Taking it all in - HOLY COW!

Okay...I just posted our last update a week ago, and guess what -

We already have a court date - December 9. We are going back about three weeks ahead of what is the average wait for a court date, because they are trying to get us home with the girls before Russian government offices close everything down for their holiday break. So as of December 9 - they will be officially ours, and we will have them in our keeping by Christmas.

There is a ten day waiting period where we have to come home following court without the girls, but lightning could always strike, having the judge waive those ten days so we can get home with little AC so she can start physical therapy. It's all up to the judge and how severe he or she believes her condition to be. We have been asking for prayer that we wouldn't have to make a third trip to bring the girls home, because we anticipated getting stuck over the long holiday break. But now, we will have them by Christmas either way. If you are one of the ones praying for that breakthrough, you can keep it up to keep us from having to pay for an extra plane ticket. I'd miss one of my musicals, but I'm already missing one performance anyway, so what's one more.

How have the finances done lately? Well, we still are asking for prayer regarding a couple of grants out there that will go only toward our adoption agency fees. About $7500 worth. But all of our travel has been covered.

Did you catch that?

All.

Even if we have to make that third trip.

It's done.

God's awesome. And in second place, grandmothers.

And that pretty much sums it up.

In Sunday school this week, we talked about spiritual warfare. Baptists are kinda all over the place, and nowhere at the same time, when it comes to this subject. You never know how or IF it will be addressed, and which scriptures will be used or misused in the process.

We were in Ephesians 6, which describes the Christian position as one of standing, maintaining ground in the face of an unseen and uncontainable offense. The Sunday school teacher cross referenced a story I had not read before in 2 Kings 6, in which Elisha is about to be attacked by an enemy king's army because his prophecies keep alerting the Israelites to the king's schemes. Elisha's assistant is scared, and Elisha prays for God to open the assistant's eyes so he can see their unseen help in this battle. He saw hillsides covered with strong men in fiery chariots.

In Daniel 9, Daniel has an encounter with an angel telling him God has heard his prayer after he had been praying for 21 days. Why didn't he get that answer on day one? As the angel put it, that unseen enemy was creating obstacles to the angel's arrival, and it took reinforcement (20 extra days of prayer and another angel) to overpower the enemy so he could meet with Daniel.

Both of these stories struck me during the lesson, because at times, I have felt like the assistant - not understanding the fullness of God's power surrounding me in times of difficulty. I needed God to open my eyes to his overpowering presence with me, surrounding me on every side. I have also felt like Daniel - waiting and waiting for something to happen. But did I realize like Daniel apparently did that I needed to keep praying when the answer didn't materialize right away? Or did I give up too quickly?

I wrote a song ten years ago that contained these words: "But I never knew you then the way I know you know. Could I have ever learned to pray if you hadn't let me fall down?"

I didn't, and still don't, mean that God let me fall into sin so I would call out on him. But I do think that when he leads us in paths of righteousness, sometimes those paths lead through the valley of the shadow of death. Scripture tells us this. And it tells us why - FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE. I never knew the power of God to answer prayer until I had something I wanted as much as I wanted to be a mother. This has been a journey 9 years in the making. I know there are others who have walked this road longer than I have. A precious friend adopted her daughter after she and her husband tried conceiving then waited for a referral for 15 years. But I also know she'd say the same thing about our God. She knows him so much better now, and there's no question that their daughter was hand-selected for them by God.

I can't wait to get the girls home so I can post their precious faces on here for long-distance family and friends to see. Until then, keep us in your prayers. Here's the list:

• Health and safety flying.
• Room in our suitcases for everything we need to bring
• Remembering everything we need to bring
• Packing everything we might need in the event the waiting period is waived
• Time to have a particular test needed for our paperwork done.
• That we don't have to make a third trip
• Time to write lesson plans, and a set of "Holy Cow" plans in case the waiting period is waived.
• The health of the girls for the trip home. If either one of them is half as sick as they were on the last trip, the airplane ride with that much sinus fluid will be excruciating.
• Finances for medical fees. We had to have a battery of tests run for our court documents, and the total bill came to right around $1200. We'd like to have nothing hanging, because we'll be needing to take the girls right away when we get home.
• Time to reflect and praise God for everything he's been doing on our behalf. I really want to write some more songs out of this, but haven't had the time.
• For God to extend SERIOUS blessings on some folks who have really sacrificed on our behalf.

Here we go!

