The verdict is in, and we will be parents officially in 13 days! Court was not anti-climactic afterall. We were plenty nervous and excited, and kept in suspense. Afterward Natasha, who was incredibly relieved, told us that if it had been any of the past judges she knows, we would have had a "no" verdict, or not had an invitation to court at all, due to the mistakes and issues that came up at the end. So God knew exactly what authority to put in place at what time in order for His purpose to be accomplished. Wow.
The judge asked us some good questions, but fewer than expected, and she did not harp on any particular subject like religion or Bob's history or our parenting plans - only asked brief questions and was satisfied to move on. To those of you who wrote character references and various letters this month, you should know that those letters were crucial to our success. The judge, and everyone we had to convince yesterday, mentioned the difference the letters made. They really did turn things around for us. The orphanage social workers and municipalities gave wonderful recommendations and really focused on the fact that this is a good match, and that in their eyes it is the last chance for these children.
The kids were great - the judge brought each in separately - we didn't know Dasha would be involved at all because of her age - but she asked them briefly whether they wanted us to adopt them. Dima was so nervous beforehand and evidently prepared for much more than he had to do. The way things have turned out, his strong confidence in his own decision and unwillingness to waiver even when questions arose have made all the difference. The orphanage director, municipality personnel, and judge all put a great deal of stock in his resolve. And it means so much to us to know that he is confident in what he is doing. Dasha was cute as ever and basically tongue-tied in front of the judge.
It is all so hard to believe! I think we're just trying to take it in. After we blogged last night I felt like we were just giving the facts and there is so much more - but I'm sure you don't have all day to read anyway! Suffice it to say we are overwhelmed, grateful, excited, and a little tired, but we are all those things as a FAMILY!
Dima and Bob are passed out on the bed behind me - it's all just too much I guess. But we need to go to dinner, so I'll wrap it up soon. We had ice cream to celebrate today, and tonight we will eat Georgian food, which is yummy, for our celebration dinner - just the 4 of us with no interpreter and no English menu - always an adventure!
Then tomorrow we will ride the hydrofoil boat to Peterhof and Natasha will go along to translate. Since we have now begun the 2 week appeals portion of the process (where we fully expect NOTHING to happen), we will take the kids back to their "camps" tomorrow then head off to Northern Finland to wait things out there. Our official "gotcha day" where we get the adoption decree is July 13!
So many of you have been gracious and loving enough to pray us through this - we can only hope to be the kind of support for you that you have been for us. As I've said a million times, and not enough, thank you.
To God be the glory - he has put together our family!
Karen (and Bob, in between sleeps)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Miracles
hello i Dima and my sister Dasha from St.Petersburg
You can probably tell from the message above (and the fact that Dima is with us at midnight) that today was amazing!!! It started out bright and early with medical appointments. We saw our 8 doc's and found out we are healthy, not even any major psychological problems! They even had coffee, tea and cookies for us, which they kept insisting we go back to between doctors. So that was the easy part.
Then we went to Dima's orphanage to meet with a government representative from the municipality that had opposed our adoption and Dima's orphanage director, who had adamantly opposed us after looking at our paperwork and had told Natasha she would not change her mind. Dima and his social worker were also in on the meetings. Unbeknownst to any of us, the director had visited with Dima yesterday, asked him some questions, then Dima was awake most of the night nervous about today because he knew there were problems.
All we can say is that Natasha had done her homework (painful as it was) to even get us to this point, and God honored and answered all of our prayers! They asked us some questions, much less about Bob's past than we had expected, but much more about our household income, which was completely unexpected until we got here. But at least it was a little easier to defend that issue by explaining Bob's new business and start-up costs. God had definitely gone before us and prepared the way. His Spirit gave us the words to say and the right attitude, and it was awesome to see Him work.
By the end of it, both the municipality and the director stated that they understood there were some mistakes in the paperwork and that they would change their conclusions from negative to positive!!!
