February 9th

We have our court date: February 9th. I just bought our plane tickets yesterday and we leave in less than 2 weeks. SO much to do. We are planning to return the day after the court date. I don't anticipate the judge waiving the now 30 days, but we were told that even if she does waive those 30 days that it will take up to 2 weeks to get all the paperwork together for us to leave. So, for now we are praying that all will go smoothly. I would appreciate your prayers, too.

As you can imagine, with us flying to Russia not once or twice, but three times - expenses are adding up and fast. I have updated our ChipIn on the blog and would welcome any financial assistance that you can give us right now. You can also click here to donate. Since we did not have our court date in December, we will not be able to take advantage of the $30,000 tax refund this coming spring. Instead, we will get a tax credit which won't help us too much. This is another difficulty that we are facing. We had hoped to have the whole Russian adoption paid off with the tax refund. Well, God has other plans and I know that He will help us through this because He has asked us to bring Calvin & Silas home. Any help you can offer would be very welcome.

Thankfully, Danielle can still watch the kids while we are gone. We will be in Russia for 3 1/2 weeks this time, roughly. It would have been less, but because the weather is bad and the roads are difficult - we cannot visit both boys in one day. And so we need 1 1/2 weeks to visit EACH boy prior to the court date. I am happy that things are finally in motion. For now I am trying to clean house and prepare every needful thing for this trip. Your prayers are certainly appreciated!