Happy Mother's Day!

No internet in the room… still. We are forced to write these posts on our computer and them upload them in the business center… for an additional cost. Maybe we will have the Wi-Fi back up tomorrow? Still no ability to check email… sorry.

We learned today (Sunday) that it is Mother’s Day in Russia. We were unable to visit the kids today because the holiday means that our Russian support staff have the day off. Everyone needs a holiday and a day off sometimes, so we understand. Today we spent a good part of the day with another adoptive family from just north of New Orleans Louisiana. We met the husband yesterday while playing “Phase 10” in the lobby while the housekeeping staff made up our room. He is originally from England. We met the wife this morning at breakfast. They are adopting a 13-month-old boy. After breakfast we showed them the way to the open air market we they did some shopping. He bought some fur lined boots (it’s colder here than in Louisiana), they bought several things for the baby and we bought some bananas, bread, oranges, and a copy of Kim’s English textbook (the same as she uses at school). We also stopped for more ice cream on the way back. The kiwi ice cream was REALLY good… maybe my favorite so far (but the blueberry was a close second).

We managed to spend a good 3 hours on this adventure. While that seems insignificant, it isn’t. When you are on your 10-day wait in Stavropol, there is not a lot to do. Finding a way to fill 3 hours on a day when you won’t see the children is a blessing. We spent the afternoon in the room. The kids played computer games and we also did another batch of bathroom sink laundry. The heating registers in the room make pretty good dryers. After dinner (at the baked potato place on the upper floor of the Galleria… 2nd time there… one of our favorites), we ran into our friends again. We played some more Phase 10 down in the lobby… another way to kill a couple hours. While there, we met another adoptive parent from California who had previously left a comment on our blog. It was nice to put a face with someone you’ve only known over the internet. It was also good to share adoption stories, which we did for over an hour. We also received a call from our interpreter telling us to be ready at 8:30 tomorrow morning to go see the kids. There is a good chance that we can bring them back with us for the day. It’ll be good to get them out of the orphanage, even if only for a day. It will also be good to be able to put a couple of meals in them. I don’t recall if we mentioned Peter’s dinner in the infirmary the other day. It was a roll with cabbage in it. One roll the size of a normal dinner roll. Nothing else; No plate; No silverware; No drink… Just a small stuffed roll. What will they think of dinner in America? Today is day 5 of our wait… halfway there. Five to go!

Missing a Visit

We still are without Internet in the room. It comes and goes and mostly it’s been going and not coming. We had it briefly yesterday morning, but not since. We have been able to put these blog posts on our memory stick and upload them from the business center downstairs. We haven’t been able to check email for a couple days however, so if we haven’t replied to you, it’s nothing personal.

Yesterday was really foggy. The weather had become much cooler and it had rained a little. Most of the day we had some of the heaviest fog that we’ve ever seen. It lifted a little bit in the late afternoon, but not completely. It was back by nightfall.

Also, we were unable to meet with the kids yesterday (Friday). As we were waiting in the lobby, our interpreter called the hotel to let us know that the driver would not be coming today. Our coordinator had another family coming in and they couldn’t locate the child that they were to adopt. As a result, everyone on his team was working on solving that problem and the driver was not available to take us to the orphanage. They called later Friday night to let us know that all was well and that they would be here at 8:30 this morning to take us over. This morning, we learned that the child was there, but the paperwork was all-wrong and had him being adopted by a different family. They were able to get it solved.

We went over to the orphanage today and the kids didn’t know we were coming this morning. The interpreter tried calling the orphanage several times last night but could not through, the line was busy. Hence, the kids didn’t know why we didn’t show up when they expected us yesterday afternoon. This had us very worried. You see, the last time we were there (Thursday afternoon), Peter was ill. He was running a fever and had to blow his nose a lot. Just a normal kid head cold, nothing to worry about. However, when we saw him ill and in the infirmary on Thursday and then we didn’t show up on Friday, we didn’t want the kids to think that we changed our mind about the adoption because one of them was ill. When we arrived this morning, Kim was still sleeping. One of the caretakers went to wake her. She dressed quickly and came running and then we all went across the parking lot to the next building over which houses the infirmary. Peter’s fever had broken and he looks like he’ll be able to go back to the regular orphanage area soon. We only had about 75 minutes today even though it’s Saturday. The driver had to be back at the hotel at 10:30 to take a couple to the baby orphanage (which has a very strict schedule). On the way out, the driver stopped so we could take a few photos of Kim’s school.