We were all SOOO relieved, not just Bob and I, but Natasha, Dima's social worker, and Dima himself. So we took Dima and headed out to Dasha's summer camp (camp is where Russian orphans spend every summer, for a change of scenery but also so that orphanage repairs can be made - it's not camp in the sense that you and I know it.) We picked her up - did I mention that seeing the kids again was amazing??? I should have.
We brought them back to the hotel after making a brief stop at the Bay of Finland - it was so beautiful! I wish you Texans could have been here to feel that cool air and cooler water!
And here we are! It's midnight - shame on us for keeping the kids up this late - but it's not dark outside! We're about to go to bed anyway. Those up here who wait for dark don't sleep this time of year.
Our court appointment is at 2pm tomorrow, so we are free until 1pm and will sleep in, I'm sure. We honestly feel like our court battle was won today since now there is no one left to oppose us! Never thought court would be anti-climactic, but believe me, we're FINE with that!!!
We know that God has honored our prayers and yours once again. Now we need to pray these kids to sleep. We will have official word tomorrow!
Love,
Karen and Dima (and Bob - and Dasha, because Bob doesn't want to leave her out)
You can probably tell from the message above (and the fact that Dima is with us at midnight) that today was amazing!!! It started out bright and early with medical appointments. We saw our 8 doc's and found out we are healthy, not even any major psychological problems! They even had coffee, tea and cookies for us, which they kept insisting we go back to between doctors. So that was the easy part.
Then we went to Dima's orphanage to meet with a government representative from the municipality that had opposed our adoption and Dima's orphanage director, who had adamantly opposed us after looking at our paperwork and had told Natasha she would not change her mind. Dima and his social worker were also in on the meetings. Unbeknownst to any of us, the director had visited with Dima yesterday, asked him some questions, then Dima was awake most of the night nervous about today because he knew there were problems.
All we can say is that Natasha had done her homework (painful as it was) to even get us to this point, and God honored and answered all of our prayers! They asked us some questions, much less about Bob's past than we had expected, but much more about our household income, which was completely unexpected until we got here. But at least it was a little easier to defend that issue by explaining Bob's new business and start-up costs. God had definitely gone before us and prepared the way. His Spirit gave us the words to say and the right attitude, and it was awesome to see Him work.
By the end of it, both the municipality and the director stated that they understood there were some mistakes in the paperwork and that they would change their conclusions from negative to positive!!!
We were all SOOO relieved, not just Bob and I, but Natasha, Dima's social worker, and Dima himself. So we took Dima and headed out to Dasha's summer camp (camp is where Russian orphans spend every summer, for a change of scenery but also so that orphanage repairs can be made - it's not camp in the sense that you and I know it.) We picked her up - did I mention that seeing the kids again was amazing??? I should have.
We brought them back to the hotel after making a brief stop at the Bay of Finland - it was so beautiful! I wish you Texans could have been here to feel that cool air and cooler water!
And here we are! It's midnight - shame on us for keeping the kids up this late - but it's not dark outside! We're about to go to bed anyway. Those up here who wait for dark don't sleep this time of year.
Our court appointment is at 2pm tomorrow, so we are free until 1pm and will sleep in, I'm sure. We honestly feel like our court battle was won today since now there is no one left to oppose us! Never thought court would be anti-climactic, but believe me, we're FINE with that!!!
We know that God has honored our prayers and yours once again. Now we need to pray these kids to sleep. We will have official word tomorrow!
Love,
Karen and Dima (and Bob - and Dasha, because Bob doesn't want to leave her out)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
We are here and exhausted but we will be fine with a good night's rest! On the way to the hotel from the airport Natasha briefed us on some details for tomorrow. First we have an "eight" doctor medical exam at 7:15 AM. Then we will go to Dima's orphanage (which has opposed our adoption} for an interview to discuss some concerns about my past! This meeting will take place between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM ( 3:00AM and 4:00 Texas time} this is where i will put on my Jack Bauer face. Here we will get to see Dima for a brief period. If this meeting goes well we will go to summer camp and pickup Dasha and the two of them will get to stay the night! All kidding aside I will need to conduct myself with respect and great humility, self control that can only be given to me by God's Holy Spirit.