Taking it all in - Our last day in St. Pete's

Sorry you had to wait so long for this. It took a little while to feel like a human again. I had to get a few days of antibiotic in me. Everything seems to be back to normal, as far as health and sleeping routines go. Joe is in a waking up early kick, but I don't think it will survive the holidays. At any rate, I now have the time and presence of mind to fill in on the last few things I wanted to share about our trip for St. Petersburg to meet the girls.

On our last morning, we had time before our plane left to drop by the baby home and see the girls one more time. I was so glad we did, too, because Anna Claire was feeling better. She actually wanted to be set down on the rug so she could play. I want to get back to her so soon so I can see her in her best mood.

Addie was doing her usual cruising around the playroom. Joe sat her on one of the big stuffed toys, a lion. She grabbed the mane with both hands and started rocking on it like a horse. We have some bouncy riding toys that I know she's going to wear out as soon as she gets home. After a little time playing, she boosted herself up on Joe's legs, grabbed his fingers and stood up. She walked in to lay her head on his stomach. Joe rubbed her back for a minute, then picked her up and moved up to the couch. After a little while shifting around, she got comfortable and fell asleep on his chest.

I may not speak Russian, but "Awww" is pretty much a universal. The caregivers cooed when they saw her asleep on Joe's chest and Anna Claire grinning and playing on the floor. We couldn't have imagined ending the week any better. We are very blessed to know our babies are in good hands.

That being said, as every day passes, I miss them more and more. We will know when we are travelling back to Russia for our court date in about two more weeks. At that point, we also hope to know whether we can expect to pack for three days or thirteen. If the latter, it means the girls are coming home on trip #2. If not, we will have to wait until the middle of January to travel back and bring them home. We're asking EVERYONE we know to pray that we can bring them back on trip #2. We really want to get Anna Claire home to be seen by some doctors and to start therapy so we can assess her condition and stage of development.

Financially, we are VERY close to being done. We need $7000 to have all fees covered. It is hard to know until we hear about court what to expect for our last bit of travel. We still have a couple of grant applications that will not be reviewed until later in December. Pray that we get a favorable response from them to cover those last fees so we can use the gifts we have received personally to cover all of our travel. We are still accepting donations through Chip-In, and we have a few more tshirts left. I'm placing one more order this week. Time to buy some very special Christmas presents!

Thanks for all the prayers and support, especially from our church family. We have felt so uplifted through all of this. We can't wait to bring the girls home to such loving friends.

JK

Taking it all in - ...Hang on...

Sorry for the lack of updates on the last visit and the trip home. To sum it up...I got AC's crud. I ran fever on the leg of the flight. Joe prayed me through that first flight. The second one was better for me, worse for him. He started throwing up again. I just had a runny nose. On the last flight, we both were able to rest a little. We made it to our house by 2am, and were in bed by 3am. My precious in-laws got to our house early on Saturday and cleaned it for us so all we had to do when we got home was crawl into bed. They were even at the airport at midnight to pick us up.

I was at school for part of the day on Monday, working on my musical with the kids. We had our first performance earlier today. It went great. If you don't have plans tonight, you should definitely make the second performance. It starts at 6:15. And once this performance is over with, I will start returning some of those phone calls from friends who are waiting on pins and needles for the full report.

So at this point, we're still catching up on sleep, getting over illnesses of unknown origin, and waiting with anticipation to find out when we get to go back. We should know in about three weeks. Joe's preaching this Sunday. I'll sing if I'm up to it. We will definitely have a slide show with video for everyone to see. So be there!

Jo

Taking it all in - 5

Thank you so much for your prayers on AC's behalf. She did sound better today. But she still sounds like she has a long way to go. I also felt better, emotionally. So many of you mommas who were feeling it with me prayed for my comfort. God sent it through an IMB missionary who shares a mutual friend in Texas. I spoke with him on the phone today to fill him in on how the trip went and to see if he needed us to bring anything from the states when we return in a few weeks. I mentioned how sick the girls had been, and how no one seemed very concerned about it because they always get the croup when the weather changes. He said, "Yep. They do. Not much you can do about it." While that doesn't sound very encouraging, it actually was to hear an American...heck, a southerner...say that.

How do I wrap up the experiences of this week? Well, I will say that whatever my expectations were, none of them were really met the way I thought they would be. The sightseeing we did during lunch and the girls' nap time was amazing. Our baby of a country doesn't have the scope and magnitude of historical treasures this place has. It's an amazing country. And our driver/translator was a great tour guide.