My two Sons (Lisa)

Lying in bed this morning as the early morning sun shined through the drapes in my half-awake state, I started staring up at two marker-colored wooden cars sitting on top of the refrigerator in our room. These are the cars that the boys colored together during the social workers visit at the children’s home. The girls made bead bracelets at the same time. (The social worker’s report in court talked a lot about the kids being engaged in joint activities, which impressed her. They could not speak the same language yet could work together.)

I started thinking about all the artwork that would hang on my fridge at home. Mostly I started thinking about how much the same and yet at the very same time how different the boys are. They both very much like to build with Legos and will sit and build for hours. Not only do they both like to build with them they both have to be building something specific, not just attaching bricks together. They both look to their sisters for guidance, but at the same time they both want to make their own choice at times as well. They both enjoy soccer (or futbol) but don’t always want to be part of a big group. Just to top it off they both are left-handed (Grandpa you will have a couple of boys to sit next to.) Yet how very different they are. Luke has grown up being encouraged to try lots of things to go lots of places and has always had plenty to eat. Peter has spent his life being told he can’t, has not gone outside of Stavropol and has barely had enough to eat. Hence Luke weighs twice as much as Peter and Peter comes up to just under Luke’s shoulder. You know what? They both give Mom great hugs. Different and yet the same, but they are now brothers forever (Luke inscribed the back of both cars “Luke and Peter, brothers forever!) Pray for me as I try to be the best Mother I can be for both of them (and their sisters too.)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up. We’ve not been able to get an internet connection at all on Thursday. We were pre-warned that our internet would not be all that reliable here... we're learning that a lot of things are different than home.

Although we have so very much to be thankful for it is hard to think of it being thanksgiving without the smell of turkey roasting, piles of pies, football on the TV and most importantly family gathered all around. I think this is the first Thanksgiving that we will not be surrounded by extended family, but we have our new family here. Kim and Peter know nothing of this holiday. It’s just another day here in Russia. We’ll see them later (at around 4:00pm each day… about the time the Kim gets out of school) and tell them Happy Thanksgiving and try to explain the holiday. They will certainly have lots to be thankful for. How much their life is changing for the better. We wonder which parts will be hard and which will be easy for them; which will seem better and which will not.

It is really clear that Kim is ready to go. Last night she corrected Luke who called her Yana. She immediately said (in Russian of course), I’m not Yana, I’m Kim. The fun thing is that we all understood her. When we she learned that her birthdate changed and that she is 9 and not 10 she was shocked but then recovered quickly… just one more change in a world where everything is changing. How hard that must be. We asked her what she wanted for her birthday present. She first asked for a bicycle… and we told her that there is already one in the garage waiting for her. Then she though a moment and asked for a doll… and we reminded her of the photo of her bedroom with a new doll waiting on the bed as her welcome home gift. Then she said she couldn’t think of anything else. After a minute, she decided to ask for a real car! We explained that children can’t drive yet and she wouldn’t get one even if she could. She laughed and smiled. We only get to see them for 60 – 90 minutes each day and that’s hard. We hope to maybe have them come with us for the day on Saturday or Sunday.

We hope you all have a really wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy all that you have to be thankful for. You are in our thoughts as we prepare to go next door later to have our Thanksgiving dinner… the kids think that KFC is as close as we will come to turkey this year... and we can even have some corn on the cob. The chicken shish-kebobs we had at the Russian shish-kebob restaurant wouldn’t have been a bad choice either (they were REALLY good). Lisa promises to do a full Thanksgiving feast in January for us.

Shopping in Stavropol - Two Russias

Today is our first day of waiting. Well, actually we've been waiting a lot over the past year, but this is our first day of waiting in Stavropol. We slept in. We needed it. We're still not completely over the jet lag so it's been hard to sleep at night when your body thinks its the middle of the afternoon. After breakfast at the hotel (it's included and is a relatively good spread... see the post from our last trip in July), we did a little homework. Luke worked on Language Arts today and Beth read about the Spartans. After that, we went shopping.