PLEASE BE IN PRAYER FOR TOMORROW!
love,
bob
PLEASE BE IN PRAYER FOR TOMORROW!
love,
bob
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
And it keeps on comin'...
Attack that is. Crazy stuff. I have never been more aware of spiritual warfare in my life. So we must be doing something right! You may have read the past few blogs and, if so, you have some idea of the ordeal that has been going on in Russia. You also know that we got our court date anyway!!! So we are headed to St. Pete this Saturday - we ARE going , we will not be stopped, and we will not go exhausted or discouraged!
Having said that, I should fill you in on some events of the last few weeks. Some of it may seem coincidental or unrelated, but I don't think so. To make it relatively brief, here are the highlights (and if you feel the need to laugh when you see how ridiculous it gets, it's OKAY):
Toward the end of May, while we were awaiting our travel dates, the AC went out in our house due to what we hoped was a slow leak. In the process of trying to fix it, we had a ceiling leak. Not a big deal, we thought, but unexpected time and expense to add freon and fix the ceiling. Around that time we had a couple unexpected vet bills, and one new addition to the feline family. Then the dishwasher went out. So we replaced it. Then we got the news about the adoption being in jeopardy and needing more documents, so we got on that. In the meantime, the dryer broke. At this point we ignored it.
We got our documents together, sent them to Russia, and got the court date. Then Bob fixed the dryer (yay, Bob!) and we had a couple good meetings regarding work and school next fall. School will be a major financial investment (read "more financial stress" here), but we're excited anyway. Then last Wednesday while I had a major migraine that took me almost out of commission for the day, we got rear-ended on the way to get our visas ordered at the Russian consolate. But we were fine, and we think the car is fine too. That same evening, our air condition went out again, and was out for 6 days - $900 to fix it, even under warranty! (Last night was the final night without AC, we pray, and we had to get out of bed at midnight, take cold showers, then use ice packs to get to sleep. I'm not so good with heat, and it was still almost 90 degrees inside at midnight.)
In the middle of that, we had a meeting with Buckner where we learned that the officials who had the original problem with our documents are still contending with us and now want to interview us before our court date. So we will arrive in Russia on June 28, have medical exams and interview with these orphanage directors and officials on June 29, and go to court on June 30. The interviews will determine whether the officials testify for us or against us in court. (HEREIN LIE THE MAJOR PRAYER REQUESTS.)
Then Sunday night our internet service went down, which in our case means we lost all contact with the outside world - phone and e-mail. It's now Tuesday - the AC guy came this morning, and the house is cool again! And the AT&T guy is scheduled to come out tomorrow - we still don't know what the problem is there. Other than that, dare I say that all appliances in the house are now in good working order???
It's 9:10 and I'm writing this from my office where I CAN, but I should really get home to my very cool house so that I can help Bob hang curtains in the kids' rooms. Still much to do, but it is the Lord who goes before us, and it is the Lord who will win this-
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers - if I have learned anything through this, it is that God honors prayer, and He is the one in control. No really, He is.
For His glory,
Karen
Having said that, I should fill you in on some events of the last few weeks. Some of it may seem coincidental or unrelated, but I don't think so. To make it relatively brief, here are the highlights (and if you feel the need to laugh when you see how ridiculous it gets, it's OKAY):
Toward the end of May, while we were awaiting our travel dates, the AC went out in our house due to what we hoped was a slow leak. In the process of trying to fix it, we had a ceiling leak. Not a big deal, we thought, but unexpected time and expense to add freon and fix the ceiling. Around that time we had a couple unexpected vet bills, and one new addition to the feline family. Then the dishwasher went out. So we replaced it. Then we got the news about the adoption being in jeopardy and needing more documents, so we got on that. In the meantime, the dryer broke. At this point we ignored it.