As far as my expectations of how things would go with the girls - I expected the shell shocked faces of the first meeting. I didn't expect Adeline to fall in step with us as fast as she did. I expected dissatisfaction with the way things were done in the baby home-like the way I thought they weren't treating the girls' colds. What I didn't expect was the degree of care the girls do receive. When the caretakers came at the end of each visit to pick up the girls, they came in smiling and talking and cooing, and the girls practically lept into their arms. This is a good thing. It means they have made attachments. They each have an emotional center that has been getting its needs met. This means that once they come home with us, they will recognize and respond to loving touch, eye contact, all the things that make being a parent so worthwhile.

I expected something like the baby home looked from the outside - desolate, gated, poor by all appearances. I didn't expect well kept playground equipment in the back, including strollers for all the crawlers. I didn't expect the color and the toys in the music room. I didn't expect them to have daily physical exercise and music lessons. Did you know a 15month old could learn a choreographed dance? Neither did I. But Adeline can do it. And you should have seen the little boys and girls of the two-three year old group walking through in their gym shorts, tshirts, leggings, and slippers walking to the room where they would exercise. They all looked like little gymnasts. The little boy on the end walked through and greeted us like he was an adult. It was so cute.

The driver/translator handles a lot of our agency's documentation and administration on the Russian end of things. He said not long after they made us aware of AC's special needs, our agency had a second, independent evaluation from a western trained physician. His forecast was very positive the driver kept saying. He said the doctor was quite confident that with therapy and special attention that she would be able to overcome her challenges. Right now, she seems to be about 7 months old in her psychomotor development - that stage just before crawling. If she had been feeling better, we would have seen just how far she is from being able to do that. Adeline seems to be right on target for her biological age (had she not been premature) by US standards. Russians expect a little more of their children, it seems.

Tomorrow will be our last visit. Pray us through, and all the way home.

Taking it all in - 4

Helpless.

That’s how I felt today. We didn’t see “Adeline” for most of the morning. She had been taken to the doctor for a routine check-up. I find it ironic in Russia’s specialist driven medical practices that a healthy child would be taken to see a highly specialized physician for no known problem, but the kind of croup she and “Anna Claire” have been fighting the whole time we have been here are just chalked up to changes in the weather. The exact words are – this is of no concern.

Well, dangit, I’m concerned. AC wheezed and gasped and gargled all morning and evening. She could only last about 20 minutes of playtime before she started flopping over exhausted, even too exhausted to cry. But she gave it a valiant effort. I felt better for her when she was crying, because she was at least sucking in big gulps of air. I asked our translator to ask the director of the baby home about her cough. He said all Russian babies get this. She would get medication if she started running fever. I was so mad and sad that I couldn’t do something. In the states, she would have already been to a pediatrician, if not the E.R., for a breathing treatment.

I don’t have any great spiritual revelation about this moment, other than this: Standing in the music room of the baby home, trying to soothe her, I started crying that I couldn’t do something else. I wanted to pitch an almighty fit. “Alright, you Russians may be used to this cold weather and head and chest colds and everything else in the word. You may be used to pulling yourselves up by your bootstraps because the government doesn’t hand out anything to you. But she’s just a baby. And she’s drowning in her own mucous because she can’t cough it up! Don’t impose your stoic ideologies on her. Help her!” In that moment, I knew I was her momma. And as kind as their caretakers are, they live by a different set of standards. These children are taught to develop a high pain tolerance, because that makes them easier to care for in the baby home.

Each day leaving both girls gets harder and harder, but today, especially AC.

I am praying and asking for major prayer intervention on their behalf. Adeline has it too, but she’s so mobile and up and running that it’s not settling in her chest the way it is in AC’s. As someone who has suffered through several asthma attacks as a child and adult, as well as pneumonia and bronchitis, I am desperate for her relief.

Taking it all in - 3

Midnight in St. Petersburg is 4pm at home, and my body knows it. The four hours I have been asleep already are apparently enough to wake back up. I’m going to type this while it is fresh on my mind, because who knows what I am going to feel like tomorrow.
My prayers while we have been in Russia have been shopping lists in length and intimacy.
“Let us arrive on time.”
“Let us arrive ALIVE.”
“Heal Joe.”
“Heal Anna Claire’s cold.”
“Let me go back to sleep.”