Shopping in Stavropol is a great example of the contrasts we see in Russia. In the area immediately surrounding our hotel it looks like Easton. There are a lot of boutique type shops and designer labels. Everyone in this are is VERY label conscious and they will save for months to buy a designer outfit and then wear it almost every day. We haven't shopped in these shops much on this trip... we've been saving our rubles for the important stuff... like ice cream. We walked about a mile from the hotel and went shopping in the "other Russia", the one where the normal Russians shop.


It was an open air market with lots of little booths where people sold everything from tools to clothes to food. There are lots of Russian high knee, high heel boots that all the young women wear. Beth isn't impressed. Luke liked the camo jackets and pants. We bought tonight's dinner at the market. A really good looking loaf of bread (11 rubles: 40 cents), 2 apples (20 rubles: 72 cents), 5 small oranges (25 rubles: 91 cents), a small jar of fresh honey (40 rubles: $1.45), and a really good looking cake... the desserts here are really good (80 rubles: $2.90). We'll supplement it with stuff from the room as needed. We took a few photos of the market andLuke would like to add some comments:

LUKE: Smoking is bad, but everyone here thinks it's hip. People smoke everywhere and all the places we go to smell like smoke, even the hotel room. At the market we bought some really good thin bread (Dad's note: think flour tortillas that taste like fresh white bread) and ate some of it while we were walking. Meat is sold different than in America. Instead of being in a refridgerator, it's hanging on poles or just laying on the counter.
The also have fish. Some are still alive in a tank. When you buy them, the seller pulls them out and kills them by smashing their brain with a hammer and then cuts them up for you. We also saw a skinned head of a cow sitting on the counter (see photo). It had horns attached, eyeballs still in their sockets, the fur was still around its nose, and Beth was really freaked out by it. It was awesome.

The Eyes of Those Who Will Remain

We were able to spend around 90 minutes with our kids in their orphanage this afternoon. It feels really good to officially be able to call them “our kids”. We explained about the court hearing. They knew it was yesterday and today and probably knew more about these hearings than we did since they have had friends who have already gone through the process. Yana (now Kim) clearly showed a look of satisfaction that it was final. She already knew about the 10 day wait, so it wasn’t too big of a disappointment that for her that they couldn’t leave with us today. We showed the kids the airline tickets to Moscow with their names on them. Kim had to count them to make sure we had enough. Gena (now Peter) was a little quiet about the whole thing. He did reach up and open Lisa’s locket to look at the pictures of Beth and Luke on one side and he and Kim on the other. He giggled a little bit about being in our family and even more when I kept asking him his name and he finally said “Peter”. We learned at court from the Deputy Director of the Orphanage that Peter has had his (very few) things packed and has been asking every day if it’s time for him to go home yet. He is excited, but very shy and reserved about it… especially if Kim is not in the room. She has been his security blanket and he will have a long, hard time learning to be his own person. He did very well with us today, but having been institutionalized in an orphanage from a young age and having that be a DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT in his quality of life will make his transition a tough one.

At the orphanage today we experienced something that we also experienced back in July on our first trip. Lisa calls it “the eyes that follow”. Yesterday at the orphanage the care givers pretty much kept the other kids out of the area where we were visiting our kids. Today, we were in a different room…. The “guest room” where the Mama’s and Papa’s come to be with their kids. This room is on the main floor and is pretty much accessible to anyone who wanders by. Some of the other kids from the orphanage wandered by.

It started by them looking in the windows from outside. One or two would tap on the glass hoping for some response. Slowly a few started to sneak into the room and stand on the periphery, never saying a word. One boy, about 8 or 9 years old by the look of him, kept coming in to watch us and then he would step into the foyer where there was a piano. He’d play a few notes and then come back in. He wanted us to see that he liked music and he wanted us to think that he had some talent that might make us want to adopt him too, or maybe tell our friends about him. He never said a word the whole time we were there, but his eyes spoke volumes about his longing. Another boy, older, maybe 13 or 14 came and sat down with us while we played Tri-ominos with all four of our kids (you don’t have to speak the same language to figure out how to play). He watched very carefully and occasionally suggested a play to Kim. Most of his suggestions were wrong and hers were better, but you could tell he really wanted to be part of family activity… even if just as an observer for a little while. At his age and being a boy, he has almost no prospect of ever being adopted. He'll turn 18 and be dropped of in the center of town with 1 month's wage and well wishes. If the statistics we've read are true, he has a 2 in 3 probability that he will commit suicide within 3 years thereafter.