We got our documents together, sent them to Russia, and got the court date. Then Bob fixed the dryer (yay, Bob!) and we had a couple good meetings regarding work and school next fall. School will be a major financial investment (read "more financial stress" here), but we're excited anyway. Then last Wednesday while I had a major migraine that took me almost out of commission for the day, we got rear-ended on the way to get our visas ordered at the Russian consolate. But we were fine, and we think the car is fine too. That same evening, our air condition went out again, and was out for 6 days - $900 to fix it, even under warranty! (Last night was the final night without AC, we pray, and we had to get out of bed at midnight, take cold showers, then use ice packs to get to sleep. I'm not so good with heat, and it was still almost 90 degrees inside at midnight.)
In the middle of that, we had a meeting with Buckner where we learned that the officials who had the original problem with our documents are still contending with us and now want to interview us before our court date. So we will arrive in Russia on June 28, have medical exams and interview with these orphanage directors and officials on June 29, and go to court on June 30. The interviews will determine whether the officials testify for us or against us in court. (HEREIN LIE THE MAJOR PRAYER REQUESTS.)
Then Sunday night our internet service went down, which in our case means we lost all contact with the outside world - phone and e-mail. It's now Tuesday - the AC guy came this morning, and the house is cool again! And the AT&T guy is scheduled to come out tomorrow - we still don't know what the problem is there. Other than that, dare I say that all appliances in the house are now in good working order???
It's 9:10 and I'm writing this from my office where I CAN, but I should really get home to my very cool house so that I can help Bob hang curtains in the kids' rooms. Still much to do, but it is the Lord who goes before us, and it is the Lord who will win this-
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers - if I have learned anything through this, it is that God honors prayer, and He is the one in control. No really, He is.
For His glory,
Karen
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!!
God is truly amazing and so often gives us more than we could ever ask or imagine. Our paperwork arrived in Russia on Monday, was translated quickly, and was taken straight to the judge by the Buckner staff in Russia. The judge looked over the paperwork and immediately set a court date!
We will be in St. Petersburg for court on June 30 - leaving home just 2 1/2 weeks from now!!!
We will update as more details are put in place, but right now we just wanted you to celebrate with us. God has answered our prayers and yours, and we are going to Russia! If all goes well in court - and we are convinced that it will - we will bring our kids home near the end of July, after about 3 1/2 weeks overseas.
THANK YOU for praying - through this adoption experience, I am thoroughly convinced that God hears our prayers and blesses us through them.
More later!
Love,
Karen and Bob
We will be in St. Petersburg for court on June 30 - leaving home just 2 1/2 weeks from now!!!
We will update as more details are put in place, but right now we just wanted you to celebrate with us. God has answered our prayers and yours, and we are going to Russia! If all goes well in court - and we are convinced that it will - we will bring our kids home near the end of July, after about 3 1/2 weeks overseas.
THANK YOU for praying - through this adoption experience, I am thoroughly convinced that God hears our prayers and blesses us through them.
More later!
Love,
Karen and Bob
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Struck down, but not destroyed...
This has been one of the more challenging weeks of our lives, and Friday was the culmination of it all. Earlier in the week, we had been notified that certain officials in Russia do not want to proceed with our adoption due to some information they received in error, and the judge needs their approval to proceed. So in order to attempt to convince them to reconsider us as prospective parents, we have been asked to gather evidence in the form of all sorts of letters and reports. Some of that required extensive research, so that was my week last week. It is a very serious situation, and pretty hard to handle at times. We do not know what the outcome will be, but we know God has not brought us this far to abandon us or His own plan.
