С РОЖДЕСТВОМ ХРИСТОВЫM!

This morning while watching the kids open their gifts, I was reminded (again) how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. The love they show each other and to Dawn and I is priceless.

We are one short this Christmas because early on this year I thought we would have our little one home by now. Little did I know that it would take so very long to get US Immigration clearance. He will be home with us soon and we will celebrate. We pray for him nightly as we do all the children that do not have a home. In the coming new year, may God show us how we can be used to help those children.

To our Russian speaking friends, С РОЖДЕСТВОМ ХРИСТОВЫM!
To our English speaking friends, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Final Documents Sent to Russia

We overnighted our last batch of updated documents (medicals for the eight of us, marriage license) to our agency yesterday and we just got news they were received this morning. They sent us the note below:

The last package of documents we can get there before the holidays start in Russia is being sent out tomorrow. So, the file will be complete in the region before the holidays start. I don't think that ----- will be able to receive a court date before the holidays start, but hopefully we can get one shortly after they resume working in 2011.

Have a Merry Christmas -

Tony B

Medicals

God continues to bless our family in many, many ways. Most would think getting medicals for a family of eight would be easy - just call a doctor and set-up appointments. Nope, not that easy. First, the appointments had to be scattered as there was not a block of time large enough to accommodate 6 kids. Then there was the issue of the TB test that had to be completed on each person. Dawn missed the reading on her TB test and they were going to make her wait two weeks before another test could be run. During the TB test for the four youngest, one of the doctors/administrators suggested they just run a chest x-ray. They had to run a chest x-ray on Polina because she throws a positive result but she does NOT have TB. So, they completed a chest x-ray on Dawn as well. All test came back clean. Something we knew, but we had to do the test anyway. The same nice doctor even suggested that if we could wait until Wednesday, then the same doctor could see all the children. This made it much easier on us and them because we have to have documents notarized and we have to have a copy of their medical license. If all goes well, we should have all the medical documents by the end of the week.

We got a nice check from our old mortgage company due to an overpayment (we refinanced with a different company). This will cover Christmas presents at a time when things are a little tight.

And finally, our son, Grizzly Adams,(his new name due to the beard he has grown) came home from college. He had his final exams this week. Unfortunately, he along with the rest of the family got hit by a bad cold this week. He had to muddle through exams with the stuff. My work took me to the city where his school is located. I was able to check in on him and go get him some medicine. The stuff did not hit me hard until I got home on Thursday. Hopefully it has run its course and will be out of the house by tomorrow.

PRAYER REQUEST: We are still praying for a court date by December 31. This will be tough, but our God can perform miracles.