You never escape their eyes. They are always watching, waiting, calling, and wondering “why them and not me?” It rips a piece out of your soul every time you see them. Every child needs the love of a family and freedom from the lives that these kids have had to endure. If you are considering adopting a child, do it. They need you. Be it Russia, Africa, Central America, Asia, or your own town… they need a family and you can be it. You don’t have to be perfect… you just have to be willing. It’s a hard process as our previous blog posts over the past year and a half will attest, but it’s NOTHING compared to how hard it is to leave these kids behind. We can’t save them all, but we can save two. Will you help with another one?

If you have questions we'd be happy to talk to you about it.

Court - Day 2

Our court hearing was this morning from 10:00 – 11:20am. We were in a larger, much more formal courtroom for this part of the process and there were people from the orphanage, the ministry of social welfare, the ministry of education, the ministry of health, our lawyer, translator, the prosecuting officer (verifies the documents as authentic) and the judge. We started with more formalities, introductions and reading of the relevant requirements. Then I was asked more questions including questions about our religious affiliation and if the children would have the opportunity to choose a religion themselves when they are older. Lisa was up next with more questions about the kids and whether the biokids would become rivals of the adopted kids when we die and it’s time to settle our estate. After that, the representatives from each of the ministries spoke. Finally, the judge read through the list of each document in our dossier and gave a summary of it. If you’ve ever adopted or if you’ve heard us talk about the dossier, you realize that this list took quite awhile. After that, we were excused from the courtroom while the court deliberated. This was odd in that “the court” was just the judge. Our translator joked that we go outside while she talks to a mirror so she can deliberate. After a few minutes, we were invited back in and the judge read through her decree. As of today, Nov. 25 2008, the court orders that Yana Sergeevna Jelyabovskaya’s name will become Kimberly Yana Merrick with no patronymic name and that Gennadiy Sergeovich Jelyabovski’s name will become Peter Gennadiy Merrick with no patronymic name. Further, they will legally become the children of Mark and Lisa Merrick.

There. It’s done. We are now, legally, a family of six. The order of the court is held for 10 days during which time if additional information becomes available that would alter the court’s decision, it can be brought forth. After 10 days, this window for new information is closed and the children will be given into our custody. We get to see the kids at 4:00 this afternoon to tell them it’s all-official. Now we just have to wait the 10 days and get their passports and newly revised birth certificates. We should get physical custody on Friday, December 5th. We fly to Moscow on Sunday, December 7th. We bought six tickets for that flight today :-)

Court - Day 1

We made it out alive! Actually, it wasn’t too bad at all. There was a small bit of turmoil about Yana’s birth date however. We learned of it 5 – 10 minutes before the hearing. It appears that she has four different birth dates listed on official documents. Three of them were in May (8th, 15th, and 18th). It seems that these were all estimated birth dates based on development because there were no official birth records that the children’s home could find. The court was able to locate a birth record for her and guess what? Her birth date is in DECEMBER (20th) and not in May at all. This morning she was officially 10 years old. This afternoon she became 9 years old again. It looks like we’ll be having a birthday party about a week after we get back. Who knew?

The photo is of the courthouse. It’s not the best photo however. We took it from inside the van since Mark has this propensity for getting nearly arrested if he tries to use a camera in Russia. He’s a threat to national security in case you were wondering.

