Home!

Almost 24 hours ago we finally landed in Atlanta! It was a very long day of traveling. We woke up at about 4am Monday morning and left the hotel around 5:30. As I was sleeping I kept hearing a noise that sounded more like wind than airplanes (which we heard constantly since our hotel was very close to the airport). As we were about to leave our hotel room Zac looked outside and saw a torrential downpour of snow that was blowing sideways. Both of us just sighed and wondered if we'd be delayed another day.

Well to our surprise our flight was not canceled, but it was very scary to board a plane in what appeared to us to be a snow storm. After the entire plane was de-snowed and de-iced we took off. Zac and I both were very nervous but after a little while we got above the snow, and it was smooth sailing to Frankfurt, Germany. As a side note, I hate flying and get pretty scared, but the Lord has allowed me to face these fears head-on due to so many difficult flights. I guess that is good. I just told myself that if I wanted to go home, I had to get on the airplanes!!

We made it to Germany later than expected. We were supposed to have a two hour layover, but by the time we arrived we only had a little over an hour. There was no way we were going to miss our connection, so we practically ran through the airport, customs, and security. By the time we made it to our gate we only had about ten minutes before boarding began. Because of our delays in Moscow our tickets for our flight from Frankfort to Chicago were in Business Class. It was so nice!!!!!! We felt completely spoiled and were able to actually enjoy our flight. I watched three movies and Zac watched two. We were able to completely recline our seats and sleep (although I still didn't really sleep that much). It was a blessing!!

It was the best feeling to land in Chicago knowing we were in the USA!!! We were just beaming as we went through customs and Zac joked that every cheesy patriotic song rang through his head! I know that I take being a US citizen completely for granted. We were reminded this week how much we love our country. After we cleared security, the first thing I did was go to the McDonalds (it would have been Chick-fil-A if we had been in the South)and ordered a sweet tea!! It was so good!! Later I also went to Starbucks and got some coffee. We really missed coffee because we did not have much during our trip. We also got to use our phones!! It was so nice to just be able to pick up the phone and call someone and not be worried about how many minutes we were using or how much it cost.



A little later we boarded the plane to Atlanta and a hour and a half later landed in Georgia. I could have just cried and cried! We were greeted in baggage claim (all our luggage did arrive, btw!) by Jason and Natalie (Zac's sister and brother-in-law). They were such a sight for our very sore eyes. We stopped off a Chick-fil-A for dinner and then got to our house at about 9:30pm, which was 6:30am Moscow time. So, our complete travel time was about 26 + hours.

I cannot describe to you how good it felt to walk into our home. I know I take our home for granted, but I am going to try and remember how I felt last night when I start complaining about things. Zac's mom and dad and sister had done so much for us while we were gone. They bought us a Christmas tree and had decorated it beautifully complete with presents under the tree! They also set out most of my other Christmas decorations. In the nursery, they had bought a few things to help begin the decorating process - all of which I loved! Zac's dad had worked hard on some projects that needed fixing around the house. There were groceries and Christmas candy. Natalie had even taken Gracie to get a bath, so she looked and smelled great! And, sweet Heath and Martha had bought us an enormous poinsettia that was beautiful! We were so humbled to not only be home, but to have also been shown so much love.









About an hour later, we literally stumbled into our wonderful bed and slept great! We still feel tired but overall don't feel as bad as I thought we might. Zac has to go back to work tomorrow so pray that he feels good soon.

Again, I just want to thank you for your thoughts and support and prayers over the past 11 days. I know we hope to share more from the week, which we'll get to over time. We are looking forward to talking and seeing many of you soon. You have blessed us tremendously and we are humbled by the love you've shown. Please keep our sweet little girl in your prayers. We have been told that it'll probably be the end of February until we can go back to get her, but we are hoping and praying that somehow it might be sooner. I rest knowing she is in God's hands and that He loves her so much more than we ever could. We are praising Him for orchestrating her into our lives and look forward to our reuniting - even though we have to travel all over again!! :)

We love you all and wish you a very, Merry Christmas!!

Delays, Delays, Delays...

