We Are Parents!!!

It's official - we got our adoption certificates yesterday! We arrived back in St. Pete on Sunday night and checked into the apartment we will be renting this week. (It is actually owned by Buckner and is a transitional home for orphans after they leave the orphanages. It's a small program - only a few orphans are accepted - but it allows kids to live there and work and/or go to school while learning crucial skills needed to live independently. It's a great program, but Natasha says it's funded solely by donations and they're not sure how long they can keep it going. The transitional kids are gone from the apartment for the summer, so it is used to house interns [like summer missionaries] who come and go, and it is available for rent by people like us.)

Just the bare essentials there, but Antoine, one of the house parents, takes great care of us. We have the place to ourselves until the weekend when 3 interns will come back from Dasha's orphanage, where they are spending the week doing vacation bible school. We met the 3 on Monday - great girls - Jessica, Melissa, and Courtney? Turns out Melissa is an A&M grad and first year teacher, and Jessica is a Sam Houston education student! Crazy! We've never met her before - she goes home to Houston every weekend to teach Sunday School at her church. But we invited her to visit UHBC and Truth. It's a small world after all! The third intern is from Illinois, and they are all very sweet.

Today we will go back to the camps and pick up our kids for good!!! We will have a going away party at Dasha's, then head to Dima's to do the same. Lots of cake today! Since the kids are officially ours, the rest of our time here will be spent trying to get them out of Russia and into the US. We are currently waiting on the kids' passports, which should be ready Thursday, possibly Friday. We could head to Moscow as early as Sunday night (Sunday is also Dima's 13th birthday!), which is earlier than planned. If that happens, we may be able to get the visas in Moscow a little sooner than expected, and maybe even bring them home a couple days early! The soonest would be Thursday, July 23, or it may still be Saturday the 25th, depending on lots of factors (hotel, airline, embassy appointments, etc.)

So we are now at an internet cafe in St. Petersburg trying to navigate through language barriers with Russian-only speakers. And we are not able to use our own computer (again), so can't post pictures. BUT we are happy and healthy and grateful.

Thank you for all your prayers - God has really been showing us that prayer is a crucial part of our faith and relationship with Him. We don't know what adventures await us, but just like He showed the Israelites His miracles over and over in Egypt to prepare them for the wilderness, we know that He has shown us miracles too, to prepare us for whatever He has next.

We have just been informed (we think) that wireless is available close by, so maybe we'll get back soon with pictures and more updates!

Much love,
Karen and Bob