Today’s court hearing was the closed, preliminary hearing where the judge gathers data to help her with the court’s decision about the adoption. It started with formalities. We all had to stand when she entered the room and every time we spoke. There was a reading of the hearing’s purpose, attendees, etc. Then, the questions started. Mark was the first to be questioned. The questions focused on why we are pursuing adoption in Russia; what problems we were expecting as a result of the children’s’ “diagnoses”; whether we were being overly optimistic about these problems; about our financial stability; whether our biological children would be accepting of the new children or would they bully them; whether I had ever inflicted cruelty or abuse on a child; whether I would use physical punishments; and whether or not the children would be afraid of me because they have never had a father and the mother that they had had been cruel to them. After around 20 – 25 minutes (with me standing the whole time), it was Lisa’s turn to stand and face the court. Her questions focused on why we are seeking to adopt in Russia; whether our biological children would be jealous of having to share us with the new kids; what would she do when problems arose with the new kids; and when, in the future, the new “developmentally delayed” kids fail to live up to the standards set by our “normal” kids, whether we would abandon them. As far as a grilling goes, I think we left feeling more medium-rare than well done. Not too bad.

The social worker also spoke and gave great praise to Beth and Luke based on her observations of earlier this morning. She was in awe of how well our biokids accepted and interacted with our Russian kids. She couldn’t believe that they were able to engage in joint activities (doing some crafts that Lisa brought along) during the interview while the grown-ups were talking. The hearing ended after a few more formalities and we were done in just over an hour. Tomorrow we have the formal hearing at 10:00am and about 60 – 90 minutes later we will legally be a family of six.

After court, the driver took us back to the orphanage for an hour… this time without our translator (who had to do some court paperwork related errands). It was really nice to spend some time alone there as a family. We communicated surprisingly well and had a good time of bonding as a family. We were up in Yana’s group area and she was able to show us 1) her photo album that we gave her in July (she knows each photo very well) and 2) some of her schoolbooks. She has English Class this year and already knows her alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. She enjoyed showing us that she is already able to say quite a few words.

Oh, by the way, we also learned that the kids might have a biological sister or half-sister somewhere. She would probably be around 5 years old… if she exists. There is no paperwork for her and no official records. Apparently the kids told a social worker about a younger sister some time ago, but no one knows who or where she is. We think. We learned about this at the social worker interview and wondered if it would be sprung on us in court (Russian law says you have to adopt all of the known siblings or you get none of them). There was no mention of the other sister in court however and we really don’t know if there is any truth to her existence.

We ate at the new KFC next door for dinner tonight. It wasn’t quite KFC at home, but it was pretty close and the food was good. Both kids ate until they were full… and it cost about 90 rubles less than our old standby of “Fresh Burger”.

Social Worker Interview

This morning we had our "interview" with the social worker. Alex, our driver, picked her up on his way to get us and then drove us all to the orphanage. Gena met us in the lobby and had a candy to share with Beth and Luke. We were brought into the office of the Orphanage Director who greeted us warmly... just as she had left us last time. She asked us questions and had the Doctor brought in to answer any questions that we had about the children's medical diagnosis. As an aside, ALL orphanage children in Russia have a "diagnosis". It seems that Russians believe that if the kids are "normal" then they would not be in an orphanage. Also, at one point the only way a Russian child could be adopted abroad was if there was something wrong with them... hence, they ALL have something wrong with them. Yana has a typical Russian orphanage diagnosis of cerebral asthesia... "not enough blood flow to the brain" and this explains her "mental and social delays" at the time she entered the orphanage. The "diagnoses" are reviewed and revised every 3 years, so hers has not changed yet. The truth is that she is VERY bright, makes all A's and B's in her school and just won a local poetry reading contest for which she has qualified to the regional (state) competition. Her "diagnosis" is merely a formality to allow her to be adopted.

It's about 12:45 in the afternoon and at 1:00 we will be picked up for our first court hearing. We'll let everyone know how it goes.

First Contact

After breakfast at the hotel buffet, we were able to visit the orphanage for around 90 minutes this morning. It was an “informal” meeting (i.e. not officially scheduled… official meetings are during the week). The kids all were able to meet each other and despite their different languages, they were able to play together very well. You don’t need much language for soccer, Lego’s, and a playground. Both of the Russian kids seem to be happy and at least as healthy as when we left them in July. Gennadiy has a new, short-cropped haircut and is still very shy unless Yana is also there. They didn’t know we would be coming to visit them today, but when they both saw us they gave a huge smile and came running as fast as they could.

