still be April!

There are so many things I have yet to do and many things I need to read, and many things I need to be aware of, and many things I need to prepare, and so much money we need to have. That's the Freaked part of me. Then, the thought that we could be visiting our child soon... well, as you might guess, that's the Excited part of me and I just know that God will work it all out.

Please keep us in prayer, and Please Please keep our child-to-be in prayer. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support so far!

Don't forget to comment on this blog!

Check Cashed!

So I was checking our bank statement and noticed that the check we sent with our Dossier, way back in April, for the translation fee has finally been cashed. I was starting to get "concerned" that something "wasn't" happening correctly because none of the three checks we sent with the dossier had been cashed. The one I was most concerned about was the translation fee and now it has cleared!!! WooHoo!

Daydreaming...

Some of you may have read my Daydreaming post on my other blog. Well, I've been at it again. This time I'm dreamin' about what kinds of things we might need for our little one. Tough thing is that we have no idea how old he* will be when we get to bring him* home. The youngest he'll be will probably be about 12 months. We're hoping the oldest he'll be when we get home is 22 months.

So, another blogger who's in the process of adopting has a link to Kaboodle, a wish list. I thought it was a really cute website and decided to start a couple of lists myself. See side bar under Links of Interest. I put a few things on there but I'm kind of clueless as to what to get!

I need your help!

Those of you 'in the know', please comment here on what you think we'll need, or can't do without, for a child that's between 12 and 22 months old. You'll need to sign in to make a comment. If you don't have a blogger account, it's super easy to create. Just click HERE , or go to blogger.com. (Be sure to write your username and password somewhere so you don't forget it)

On the topic of Comments: I am creating a memory book using these posts along with their comments, so please make comments so I have something to look back on. Thanks to all who've commented so far. It's really fun to read what you're thinking and it's encouraging to know you're checking on us.

Latest news about our paperwork is that our i-171H has been apostilled, sent to our Agency, and they have sent it to Russia. Woohoo!

I think that's all I have for you today! Thanks for lookin'!

*Though it's remotely possible we get a little girl, it's not likely, so rather than always say he/she or them, I will just use "he/him".

Reality.....

So we get this letter in the mail. It's from the Bureau of Consular Affairs (our government). It basically says that our orphan petition application (the one we had approved), has been forwarded to the "visa-issuing post"... in Russia. The letter also includes a real address in Russia where our case has been forwarded.

It's becoming more and more real that this is truly happening. There is a place in Russia that is getting our personal information. Real people are going to be looking at it.

REALLY!

i-171H Received

We have finally received the "Notice of Favorable Determination".

We have been approved, by the USCIS, to adopt a child from Russia!

We have to make a copy and send it for an apostille. The copy will then get sent to Russia to join our other paperwork that's being translated. This clearance was pretty much the last thing we've been waiting for in order to be registered in a region. It will still be a while before we get assigned a region but at least all our "ducks are in a row". Woohoo!

7 months & Counting

According to the ticker at the bottom, we've been on this "expedition" for over 7 months. So, now we are in the waiting room. I got word that our Dossier is most likely being translated right now. That would be in Russia! The estimated time for a referral, from when we submitted our Dossier to the agency is 6 - 9 months. Looks like November might be the earliest we'd hear anything. Of course, we are praying for it to be sooner.

So then, how's about another Vocab lesson?

For Mrs. Salty:
Good morning = DAWB ra ye OO tra
Good night (couldn't find good evening) = spa KOY ne NAWCH ee
Hello = ah-LOH!
Goodbye = daas vee DAAN ya

Yes = dah
No = nyeht
Please = Puh-ZHAHL-stuh
Thank you = spuh-SEE-buh

Car = mah-SHEE-nuh
House = dohm
Boy = MAHL-chik
Girl = DYEH-booch-kuh

pryee-KRAHS-nuh (excellent!)