Edited to add images. Here we are in the Moscow airport for the second day of delays. You can see the familiar white, green, and red "flag" in the background. That, friends is "Cbappo" or what we in America affectionately call "Sbarro"! Also, ten bucks to the person who can correctly name the coffee shop we sat across from. The last picture is the outside of the airport.






Hello friends. We made it to Moscow Saturday night on a very uneventful flight (other than the fact that they expect you to be no taller than 5’0 tall to sit comfortably in the airplane). We had a very unusual incident occur on the way to our hotel – more on that later – so we didn’t get to our hotel until almost 2am. But, we did make it!

Now, it is Sunday afternoon and unfortunately we’re still in Moscow! We were supposed to fly to Washington, D.C. yesterday afternoon and then catch a plane to Atlanta last night. As most of you know, the snow storm of the century decided to hit D.C. the day we were scheduled to arrive. So, when we got to the United counter yesterday we found out immediately that our flight had been canceled. They offered us no other options, but in hind sight we should have pressed harder to get on another flight. So, we spent most of yesterday in a tiny airport hotel really hoping we’d get to fly out today.

This morning we got up and ate breakfast at our hotel. Then we took the shuttle to the airport. We arrived at about 9:30am to only stand in line at the United counter for 2 HOURS! Apparently, there was one plane that was headed to D.C. and two flights – ours from yesterday and a new flight for today. So, the plane went to those with the Sunday ticket and all of us Saturday unlucky people had to one-by-one go to the counter (there were only two counters designated for our flight!) and get assigned a new flight based on our individual destinations. It took absolutely forever and we both almost completely lost it by the time it was our turn! There were no direct flight options and the only option for today was to fly to JAPAN! and then get on another plane in Japan and fly to Chicago and then to Atlanta. We would have flown completely around the globe. We declined and asked for another option. So, the next best and really only other option was to fly out early tomorrow morning to Frankfurt, Germany. Then we’ll fly from Frankfurt to Chicago in Business Class (the only highlight of the day)! Then, fly from Chicago to Atlanta. We are expected to get to Atlanta by 7:45 pm tomorrow baring any delays.

I’m really not sure what else to say, but flying in the dead of winter and the week of Christmas just do not go well together. We feel like we’re on Home Alone! It really stinks and we are just hoping that b/w three flights tomorrow we don’t get stuck somewhere else. Please continue to pray that there will be someway we can make it home safely tomorrow.

I tried to upload pictures, and it didn't work! Oh, well!

We hope to see you all soon…

We have a Daughter!!

The past two days have been such a whirlwind as we have experienced many highs and lots of lows. But, after much thought and prayer the Lord has led us to adopt this precious little girl. So, today we signed the papers to make her ours! We give all the praise and glory to God for doing something in us that we could not have done apart from Him.

Here is an exert from an email that Zac wrote to our family:

The lion on the prowl seeking to consume us has been overcome by The Lion of The Tribe of Judah. We are resolved and at peace with this decision. We will not leave this child an orphan, she will be ours.

We will have many fears and struggles and will need your constant support and help during the rest of this process and beyond. We will not falter in the end, or stumble at the finish line, we will do what we came here to do.

Thank you for laboring, groaning, and striving with us. We cannot tell you the confusion, difficulty, and adversity that, I believe, was planned by the enemy to prevent us from this task...But standing here in the dark if I consider the Lord Jesus, and His adoption of us, we are left at no other conclusion than to pursue her in Christs love as our child. A decision which brings a little fear to both of us, but also deep joy.
________________________________________

We are truly at peace with our decision and have been able to enjoy three visits with her knowing she was ours. We love her so much already. She is so very precious. It has been amazing to see progress in her already just over the past few days. We have seen her smile, heard her say a word, watched her look to us for help. She is showing us that there is a little girl behind a very somber face. She’ll have a lot to overcome, but we stand ready to be the ones (with God’s grace) to help her become the child she is desperate to be.

Tomorrow we will get to see her twice and then we have to fly back to Moscow. It is going to be so hard to say goodbye knowing it may be several months before we come back. So, we are just soaking her up and loving and kissing on her as much as we can. I find comfort in knowing that she is in the very capable hands of the Lord and that He will continue to protect and watch over her until we can return. I also have been told that she is in the best orphanage in Astrakhan – it is still an orphanage, but I do think they have a strong desire and try hard to take care of their physical needs as best as they can.