We were a little concerned about how Yana would respond. She was a little reserved around us back in July. She was very obviously excited about us coming and it was also clear that she’s been thinking about the adoption a lot. She gave more and better smiles than we have ever seen from her. She wanted to know if she could come home with us this trip. We told her that we weren’t leaving without her and she gave a huge, contented smile. She also told us that they did get the letters we’ve been sending and pointed out that they were in both Russian and English. She’s ready. I wish we could post a photo for everyone, but we can’t do that quite yet… but we will be able to do so soon.

We have an interview with a social worker and the kids in the morning at the orphanage. Then, after lunch, we have the first of two days of court. This is the day where they will grill us on our homestudy and other documents as well as why we are adopting from Russia. This is the hard day. Tuesday will be more formal, but less stressful in terms of questioning.


We had a nice time walking around Stavropol this afternoon, even though it was cool (4 deg. C) and misting a light rain. We then had dinner at “Fresh Burger”… in the food court in the Galleria mall by the hotel. Fresh Burger will now forever be our new codeword for eating really, really bad fast food. We struggled trying to order because I couldn’t find the menu items in our dictionary… and then it dawned on me that they were phonetic spellings in Russian of English Words that we already knew. The kids had chicken nuggets (Наггец), which were halfway edible. Lisa and I each had a burger (Бургер), which was not. By the way, “ketchup” cost extra and it was actually more like a cross between cocktail sauce and salsa. We won’t be paying extra for it next time. They must also REALLY like mayonnaise here based on the amount smeared on the burger… except it was more like a cross between sour cream, mayonnaise, and butter. Yum. Overall, it was an interesting experience in trying to order from the counter in a language you don’t really speak (it’s harder than using a menu where you can just point when they can’t understand you).

Safely in Stavropol... what a day and a half

It's now 1:10pm on Sunday and we are safely in Stavropol. We just returned from the orphanage... more on that later.

We arrived last night around midnight local time after an extremely long and tough day of travel. Lisa was ill Thursday night and Friday morning, but we could not afford to let our court date slip by... we've been told that if you do, you might be lucky to get another one in six months... maybe. We left Columbus on-time. Thanks so much to Jen and Rich for their shuttling us to the airport. We had A LOT of turbulence coming into Atlanta and Lisa was pretty green in color by the time we landed. Fortunately, she recovered well. Our Atlanta to Moscow (Sheremetyevo) flight was aided by a good tailwind, so it was a little bit shorter than planned and that was a good thing. Luke became pretty airsick and the last couple hours on the plane were really hard for him. Lisa didn't feel great for that leg of the trip, but she was doing a lot better by that time.

Once in Moscow, we had an 8.5 hour layover with our next flight out of Vnukovo airport... a 20 - 40 minute drive. Our driver (Vlad) was the same one we had for the last trip and in whose apartment we had stayed. He let us know that we could meet with our Moscow coordinator (to pick-up our domestic flight tickets and pay the fees) and then go straight to the airport, or, he could give us a driving tour of the city first... for $60. After having sat in Vnukovo airport for way too many hours on our last trip, we opted for the tour. As tours go, it probably wasn't worth $60, but it was far better than just sitting in the airport. We stopped by an open air market where Vlad introduced us to his friend... who happend to have one of the tables with items for sale. We didn't have any room in the luggage, so we'll shop on the return leg. We also stopped by "Victory Park" where we took the photo of the kids climbing on a couple of Russian Battle Tanks.

Our flight from Moscow to Stavropol was a real concern. Just after we got to the Vnukovo airport, it started snowing. Hard. Really Hard. We probably had 2 inches of snow in 60 minutes or less. A lot of flights were delayed, including ours. We had gotten all the way to the boarding call before they delayed it. We prayed pretty hard that it would go through because there is only one flight to Stavropol, and it's at 7:45pm and it only goes 5 days per week. It would have really been a challenge to stay the night. Fortunately, we boarded (at another gate) about 30 - 40 minutes later. The plane was completely covered in snow. They got the runway plowed and our plane de-iced and we made it out of Moscow. What a relief.