In order to get all of our documents to Russia in a timely manner so that they could be translated and given to the judge and others, we needed to mail it off to Russia on Friday. I have said several times I could write a book about Friday alone. But instead I'll write most of the details here. You may find it frustrating, or stressful - we find it a little comical - but either way, we have been reminded of God's faithfulness and His control of the situation against all sorts of odds, and that we truly are in a spiritual battle in a war that He has already won.
We had a tight schedule Friday, planned as follows:
7:50am - print out our last reference letter at SHSU
8am - meet our last reference at SHSU for notarization
from there, drive to Meridian, Texas (my thought was 'what IS Meridan, TX???'), about 45 miles northwest of Waco, to obtain a letter from the Justice of the Peace
compose a letter from Bob during the drive
drive to Austin and research some records at the Travis County Court House
copy appropriate records or beg for a letter with the information we needed
find a place to print the letter we composed on the way
notarize some documents
go to the Secretary of State's office to apostille all documents before 4:30pm
copy all documents
go to a mailing center in south Austin to mail documents by pick-up time - 5:30pm
This required approximately 6 hours of driving and 7 different locations before the 5:30 deadline.
We started out one hour late because our reference was delayed due to circumstances beyond anyone's control (hmmm - a metaphor for this whole thing???)
Linda, the nice lady at the Meridian location, had told us on the phone that they close the office from 12-1pm for lunch. So now it appeared that we were going to arrive there at 12:30, and we could not afford to wait until 1pm. I called and she said we could just knock on the door and someone would hand us the letter she composed for us.
So we got to Meridian, found the Justice of the Peace office after some searching, and knocked on the door. The Justice himself, a nice older man in jeans and plaid shirt, cheerily let us in and stated that he just plays solitaire in the office during his lunch hour anyway. So we chatted for a minute, thanked him, and took the nice letter and headed to Austin.
We made good time in spite of traffic and arrived at the Travis County location with over an hour to do what we needed to do. Bob dropped me off and headed to a printing place to print out his letter, then came back. We did our research - looked at some records we had had someone named Margaret Ann order earlier in the week (Margaret Ann was another sweet, God-sent helper like Linda), looked at some microfiche, and concluded that we did not have what we needed. So we found Margaret Ann in the flesh and asked her if she could compose a letter. She was able to give us ALMOST what we asked but was limited by what the system would allow. So she printed and certified a letter for us.
Up until this point we were happy with the amount of time we had made up and were going to make it to the Secretary of State by 4:30 without a problem. But just as we were about to leave, we noticed a MAJOR error on the document. It was now about 4pm. This was not an easy fix, and not within Margaret Ann's authority. Fortunately we did have proof of the error.
So she went to find a supervisor who could call around town for help, and Bob and I snuck out and went to another floor of the court house to find a notary for some other documents. Nice guy, but the SLOWEST notary in history - unbelievable. So I signed my part and ran back upstairs to Margaret Ann while Bob finished. Margaret Ann et al were able to correct the document - another miracle - and Bob FINALLY finished with the notary. We got out of there about 4:25.
We made it to the Secretary of State's office by 4:30 and were happy that it was all going to get done! But not so fast. When the apostille people got to Margaret Ann's documents, they were unable to apostille because she was not in their system. One worker stated that they could normally fix it and add her in EXCEPT that the people who had the authority to do so were PROBABLY already gone because it was late on Friday afternoon (so after all we had been through, now we were being subtly scolded for showing up late Friday afternoon???) She was going to leave it at that, and we were going to be stuck. But once again, God had other plans, and her wonderful co-worker Elizabeth stepped in and started asking questions like "Did you try...?"
After several attempts to call someone, they found out that the person with the authority we needed, who had been assumed to be AWOL, was just in the bathroom. So Elizabeth called and talked to Margaret Ann, who thankfully was still in her office a few blocks away and was still available, and they added her to the system and apostilled ALL of our documents.
It was now 5pm, and there we were in 5:00 Friday rush hour traffic in downtown Austin, with a 5:30pm pick up time at the mailing place in South Austin. So we skipped the Kinko's step, hoping there would be a copy machine at the mailing place. In spite of traffic, we got there at 5:20, incredibly relieved once again.
