Tickets & Travel Visas Have Arrived

This morning our airline tickets arrived and yesterday we received our travel visas. We sent our travel itinerary to the adoption agency so they would have a copy of it and know when to expect us. On our way into Russia, we have a very brief layover in Copenhagen and then we fly into Moscow via Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). Hopefully there will be some English speaking folks there in the event we get twisted around in the airport - I have a hard enough time managing Russian!

Last night at 11:30, Dawn went through the clothing we are taking for the kids to see what we should take. She has had their bags packed for three months and the weather is much warmer now getting up to 72-75 in the day time, but dropping as low as 35 at night. It is our understanding that in Russian culture, kids are still expected to wear long sleeves and long pants. Exposed skin apparently will subject you to scolding by the older women in the community. We originally thought it would be frigid when we returned for court, but that will not be the case. So, we are taking jeans, long sleeved shirts for the two oldest and some jumpers with tights for the youngest. We took out the heavy coats and are just going to take light jackets. They take up a lot of space and the weather just does not require it. The weather in Moscow seems to be pretty close to the same as that in Vladivostok so we should be okay.

Motel reservations for the return through Moscow have been made. I have had to e-mail them to see if it will be acceptable to have one adult and two children per room. They have a two person limit per room. I used my Holiday Inn travel points to book the rooms in order to save money - about $1,800. Glad to see ALL those nights on the road were good for something. There is a huge park two blocks away. I believe it is called Sokolniki Park. Dawn's sister-in-law has spent a lot of time in Moscow and she said it was a good place to go. It will provide a nice break from things I think.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. I will go to the bank and get checks for our final payment to the agency and, I will also start the quest for crisp bills. The currency exchangers in Russia will not accept any bills with ink marks (counterfeit detection), folds, etc. They basically have to be perfect. That can be a challenge, so I am giving myself two days to collect the currency. I spoke to the bank a couple of weeks ago and they essentially said they would do what they could. How encouraging...

I have become a firm believer in the power of prayer over the last year and in particular the past few weeks. I have a long list I go through nightly for those adopting and others experiencing some challenging times. If you have such a list, please add us...

Making Progress

Slowly, we are making progress on the "to do" list. Visas were ordered Tuesday and due to multiple Russian holidays ( May 1, 2, 8 & 9) we had to pay for 3-day processing in order to have them on time. Then it was time to order airline tickets. Wow what an ordeal! It was not just a simple phone call as trip number one was. Several hours were spent on this one issue. Since we are at the end of our journey, we have our final fees to pay and have to watch and manage every expenditure.

Thursday, I called a travel agent that works with a lot of adoptive families. Her quotes were significantly higher than those we purchased for trip one ($7,000 vs. $4,000) and add to that the cost of three one way tickets for the kids - total cost was about $11,000. I asked God to find a way to make things happen within our budget. Late Friday afternoon, I contacted the travel agent we used on trip number 1 and she was able to save us about $2,000. What a blessing!

So, our plan is to leave Tuesday, May 13 out of Birmingham and we will return Saturday, June 7. We have lots of ends to tie up before leaving and only about 9 days to do it all. God has answered many, many prayers and we are truly thankful for those who have been praying for us. When we return, I hope to list each and every prayer that was answered to show how God is watching and listening...

Trust in the Lord

Our last post indicated we had hit a "bump in the road". Without going into detail, I'll just say that the Lord took care of that problem tonight. I am embarrassed that I even had doubts, no matter how small they were. He has taken care of every need every step of the way.

Bump in the Road

We hit a bump in the road this past week and just ask that you keep us in your prayers. Nothing bad, but a bump none the less. God has blessed us tremendously, answered many prayers and will not forsake us. We still plan on leaving sometime before May 19, but do not know specifics yet. Looks like we will return sometime around the first weekend in June.

Great is THE Lord

When I called, you answered me;
you made me bold and stouthearted.

May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth.

May they sing of the ways of the LORD,
for the glory of the LORD is great.

Last night I was out of town on business and read the above verses from Psalm 138 just before calling it a day. I awoke to an Alabama spring day and was able to finish things up and return home early. Well, this afternoon just as I was pulling into our neighborhood, I received a call from our social worker in St Louis - we have a court date! We go to court Monday, May 19! As I sit here tonight, I find myself asking if it really happened - did I really get the call. Technology is a wonderful thing because all I have to do is look at my "Recent Calls" list for a quick verification.

The past three weeks have been really difficult in managing the wait, but God has not and will not forsake us. I'll keep you posted on our travel plans...

Tony B.

С Пасхой!

Unfortunately, we have no news. We had one document that we had to get corrected and we sent that back to the agency on Tuesday. We included a card to the kids. The agency sent everything to Russia on Thursday so maybe the kids will get our card next week.

Regarding my last post, I have been assured our daughter is fine and was likely caught off guard by everything. Nevertheless, I pray the Lord will watch after her and her brother and sister and keep them safe and warm. Yes, it is warming to a balmy 40 degrees during the day and then back below freezing at night. According to the various webcams I have found, it appears most of the snow and ice has melted. Although, they are having snow showers as I type this.

About two weeks ago, our church family collectively donated $800 for us to use to purchase clothing and shoes for the older children in the orphanage when we travel on trip #2! What a blessing! Not only that, but Wednesday we received word from our pastor that we were given a $1,000 donation (anonymous) toward our adoption expenses! A second blessing! God has been VERY good to us in more ways than I will go into now, which brings me to a final comment. The most common verse in the bible starts off with, "For God so loved the world...". It doesn't say He so loved the Israelites, the people of Cyprus or, the people of Philipi - but the world. So how can people who claim to be believers say they can't love a child that is not theirs, or they just can't love another child? Sounds a little selfish to me considering what He did for us.

FYI. The title means, "Happy Easter"!

Как дела?

Yesterday morning we received an e-mail from another traveling family that had court this past week. They are adopting three boys (see, we are not the only ones doing this) and have two girls at home. It was a great surprise to wake up too! Their boys are in the same orphanage as "our" (the court says they are not mine until the decree is issued) kids. They took some presents for "our" kids and also took some quick snapshots of them for us. The two youngest look happy, but the expression of the oldest has bothered me a lot. The photos were taken in a rush as the kids were lining up for a special program and a worker pulled them from the line so the photos could be taken. That may explain the expression on her face, but the mom explained to the kids that the photos were for us. I have looked at the new pictures and her expression and compared them with her expression in pictures we took - even from the first photos where she met us. She could be sick or just feeling blue - I just don't know. And, I guess that is what bothers me the most - I don't know. This gnawed at me all day yesterday and I finally had to offer it up to the only one who can do anything - God.

The agency notified us they were sending back one document for us to have fixed. All other documents were sent to Russia. If we get the document back tomorrow, we can have the correction made and send it back all in one day. We may send a card with some short notes that we can write in Russian. Letters are more difficult because I am likely to use the wrong tense of a verb.

Anyway, that is our update. We are praying for a court date sometime in April. Please pray with us!

Before I log off, I guess I should explain the post title to those unfamiliar with the Russian language. "Как дела?" means "How are you?/How are things?"