I had a little adventure in the airport in Stavropol. I made what turned out to be a VERY silly mistake by taking a picture of Lisa and the kids just outside the door before we went into the terminal from the plane after landing. The nice fellow in the soldier uniform informed me that photos of sensitive areas are prohibited... he asked for my documents, and he confiscated my passport. Fortunatlely, our interpreter (also named Vlad) had just arrived. Lisa and the kids waited with the bags while we went to speak to the security officers. After a lot of cajoling, Vlad was able to convice the head security man that I am not a threat and that he could return my passport. Keeping it would probably be more political trouble than it would be worth. It seemed to our interpreter to be a really good idea if I would give the security man a "gift" to thank him for not filling out all the paperwork. I could leave it on the sofa in the security office. It was a 1000 ruble lesson to reinforce that this is not America.

We finally got to bed around 1:00am, after 34 hours of being on the go.

Nearly Time to Go

We're getting on the plane for Russia in just over 4 hours and we're nearly ready. The new bedrooms are ready, the beds made, the new clothes put away and waiting. The bags are packed (almost), the kids are excited and the dog is confused about why his bag isn't packed (Grandma is coming to get him a little bit later).

We really need your prayers for safe travel, a smooth court process and good bonding with the kids. We also need your prayers for health... Lisa became ill overnight with the same malady that the kids had 2 days ago. Travel today will not be easy. I just hope that I don't get it for our court date.

All I Really Want for Christmas

We have been talking about God's timing in our house a lot lately. We have been impatient wanting to get back over to Russia to get Kim and Peter. God has said wait. Now I look around at all the work that has gotten done around the house and am so thankful it is finished. I'm thankful that I have been here to support my friends through some of their trials over the last couple weeks and know that God is in control.

One other thing that God has really hit me with twice now is Steven Curtis Chapman's song "All I Really Want for Christmas". You see three years ago when we were still making excuses about why we couldn't adopt, I couldn't get away from it. It seemed to be EVERYWHERE and every time I would hear it, it would bring me to tears.

Well I heard it again this year, and again I am in tears, but this time it is different. You see, this year right before Christmas we are bringing our children home. For Kim and Peter, this is the year that they will have a family.



"All I Really Want for Christmas"
by Steven Curtis Chapman
(2005 Sparrow Records, EMI CMG)

Well, I don't know if you remember me or not
I'm one of the kids they brought in from the home
I was the red-haired boy in an old, green flannel shirt
You may not have seen me, I was standing off alone

I didn't come and talk to you 'cause that's never worked before
And you'll probably never see this letter, anyway
But just in case there's something you can do to help me out
I'll ask you one more time

All I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in
A shoulder to cry on if I lose, shoulders to ride on if I win
There's so much I could ask for, but there's just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas is a family

Well, I guess I should go ahead and tell you now
If it's really true about that list you have
Somehow I always seem to end up in a fight
But I'm really trying hard not to be bad

But maybe if I had a brother or a dad to wrestle with
Maybe they could teach me how to get along
And from everything I've heard, it sounds like the greatest gift on earth
Would be a mom

All I want for Christmas is someone who'll be here
To sing me happy birthday for the next 100 years
And It's okay if they're not perfect or even if they're a little broken
That's alright, 'Cause so am I

Well, I guess I should go, it's almost time for bed
Maybe next time I write you I'll be at home

`Cause all I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in
Tell me I'll never be alone, someone whose love will never end
Of all that I could ask for, well, there's just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas is a family

November 24 - 25!

Thank you Lord. Help us get ready.

Fall Music

Our children have had recent musical performances that we thought we'd share. Luke sang with the Children's Choir at Church a little over a week ago. He really seems to enjoy it and is hoping we'll be in town when they have their Christmas musical. It's selfish to say so, but I sort of hope we have to miss it because we'll be out of the country! Last week they were part of a churchwide musical celebration and did a very nice job. Here is one of the songs that they performed.

Beth really loves music as well, both singing in the special performance music group at school and playing the clarinet in the band. She had her first band concert of the school year tonight. It was a combined concert with performances of the 7th grade bands from all three of the middle-schools in our district. This is one of four pieces they performed. For only playing for one year, they've come a long way!