We walked in and stated that we had a package for the 5:30 DHL pick-up, and the nice guy there (failed to get his name) said the DHL guy was not coming!!! Again, unbelievable. He had called at 5:15 and decided not to come since there wasn't a package for him at that time. Our guy promptly picked up the phone and called him, reminded him that his pick-up time is 5:30, and persisted in asking if he could be there by 6pm, closing time. After several "no's" on the other end, he said, "If you promise me that you will be here by 6:30, I will stay and wait for you." BIG tip for the mailing center guy! So we talked to him about adopting from Russia, something he and his wife want to do, and left our package with him. We tracked it later and found that it was picked up after all, at 6:35pm. It has now made it all the way to Europe and should be in St. Petersburg in great time.
So God sent us just the right people at just the right time, and some of those people were some of YOU who wrote letters or notarized things on our behalf. THANK YOU for advocating for us and for our children.
So now we pray. And wait. And ask you to pray harder than ever when you think of us. Pray for Natasha and Andre and any other Buckner staff in Russia who will speak to these officials on our behalf. Pray for the hearts of the officials and the judge to be softened toward the children and pray that they will see who we really are, even before meeting us face to face. At this point, pray for just the invitation to court - that our documents will be interpreted correctly by all who read them so that the misunderstandings and false impressions will be cleared up, at least enough to give us a chance. And pray for Dasha and Dima as they wait without knowing what's going on.
In closing, these verses keep coming to my mind:
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Praise be to God who still works miracles - and love to you, our family and friends,
Karen (and Bob)
In order to get all of our documents to Russia in a timely manner so that they could be translated and given to the judge and others, we needed to mail it off to Russia on Friday. I have said several times I could write a book about Friday alone. But instead I'll write most of the details here. You may find it frustrating, or stressful - we find it a little comical - but either way, we have been reminded of God's faithfulness and His control of the situation against all sorts of odds, and that we truly are in a spiritual battle in a war that He has already won.
We had a tight schedule Friday, planned as follows:
7:50am - print out our last reference letter at SHSU
8am - meet our last reference at SHSU for notarization
from there, drive to Meridian, Texas (my thought was 'what IS Meridan, TX???'), about 45 miles northwest of Waco, to obtain a letter from the Justice of the Peace
compose a letter from Bob during the drive
drive to Austin and research some records at the Travis County Court House
copy appropriate records or beg for a letter with the information we needed
find a place to print the letter we composed on the way
notarize some documents
go to the Secretary of State's office to apostille all documents before 4:30pm
copy all documents
go to a mailing center in south Austin to mail documents by pick-up time - 5:30pm
This required approximately 6 hours of driving and 7 different locations before the 5:30 deadline.
We started out one hour late because our reference was delayed due to circumstances beyond anyone's control (hmmm - a metaphor for this whole thing???)
Linda, the nice lady at the Meridian location, had told us on the phone that they close the office from 12-1pm for lunch. So now it appeared that we were going to arrive there at 12:30, and we could not afford to wait until 1pm. I called and she said we could just knock on the door and someone would hand us the letter she composed for us.
So we got to Meridian, found the Justice of the Peace office after some searching, and knocked on the door. The Justice himself, a nice older man in jeans and plaid shirt, cheerily let us in and stated that he just plays solitaire in the office during his lunch hour anyway. So we chatted for a minute, thanked him, and took the nice letter and headed to Austin.
We made good time in spite of traffic and arrived at the Travis County location with over an hour to do what we needed to do. Bob dropped me off and headed to a printing place to print out his letter, then came back. We did our research - looked at some records we had had someone named Margaret Ann order earlier in the week (Margaret Ann was another sweet, God-sent helper like Linda), looked at some microfiche, and concluded that we did not have what we needed. So we found Margaret Ann in the flesh and asked her if she could compose a letter. She was able to give us ALMOST what we asked but was limited by what the system would allow. So she printed and certified a letter for us.
