Fundraiser Update!

Have you seen our chip-in button on the sidebar?  You will notice right underneath that some have given money directly to us to put towards Graham's adoption.  And we are almost at our goal for what we hope to have raised by the end of the year!  We have been truly blessed by friends and family not just financially, but through their prayers and support. 

It is amazing to see the ways God has provided through this process in addition to the love he has placed in the hearts of those around us.  We saw a bill (unrelated to our adoption) for almost $1000 disappear very unexpectedly.  We have not paid a penny for any of our medical expenses in the past few months (and all 7 of us needed another round of exams/lab work to make sure, yet again, that we are fit to bring Graham home). 

We also needed to have psychological reports done on both Brett and I as part of our adoption paperwork.  Two days before we found out about these reports Brett sat next to a psychologist in his monthly CBMC meeting.  Brett contacted Dr. R and he offered to do the reports for us for free!  Our agency had given us the number of another psychologist that would have charged us $600 to talk with us and write up a report.  I love when God shows us so clearly that he is in control and lining everything up in His perfect timing.

Here is our progress on Graham's puzzle as of this week.  Almost finished!

For those that are interested, here are a few of the larger upcoming expenses that the money you have given will be helping to cover:


*Round trip tickets for our second trip: $1600 x 2 (estimated based on the price of our tickets for the first trip)
*Medical exams for Brett and I in country: $500 x 2
*Round trip ticket for Brett for a third trip to pick up Graham: $1600

Update. Still no court date.

Well, not the news we were hoping for this morning. Court dates are full for December.  Russia is in a holiday period after that that lasts until Jan. 10th. Court dates are only on Tuesdays as far as I understand so that means the earliest we will get a date now is the 17th of January.

When we started this process we were told Graham could be home by the end of July! We are still learning that adoption is unpredictable. I am also learning that I cannot control everything!

We are still praying to get the earliest court date possible and for a miracle in the waiting period being waived.  Please also pray for an easy transition for everyone once he is home. 

I will be spending the day thanking God for knowing what is best for everyone. This DOES mean that we will be able to spend Christmas with our children here, so that is something to find joy in right now.

Bad News

Our court papers are being submitted tomorrow (or right now with the time difference) and we have been informed that we have a slim chance of actually getting a court date in December.  That is not the worst news though.  Apparently Russia changed their waiting period over the weekend from 10 days to 30 days!  This means that we may not have a court date until sometime in January and then we would have to wait another month before we could bring Graham home.  I can't believe this happened, especially when we are so close to the end.

Please continue to pray with us for a miracle.  Please pray that we will somehow get a court date in December and that the judge will waive the waiting period for us.

Overheard...

Ben is our daily comic relief around here.  I really wish this little guy could stay two forever, he is so much fun.  Here are a couple of conversations I have had with Ben this week:

Brett made waffles one morning over the weekend while I slept in and caught up on some much needed sleep.  When I woke up I went to the kitchen and reheated some waffles for breakfast.

Ben: "That your dinner mommy?"
Me: "Yep."
Ben:  "Daddy had that dinner too."
Me: "No Way!"  Said jokingly in a shocked voice.
Ben:  "It's Yeah-Way mommy."  Said very seriously.

Today the kids did wonderful putting up with being dragged around town and missing naps, etc.  I picked up a bag of mini donuts at the store as a treat for everyone for behaving so well.  When we got home Ben snuck a donut out of the bag on the counter and one of his sisters let me know immediately, of course.  I went over to Ben and held out my hand and said, "Give me the donut please."  He looked right back at me, covered the donut with both hands, and said, "I'm just fine mommy."  Lets just say I failed at keeping a straight face and that training opportunity went down the toilet.

God is seldom early, but He is never late!

I had some problems getting the document that I needed today.  After calling a couple of times I finally decided to go into their office with 5 kids and ask again if they could rush things along to get the signature I needed.  No luck.  Monday is their busiest day.....  We went back out to the parking lot and called a couple more times and finally convinced someone to get the job done.  (I really am very thankful towards them since they usually require two days to get papers signed and they did rush this for us.)  Brett met me at the building just as I was leaving with the papers at 2:15.  He grabbed the papers and ran to get them notarized before heading to the Secretary of State's office to have them apostilled.  He got there at 3:30, they close at 4:00.  Another prayer answered.  The papers have been sent out and will be flying out of the country tomorrow.

Hopefully the papers will get where they need to be on Wednesday.  They then need to be translated and sent across that country and be in the local coordinator's hands no later than Monday. 

Current prayer requests:
1.  That these papers get where they need to be on time.
2.  That we DO have all the papers now and they are all correct.
3.  That we will be given a court date in December.
4.  That God will give us favor in the judge's eyes and the adoption will be granted.
5.  This is the one that requires a miracle!  That the waiting period will be waived and we can bring Graham home right away.  This NEVER happens.  I figure if we are here to bring God glory we might as well pray for that one and give Him every oportunity to show what He can do!

Please Pray!

Last week we were rushing and scrambling to get all of our papers for the court dossier together in time to get them over to Graham's country.  Brett got the last of the papers and headed off to the Secretary of State's office, had them all apostilled, and ran to FedEx to overnight them. 

We heard yesterday that our papers made it over.  Yay!  We heard this morning that they all have the wrong date on the apostille!  Somehow the Secretary of State's office dated all of our apostilles for August 8th, 2011!?!?!??!  The funny part is that Brett made a comment that this week was going to be a normal week finally.  Back to work, back to school, no more running around.....  I actually laughed at him when he said that.  I don't know what a normal day even looks like anymore.

We need a miracle to happen TODAY to fix this problem.  Please pray that the Secretary of State's office will issue new apostilles to Brett today without all of our notarized papers (they are not in the country anymore, we only have copies now).  We also have one other form that needs to be notarized and apostilled.  That will be my job today, to run to the next town over to get these papers signed (5 kids in and out of car), then stop to get them notarized (5 kids in and out of car), then drive downtown to get them apostilled.  All of these papers need to be overnighted no later than TODAY if we are going to have any chance of getting a court date in December still.  Please pray!

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