And since the last prayer wasn’t answered right away, I took the time to draw in a little deeper in prayer. It went something like this:

Lord, we’re here. You did it. I can’t thank you enough. I know I haven’t pushed in my prayers past the point of distraction by all that’s going on around us to really worship you for all you have been doing, but I want to right now. I don’t want my girls to grow up seeing me having the “form of religion but denying its power (2 Tim. 3:5).” If they’re going to find you, they’ll have to see how I know you and found you.

-And then God opened up my eyes for the first time as a mother to allow me to see a glimpse of his heart as our Father. –

Lord, I want the girls to accept me. I want them to know the love I want to shower on them, the plans I have for their lives. I want them to trust in me, and accept my invitation into an intimate relationship. In this moment, I am reminded of your call to my heart to come, to fall back on your grace. You want me to accept your plan for my life and live in the intimate relationship that only you can offer, full of the riches that are at your disposal.

- When people talk about the spiritual nature of adoption, they usually do so from an obedience standpoint (James 1:27), or from child’s point of view: the acceptance of us by God as his children (John 14:18). But God started giving me a glimpse of adoption from the parent’s point of view. There is so much I can and want to do for these girls. I just want them to know that, so I am pursuing them tenderly.

There is another family from Sweden visiting a little boy this week who looks to be about 4 years old. He is what we in the south would call a “live wire”, a “handful”. He’s quiet, but fast. He zips away from the mother in the playroom and hides among the stuffed animals, not unlike E.T. He keeps coming over to the donut shaped table where we sit with the girls, and gets into “Adeline’s” game of “Pick up the toy I dropped…again.” He climbs under the table into the donut hole and starts messing with our camera bag and backpack of toys. The other mother comes over, says something that I’m sure means , “No, get out of there.” And then she leans over our stuff and picks him up out of the center of the table. He doesn’t cry. He’s smiling, but he is having none of it! His feet are kicking, and he is running in midair. She tries to turn it into a game, but as soon as she releases him, he is off again and back at our table.

You can tell that mother wants the same thing we want. She wants that little boy to know she would love to be his mother. She wants to wrap her arms around him and shower him with affection. She wants to be a part of his silly games, rather than just a spectator. She wants him to trust her, to accept her offer of salvation from this place. At his age, he is about to move from the baby home into a home with older preschool age children. He will be the smallest and most vulnerable, and there will be less contact with loving caregivers in the children’s home, because the children will be expected to be somewhat independent and self sufficient.

In my heart, I start talking to this little boy. “Go with her. She looks like a nice lady. Play with her. All she wants to do is put her arms around you and love you in a way you have never even known existed.”

And somewhere in St. Petersburg, at 12:41am, God is saying the same things to me. Even now, even after having been a follower of Christ for 28 years, I know there is a depth that he and I have never traversed. I didn’t know it was there. Maybe it is ground we tread before when I was younger and less distracted and more vulnerable and aware of my need of that intimacy. Maybe it is new territory. Regardless of what he has in store for me next, I want to be in it. I want to be in Him. I want to fall into his arms. I want him to lead me. I want to accept the depths of his love I never even knew existed.

P.S. Thanks for the prayers. Joe woke up feeling 100% better. Pray for stamina, because I only slept 4 hours last night. I feel alright, but I want it to stay that way. And keep praying for Anna Claire.

Taking it all in - 2

Thursday – Joe and I are beginning to feel the ick of foreign travel in our bodies. We recuperated easily enough from the jet lag…ish. Meaning, we took a nap Wednesday evening, then couldn’t get to sleep until 2am St. Pete’s time. And then Joe woke up at 4:30am. He’s already gone to bed for the night, and it’s only 6:15pm. I hope he sleeps for 12 hours.

Trip #3/4 to the baby home was a smashing success. “Adeline” was in a very playful and happy mood. She giggled when we tickled her. Joe walked her around the playroom, and she made a game of kicking the squishy cube. Joe’s excited about his little soccer player. Or she could also become a carpenter. She discovered that rattle + wooden table = lots of noise (fun). Her other game of the day was…I’m going to drop my toy and see if I can get daddy to pick it up. Over and over and over again. One of the caretakers got her to do a dance for us. She’s not behind a US baby by much at this point. And I’m not even sure that she’s too far behind in size. She has been trying to walk independently, and has a few facial bruises from falling in the baby room. She prefers to walk while holding on to a hand…Joe’s.