There is much more to share and we will do that over time, but we just wanted to share with you our good news. Thank you for praying for us this week. We have been overwhelmed by your thoughts and prayers. We have needed them all! Please pray for a good day tomorrow and that our flight to Moscow would not be canceled. It leaves at 8pm. Our flight from Moscow back to the U.S. leaves at 12pm Saturday. We are ready to be home!

A Better Day

Thank you friends for all of your prayers. We truly need them! Today has been a much better day. We will share more when we are able. Please keep praying for the Lord to guard us with his peace. We are looking forward to watching a movie tonight and finally getting some rest. We are so grateful for you our dear friends and family who have gone to battle with us this week.

Prayers Needed

I don't have time to write too much. But, just know that we sure could use your prayers. We have met our little girl and it was harder than we ever thought it would be. She is going to have some challenges that we were hoping to avoid and that is very scary to us. We also feel that Satan is doing everything he can to try and get us to leave and to frighten us. We feel so attacked right now. We are struggling to eat and to sleep. We are filled with much anxiety - partly due to feeling so alone in making this decision. Our understanding is saying "no", but we know we must rely on trusting God. He is so much greater than our fears, and He is mighty to save. Please pray for Him to mightily guide our steps. Pray for wisdom from above. Pray for peace and rest. I will share more when we make our final decision (which has to be soon). Love you all.

Finally in Astrakhan!!

Well, it is 10:00 pm in Astrakhan (Monday night) and we are FINALLY here! To catch you up, here is a post I wrote in the Moscow airport today:

I am hoping that by the time I post this we are in Astrakhan. As of right now, we are stuck in Moscow. It is Monday morning, around 10am Moscow time. We should have been in Astrakhan now and on our way to meet our little girl.

It has been a long 24 hours. Yesterday we had two meetings at the Children’s Hope Moscow office. We arrived at the airport around 3:00 and almost got to board the plane. But, we had to go back to the gate and wait. We didn’t know what was going on – no one was speaking English. We waited about an hour and then asked someone if they spoke English. They did not, but a very kind young woman overheard me and came over to help. She said that the plane was delayed for 2 hours. We waited some more, got a vouchure for dinner, and then learned the plane wouldn’t leave until 9:30. Around 9:00, we found out that the flight had been officially canceled for the night. It took a long time to get our vouchures for the hotel, go to the hotel, and check-in. It was about 10:45 when we finally arrived in our room. We took showers and went to bed around midnight. We were told the plane would leave the next morning at 7:00am and we needed to be ready to leave by 6:00am.


Before I finish, I must say that the Lord was so good to us by providing this young lady to help. We probably would not have made it to the hotel if it wasn’t for her. He was so gracious to give us someone like her to befriend us and help us know what to do.


After a short night’s sleep we ate breakfast and waited to leave for the airport. At breakfast we were told there was no information about our flight and to go back to our room. At 7:30 they called to say our flight was leaving at 9:00 and to get on the bus. After we were checked in at the airport we found out that the plane was not leaving at 9:00, but instead at 1:00pm. We have no idea if that will actually happen. It all depends on the weather in Astrakhan. Apparently, there is a lot of fog.


So, here we sit back at the airport. We are tired and frustrated, but there is just nothing we can do at this point but wait. I hope we make it to Astrakhan today so that we can go to meet our little girl tomorrow – I can’t imagine that we’ll go today. The earliest we’d arrive would be 3:00.


We did find out that there are three other families trying to get to Astrakhan for their adoptions. They are from Spain, England, and there is a Dutch family. We got to talk to the family from Spain. They have adopted one child, but are back to adopt his siblings. They had such good things to say about the progress their son has made over about five months. They even showed us some pictures of the children.


Please pray that we make it to Astrakhan!


Well, we did make it Astrakhan today, but barely! At 1:00 we found out that we'd be delayed until 1:30. Then, a little after 1:30 they said we could board the plane! We were in the air about an hour later.

