Hallelujah!

Hello, all! Welcome to our very utilitarian blog! Maybe I'll pretty it up a bit as time goes on, but at the moment I am extremely thankful that I even have the opportunity to use this vehicle to keep everyone abreast of the happenings in our lives! Many thanks to Bob for setting this up!!

OK: What brought us to where we are now, staring at our first trip to Russia in 36 hours to adopt two little girls?? And why did no one know about this possibility? (Including us)? Well, God just has, in addition to incredible wisdom and grace, quite the sense of humor.

Scott and I had decided near the end of 2008 to adopt a child from Democratic Republic of Congo. We had completed our home study and our application for the I600, the all-important piece of paper from the federal government which allows you to bring a child from another country into the US as your child. Out of thin air came a call from Inna Pecar, the director of KidsFirst Adoption, the agency which facilitated our adoption of Rina. She told us of two little girls, sisters, who were available for immediate adoption in Kirov, Russia. But we'd have to get the paperwork started quickly.

Amy: "How quickly?"
Inna: "By the end of the day."

Now it was 2:30 p.m. at the time, and end of the day equated to 5:30. On with the conversation.

Inna: "You'd be traveling over soon."
Amy: "How soon?"

Inna: "In about 11 days."

After picking our jaws up off the floor of the car we continued on with our original mission, buying a birthday present for Rina. Immediately afterward, we drove to KidsFirst and started the process rolling. We had no paperwork actually done for a Russian adoption. And there is a lot of paperwork. We've spent the last week completing that, making travel arrangements, making phone calls, making arrangements for Rina while we are gone, and packing. No plans have been made for actually HAVING two more little girls in the house!!

The girls are beautiful with beautiful names: Alexandra (to be 3 the beginning of June) and Anastasia (to be 2 the end of July). We know nothing about them other than their names, birthdates, and faces. You better believe we are extremely eager to meet them and assure them that they are going to be part of our family. Well, I suppose we'll kid ourselves that we're assuring them of that. They'll have no idea since they won't understand English and our Russian is mighty limited. But they'll like the toys we bring!

We are amazed at God's grace, again. To have two--TWO--girls dropped into our lap out of the blue! With this little information we could be very nervous. Instead, we find ourselves grateful for the opportunity and confident that God will give us the strength, creativity, patience, and help we need to meet and overcome any obstacle. Again we are reminded of His hand through our many faithful and loving friends: Linda and Joe, who are taking care of Rina while we are gone next week. Donna and Mark, who will take care of her for part of the time we are gone the next trip. Another of a large list of friends, yet to be finalized, who will take care of her the rest of the time. Julia and Dave and Mary and Scott, who will take care of the cat and the house. Jill, who is buying all the gifts we have to take over. Various friends who will be taking Rina for play dates while we are gone. Friends who will be shopping for a blackout curtain for the girls' bedroom for us. Bob, like I said, who set this blog up for us. And all our friends who are praying for us.

We will be flying from Indianapolis on Sunday morning, through New York and on to Moscow, arriving around 10 a.m. That afternoon, we'll board an overnight (13 hour?) train on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Kirov. We'll be in Kirov one night, visiting the girls at the orphanage for parts of two days, then we'll go back on the overnight train to Moscow. After one night in Moscow we will fly back home on Friday night. Yeow!

Kirov is about 500 miles ENE of Moscow just west of the Ural Mountains. Rina is from Ekaterinburg, which is further from Moscow...maybe 700 or 800 miles?...to the east. Kirov is at 60 degrees N. latitude. We are at 40 in Indy. Mexico City is 20. The northern borders of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, etc., are at 60. Pretty far north! Check out this webcam of somewhere in town. There was a fair bit of snow on the ground when we first checked it a few days ago.

OK...all for now. Maybe we will have a chance to update this while we are travelling but who knows????