“Anna Claire” was a happy baby as well. It will take some therapy to get her as mobile as her sister, but she will bear weight on her legs, and she will reach out for objects with both hands. She keeps her thumbs tucked in most of the time. But I got her to hold a racquetball today, and she had to use her thumb to keep it in her hand. I laid her on the floor for a while to see how she supported herself, but that nasty chest congestion is really getting in the way. Pray that this clears up. At home, she’d be on a round of antibiotics and breathing treatments. Here, the doctor’s suggestion was an old wives’ trick to force her to cough: push a spoon down on her tongue. She kicked her right leg, trying to flip herself from her back to her stomach. She got winded and started crying. I just let her cry, because I was hoping she’d get into a coughing spell and move some of that congestion.

Best part of the day: When “Anna Claire” got really cranked up crying, I held her in one arm and had “Adeline” in the other. This time, “Adeline” reached over and said something to her in baby talk, trying to soothe her. It was so sweet. Both of them were very vocal today. Hopefully the video camera picked it up. Ba, ma, pa, da and little tongue clicks all day long. And they would bounce and shake their heads and make little faces for us.

What we need: “Anna Claire” needs healing from the chest congestion…Pronto! And Joe needs healing from the traveler’s funk. His head and his stomach have bothered him all day. Today, he avoided the pickled herring, but something turned his guts inside out. Our after-lunch trip to the girls today was mostly just me. Joe stood by a window trying to get some fresh air. He threw up twice at the baby home, which neither one of us was very happy about. He’s resting comfortably now. Pray that he wakes up fully restored. If not, he's getting another day or half-day to rest at the hotel while I go see the girls by myself. Lastly, as the days go on, it IS hard to leave the girls in the home. Pray that we are prepared for our trip home. It’ll be here before you know it. I would like us to both be well in body and mind for that return trip, because we’ll have to hit the ground running.

But for now, I want time to crawl.

Taking it all in - 1

First of all, I know you're going to want photos.



Well, you're going to have to wait. We took a bunch. We can show them to people individually. But nothing is going to be posted on the worldwide evil that is the internet.



(Just kidding internet. I love you. Wanna be friends again?)



I will post some of the things we have seen and interesting places we have been. Then again, we haven't been anywhere. We've just ridden by at a RIDICULOUS speed! Remember that scene of the Bourne Supremacy where the two cars are driving through tunnels, zipping in and out of traffic and it lasts for 19 minutes? Yeah? Well, they ALL drive that way. And here's why. They still have a "trolley" of sorts, with the trolley tracks in between the two directions of traffic. If there's no trolley on the tracks, drivers use it....first come, first served. We were staring into headlights several times on the ride home tonight.



Here's the Play-by-Play up to this point. I will fill in details as we get home and process everything.



Monday morning, we made the first flight with a couple of hours to spare. Security wasn't that big a deal. Touched down in DC in plenty of time for the next flight. Found out we had been bumped up into a better seating class - THANKS, M.S. the most awesome travel agent in the world! - for the transatlantic part of our trip. Not that it mattered, because it was still uncomfortable trying to sleep on that trip. Then I remembered that I was trying to fall asleep at 8pm local time, and trying to wake up at 1am. The DC flight left late and arrived in Frankfurt about thirty minutes behind schedule. We only had an hour to make our connection in Frankfurt to begin with, so we started sweating, wondering if we could make it or not. We, along with one other passenger, had to make the connection so they had some airline employees waiting for us when we got off of the plane. We walked onto the tarmac, got on a bus, rode underneath the airport, came out on the other side, went through security again, walked back out on the tarmac, and made the flight with about ten minutes to spare.



We got to St. Pete's at 1pm their time on Tuesday, which was 4am CST. Our driver/translator met us at the airport and took us to a very nice Courtyard hotel. We ended up getting a cheaper rate than we had been told to expect, because it is a brand new hotel and they are drumming up business. Only downside to that is the electricity has been flickering on and off, and our magnetic key card decides not to work about every other time we try to use it. Monday was a long day. We slept it off for an hour, took showers, then met with our contact who would lead us through the official ministry business Wednesday. After that, we ate supper at a German restaurant in the hotel. Oh, and it's VIENNESE schnitzel, not WIENER. And it's Delicious!!! We ate and went back to sleep at 8:30pm.



Wednesday was the big day! We woke up at 6am, ate a great breakfast that included crepes and pastries and preserved fruit for me. Joe had a mushroom and bacon omlette, with a side dish of olives, gouda, and pickled herring. I didn't know what real maple syrup tasted like until today. A little bitter, but yummy. Not the corn syrup confection I had always known. Joe has been feeling "iffy" on his stomach today. I say skip the herring tomorrow.



