Arrived

I tracked our forms through DHL. com and they arrived to Sveta. I feel confident that this Friday we will have our court date - the date we have looked to have since the summer. It's finally upon us, at last. Check back here on Friday!

Another week

I tracked the forms that Tyler mailed and they did not arrive yesterday. In fact, they are still in Moscow. I hope they will arrive to Sveta soon, especially before this coming Friday. I am eager to hear when our court date will be! :)

Plane tickets

I am happy to report that when we called our airline about our needing to change flights, they just subtracted $250 from each ticket, cancelled our flight and we have up to a year to book flights. So, thankfully we don't have to book a ticket now when we're not sure when we're going back to Russia. What a blessing!

Danielle is here with us getting to know the children. She says that she is still able to watch the children whenever we do go back to Russia - another blessing!

Tyler is in Tallahassee today - he said he would make the long trip this time, thanks honey! I got him The Hobbit book on tape from the library and he is enjoying that. He took the new forms that the judge needs + a letter from our doctor (stating how badly the boys need to come home and be treated) + another police clearance, because ours is now outdated because of how long everything is taking. Sorry for the long run-on sentence there. I am not sure if we will be able to get by with other documents before having to renew them. Time will tell.

My concern now is how the boys are doing. Poor little Silas needed heart surgery a year ago. And Calvin may need more surgery, too. I worry for my boys.

Change of plan

Yesterday as Tyler and I were going about on adoption errands, we received a phone call from Victoria stating that on Thursday (just the day before) the US made a law requiring another form to be in the dossier. So when Sveta showed up at court yesterday, the judge asked for this form (only one day after this was passed, people). Of course Sveta didn't have the form. We don't know what the form is, actually, but we were told to get the form, fill it out, notarize/apostille it and if Sveta receives it by next Friday then we could be guaranteed the court date of January 23rd. That's right - JANUARY.

The issue is that we can't get it there by Friday, as it takes almost a week for FedEx to get it to Russia from here and we don't even have the form yet, not to mention notarizing it and apostilling it (that takes a day in and of itself). So, most likely we won't be able to count on the January 23rd court date and we have to change our flights ($250 per flight change) before Tuesday (our original date to fly to Russia) but we don't know when to schedule them in January - if it will be January at all. And we don't want to have to pay $250 per ticket AGAIN. Frustrating. Plus this may affect our visas, as they are single entry and expire on March 10th - more on why that may be a problem further in this post.

I do not doubt our decision to buy the visas and plane tickets. We were asked to do so by God and we did it. I do not know the reason, but I can think of many examples in the scriptures of people asked by God to do things that didn't make sense to them. We do not always understand things, but I want to be faithful in all things. A favorite quote that I came up with is this: "A test of faith requires a test." And this is a test, but my faith is strong. We will make it through this.

Today I was shown this link which talks about the 10 day waiting period becoming a 30 day waiting period. If we go mid February and have to wait for 30 days, we will be in country longer than March 10th, hence messing up our visas and requiring new ones (more $). So we would most likely go to the court date, fly home and then fly back - but our visas are single entry, so we would have to get another one. Ugh.

Since we were planning to leave on Tuesday, we had called Santa Claus and asked him to come last night. We decided to keep our appointment with him so last night was technically Christmas Eve for our little family and this morning we opened presents and have had such a great day. I think we needed a little Christmas to raise our spirits. So, Merry Christmas from Tyler, Jill, Anna, Keith, & Iryna!

Order in the court

Just got a phone call that Sveta has all the forms she needs and will be going to see the judge this Friday to get our court date! God has surely blessed us. What a miracle!

A miracle

My good friend Sarah had been planning to watch our children during our trip to Russia. We had thought we would be going in September. Then October. Definitely November. And here we are in December and we're leaving next week. The timing isn't ideal, as I loathe the idea of being away from Anna, Keith, & Iryna, but I feel God calling me to go and I will obey. I was talking with Sarah yesterday and she said she wouldn't be able to watch the kids. She just found out she is pregnant and was called to be the Relief Society President - a very demanding calling at church - and this is her first Christmas with her husband. I understand these reasons, but I will admit that I was scared to death after our conversation. We had already bought tickets to leave and we were one week away from being in Russia.

Tyler came home for lunch and we made a list of family in OK to ask. We made phone calls. Nothing was working out. I finally sent out an email asking local friends if they could help us. We thought about splitting up the kids over the course of the month. Then it happened. I got an email. My friend, Emily, said her sister, Danielle, could do the job. I asked her how long she could watch them - Emily said the entire time. I spoke with Danielle. She said her time here in FL was flexible and she could stay as long as we needed her. I was blown away. Not only was it a miracle, but it strengthened my resolve that buying those plane tickets was the right thing to do - God was helping us to do His will for our family.

And so...I am planning and packing now. We leave one week from today. Your prayers and support are, as always, greatly appreciated. :)

Leap of faith

Tyler and I have felt impressed that the time is coming for us to go back to Nizhny Novogorod. We have been waiting for months to get our court date and feel that it will be soon. We already started the process to get our visas, but then we felt that we should push ahead and buy our plane tickets...so we did, for next week. We are praying fervently that we will get our court date and that we won't have to change our plane tickets. Please exercise your faith with ours and keep us in your prayers. I know that God is a God of MIRACLES and I know that He has the power to make this happen.

Visas

We just mailed off for our visas. We want to be ready to leave as soon as possible. I hope to have a court date next Friday.

I was thinking that I could gather together some small toys to bring for the other orphans for Christmas. Any ideas on some easy to make ones? If you have any McDonald's-like toys to donate, let me know. I think those would be super easy to transport. :)