In the midst~~

Well, as most of you have heard by now, a little boy that was adopted only last September from Russia by an American woman was put on a plane by himself and returned to Russia. Tomorrow, he turns 8 years old~~how sad that this has happened to him! Being abandoned twice~~I couldn't imagine the heartache! So, the Russian gov't is leaning toward considering stopping the adoptions to America. If people were truly in control, I might be fearful, sad, depressed, and hopeless. But, I know that my God is in control, and He knew beforehand that this precious little child of His would be abandoned, just as He has known abandonment also. The news is bad~~a little boy being abandoned! ! The atrocity of it! ! However, God is in control. We are instructed in God's word to be thankful in all situations, and I was telling God that I was thankful to Him in this situation, in spite of the repurcussions that could take place, and prevent our adoption. I wanted to make sure that I didn't let the evil one bring doom on my thoughts. It is a bit hard to always trust well~~the flesh can bring us down, and so Sunday in church as we were in quiet time, I was really struggling with this whole situation. God brought a reminder to me. John 14:1 says "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I am so thankful for His word in my life. Diester and I are believing. We know God showed us that He would protect us through this, and we are believing Him. Praise God! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~Adoptions do work, and bring children to their 'forever family'. We are believing God!

Praise the Lord!

So maybe it is a similar title to what other posts I will have are going to be titled. However, I cannot help but praise the Lord. We had sent our paperwork off last Tuesday, and it was received at our agency on Thursday. We were told that it would be reviewed either Friday or Monday. We didn't hear anything on Friday, so I was hopeful that we would for sure hear something today. We did our normal school routine today, worked out, family bible study, and then after some schoolwork, had lunch together. As were were drying dishes, I said to Hannah, I wonder if Anya has had a chance to check our dossier. I walked directly over to the computer and clicked on our e-mail. There is sat~~from Anya-- "Dossier review!" as the subject in the e-mail. Wow, the timing! So, I opened it up, and anxiously awaited the response to find out if everything was there. This is how Anya started her e-mail to us~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear Michelle and Mark, I reviewed your dossier this morning. I haven’t seen a perfect dossier in a little while. All your documents are perfect ! Great job ! All your documents look great. Thank you for your hard work on getting them done~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thank you Father for guiding us in this process. Now it is getting sent off to Russia today! ! ! WOOHOO! Can you say "Thank you God!"? I can't wait until Diester comes home today to share the good news with him. It is so exciting to be at this point in the adoption process. I have nothing else to say!

Our registration paperwork has been sent!

Next step~~I guess~~in the process. I took the paperwork to the P.O. yesterday, and we are tracking the package. It should be to our agency in NC tomorrow sometime, or so we are hoping. They need to make sure everything is a go, and then forward it to Russia. Okay, so we found out that our immigration approval paperwork is already in Russia; our homestudy is apparently already in Russia; our visa approval for the children is in Russia, and now (I'm thinking we did it kind of backwards, you could say) the registration should get to Russia. I don't know what else is needed there except time. Time to get the information to the region we are looking to adopt from. Time for them to search for the 2 boys for us in the age range we are looking for. Time for them to process everything they do in Russia, and then we should be sent a referral. It is nerve racking, but God is good, and as hard as I anticipate this waiting to be, there are so many things that we have to be thankful for. So, another step completed, and moving forward with preparing for traveling once we get the referrals. Thank you God that you have provided for us so far!