We first went to the Russian children's ministry to officially receive our referral and sign our acceptance of it so we could go see the girls. From there, we went to the baby home and got our first meeting with the girls. It went great. We held them and talked and sang to them. They were shell shocked. It took a long time before either one of them grinned or relaxed. We brought these soft 5" cubes that had rattles or that crinkly paper stuff inside. They liked those the best. "Adeline" would mimic things that Joe did with the cube. If he scratched it, she would scratch it. If he shook it, she would shake it. She did this later with the rattles. We got it on video. "Anna Claire" grinned for Joe several times. They both reached a finger up to touch his little bit of facial hair.



I didn't get big smiles out of either one of them. In fact, they both tuned up to cry a couple of times. One would start, then the other would get a pouty face, and then it was duelling twins. They have the funniest way of crying when there's nothing wrong. It is a classic "wah". One would do it, then the other, then back again. It wasn't a full on scream. And they were easily soothed and distracted with another toy out of the magic blue bag of goodness that we brought with us. We did get a full on scream from "Anna Claire" by the end of the day. Both of the girls were sick. Chest congestion, snotty nose. Typical baby stuff. I am not convinced "Anna Claire" didn't have a fever when we handed them back over to the baby home staff.



Everyone probably thinks, "Wow, that must have been so hard to give them back at the end of the day." Well, yes, but the atmosphere in the baby home was very positive. It is a nice place. Very clean. Very friendly staff. The girls smiled quickly for them. I hated that they are sick and I couldn't do anything for them. I hated that there are about 20 other children in their age group in the home who probably have the same bug, and they're just sharing it around the way US kids do in school. But knowing how tired we were still (we got back to the hotel and took a two hour nap), and how much we needed alone time to process how everything in our life just changed, it was nice to know how well taken care of they are.



Best moment of the day: Like I said, Joe was able to get "Anna Claire" to smile a lot. The four of us had been sitting together for a photo on the floor, and I took "Anna Claire" who had started to get fussy so I could walk her around. When she realized I had taken her away from Joe, she started pitchin' a fit! I walked her back over to where he was, and she lurched backwards in my arms, reaching out to him. He gave her one of his big fingers and kissed her forehead. So there the four of us stood, Joe holding "Adeline", me holding "Anna Claire", and "Anna Claire" holding on to Joe's finger for dear life.

A family is born.

Why Giving Is Important...

We received notification that we were denied a grant today. Bummer.

Want to know why? Because, as recorded on the application, we had not already received 50% of funds needed to complete the adoption. This grant agency includes funds needed for travel as the adoption's total amount.

I scratch my head and think....."They're not giving us money because...we don't have money? If we had more money...they'd give us even more money?" I know they need assurance that once they invest in our adoption, that we won't have to back out because we can't get the rest of our funding, thereby losing their investment that could have gone to a more prepared couple. I get it. But it's still hard to be turned down for something that's so important.

The GOOD news is that we can reapply with this grant agency three more times. As our financial status changes, we can update our original application and request another review. Immanuel Baptist Church of Hattiesburg, MS is taking up a love offering for us this month. The collection day is Sunday, November 14. If you have been hanging on to a gift, or just forgetting to give, or maybe hadn't made your mind up about whether you even could give or not, PLEASE send your gift by November 14. That will give us time over the Thanksgiving holidays to update our grant application for this particular agency showing them that we have raised the necessary funds that warrant their approval of our grant.

Here is what we have raised and spent so far:

Homestudy fee $1950 [paid]

Application fee $275 [paid]

Document fee $9900 [paid $9000 - still owe $900]

International fee $10,000 [owed immediately]

Agency fee $10,000 [owed at time of final trip - estimated time January]

Travel first trip $6800 [paid]

Travel second trip $5500 [owed in 8 weeks]

Travel third trip $11500 [owed in 10 weeks]

I'm already amazed at what the Lord has done for us. I know He'll come through for the rest of this journey. It's just getting to that place in the middle of the journey where things aren't coming as easily as they did at the beginning, and with it being near the holiday season, people are saving up to buy gifts for their own children. So might I suggest....

For that relative whose name you drew and who you don't know well enough to get a really thoughtful gift....because you know it has happened to all of us....how about donating the $20 or $50 you would have spent buying them a "because I had to" gift toward the adoption instead, giving them a really nice Christmas card that said,

"Because you are my family and I love you -

This year, in your honor, I donated a financial gift

to help two orphans come home to a loving family of their own.

Merry Christmas"

Because there's room in our Inn....