Up until this point we were happy with the amount of time we had made up and were going to make it to the Secretary of State by 4:30 without a problem. But just as we were about to leave, we noticed a MAJOR error on the document. It was now about 4pm. This was not an easy fix, and not within Margaret Ann's authority. Fortunately we did have proof of the error.
So she went to find a supervisor who could call around town for help, and Bob and I snuck out and went to another floor of the court house to find a notary for some other documents. Nice guy, but the SLOWEST notary in history - unbelievable. So I signed my part and ran back upstairs to Margaret Ann while Bob finished. Margaret Ann et al were able to correct the document - another miracle - and Bob FINALLY finished with the notary. We got out of there about 4:25.
We made it to the Secretary of State's office by 4:30 and were happy that it was all going to get done! But not so fast. When the apostille people got to Margaret Ann's documents, they were unable to apostille because she was not in their system. One worker stated that they could normally fix it and add her in EXCEPT that the people who had the authority to do so were PROBABLY already gone because it was late on Friday afternoon (so after all we had been through, now we were being subtly scolded for showing up late Friday afternoon???) She was going to leave it at that, and we were going to be stuck. But once again, God had other plans, and her wonderful co-worker Elizabeth stepped in and started asking questions like "Did you try...?"
After several attempts to call someone, they found out that the person with the authority we needed, who had been assumed to be AWOL, was just in the bathroom. So Elizabeth called and talked to Margaret Ann, who thankfully was still in her office a few blocks away and was still available, and they added her to the system and apostilled ALL of our documents.
It was now 5pm, and there we were in 5:00 Friday rush hour traffic in downtown Austin, with a 5:30pm pick up time at the mailing place in South Austin. So we skipped the Kinko's step, hoping there would be a copy machine at the mailing place. In spite of traffic, we got there at 5:20, incredibly relieved once again.
We walked in and stated that we had a package for the 5:30 DHL pick-up, and the nice guy there (failed to get his name) said the DHL guy was not coming!!! Again, unbelievable. He had called at 5:15 and decided not to come since there wasn't a package for him at that time. Our guy promptly picked up the phone and called him, reminded him that his pick-up time is 5:30, and persisted in asking if he could be there by 6pm, closing time. After several "no's" on the other end, he said, "If you promise me that you will be here by 6:30, I will stay and wait for you." BIG tip for the mailing center guy! So we talked to him about adopting from Russia, something he and his wife want to do, and left our package with him. We tracked it later and found that it was picked up after all, at 6:35pm. It has now made it all the way to Europe and should be in St. Petersburg in great time.
So God sent us just the right people at just the right time, and some of those people were some of YOU who wrote letters or notarized things on our behalf. THANK YOU for advocating for us and for our children.
So now we pray. And wait. And ask you to pray harder than ever when you think of us. Pray for Natasha and Andre and any other Buckner staff in Russia who will speak to these officials on our behalf. Pray for the hearts of the officials and the judge to be softened toward the children and pray that they will see who we really are, even before meeting us face to face. At this point, pray for just the invitation to court - that our documents will be interpreted correctly by all who read them so that the misunderstandings and false impressions will be cleared up, at least enough to give us a chance. And pray for Dasha and Dima as they wait without knowing what's going on.
In closing, these verses keep coming to my mind:
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Praise be to God who still works miracles - and love to you, our family and friends,
Karen (and Bob)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Less Happy Updates
We found out yesterday that the Russian judge has looked over our paperwork but needs clarification on a couple issues. So we are writing letters and gathering reports to attempt to satisfy the judge so that she will feel confident placing children with us. We were told that this is a pretty serious situation. Please pray that the judge will understand and trust the clarification we are sending her and that she will look favorably on us as prospective parents.
Blessings,
Karen and Bob
Blessings,
Karen and Bob
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