The weather problem in Astrakhan was fog, but also it snowed for the first time and was windy. We could see the intense amount of fog on the way there - it made me nervous. When we were getting close they announced that we may have to fly to another nearby town (it was really about 5-6 hours away by car) if the weather didn't improve in Astrakhan. We circled Astrakhan for about an hour and then they decided to try and land here b/c the weather was not any better in the other town. That took another 45 minutes and TWO attempts. Later we were told that they were circling to burn off as much jet fuel as possible (I guess you can figure out like we did that they weren't 100% sure we'd have a safe landing-very comforting!). I was very scared and not completely convinced we were going to make it off the plane alive. But, the Lord was gracious and we did land on our second attempt as smooth as you can imagine for a windy, icy runway. It was so crazy.

As soon as we got inside the airport Galina and her interpreter ran up to us. They said that we were going to go immediately to the Ministry of Education to get our referral. We got in the van and she prepped us for the questions we might be asked. So, we got there (with three other families needing to get their referral, too, but not from CHI) and found out that the MOE lady was not going to interview any of the families b/c she knew we were tired from all of our layovers (Yea!). Then, our interpreter gave us what little information they had and thankfully none of it sounded too worrisome. They also showed us a picture! She is very cute!! We signed a document saying we wanted to go and meet her, which we'll do tomorrow at 10:00am (1:00 am CST for you!).

We then got checked into our hotel and are now about to go to bed. We are very tired and ready to sleep off this crazy day.

Thanks for your prayers! We certainly needed them and will continue to need them. Pray especially for our appointment at the orphanage. Pray for the first meeting with our little girl and for our appointment with the orphanage director. We want to be able to understand everything in her file and get as many questions answered as possible as they arise. Also, pray for wisdom and discernment. Thanks for all your support and concern! We so appreciate all your comments and emails. :)

Moscow!

Just wanted everyone to know that we made it to Moscow!!!! Our flight to Moscow was great! The plane was not too full, but economy (where we were sitting) was tight. Our seat backs each had their own screen to watch movies, but both our screens went out at the same time. It didn’t appear that other people’s screens around ours went out, so when we told the flight attendant she upgraded us to economy plus! This area of the plane was very empty and we were able to have a lot more leg room – it was so nice to be able to stretch out our legs! We tried to sleep as much as we could on the plane, but didn’t get much sleep. We mostly just dozed off and on. The flight was extremely smooth, though, and we landed right on time at 10:30 a.m.

We went through customs without a hitch and both of our suitcases made it!!!!! We were getting a little worried as they were some of the last ones to arrive, but none the less they both came around the corner. Our first bag to arrive on the belt had a big AU luggage tag, and it was the first thing we saw! We had never been more happy or proud to see the AU logo!!! :)

We then went to look for someone from Children’s Hope and we immediately saw the CHI sign. Natalia, who was our Moscow travel coordinator and translator, led us to our driver (who also speaks English) and helped us with many of our questions. We then all headed to downtown Moscow. The drive took about an hour and the traffic was slow at times. There are a few inches of snow on the ground, but the streets are free of snow. We did pass the Red Square, which was very pretty. It is also pretty cold!! I think the temperature was about 20 degrees when we got here. So, we’re not going to be too adventerous and walk around much today.

When we got to the Hotel, Natalia helped us check in. We weren’t sure if we’d get to check in and go to our room b/c it was only about 12:30, but they must have arranged an early check in for us. The Hotel is very nice and very Western. Several of the hotel employees speak English, and when we turned on the TV we heard English, because there are several English channels. It is so nice to have some English, but we know that will probably not be the case once we arrive in Astrakhan.

We were so exhausted when we got to our room that we decided to take a nap, and we slept for about two/two and a half hours, but could have just gone to bed. We had to make ourselves get up. We walked around to see if we could find a familiar restaurant and saw a Sbarro, so we ate some pizza for dinner. We are now getting ready to go to bed.

Tomorrow we have a meeting at Children’s Hope and then we’ll go back to the airport to fly to Astrakhan. Our plane leaves around 4pm and our flight should be about two hours.

It doesn’t seem real that we are actually in Russia right now. So crazy!! Please keep praying for us. You can pray for a good night’s sleep and a good flight to Astrakhan tomorrow. I’m not sure when you’ll hear from us next, but as soon as we can we’ll update the blog. We love you all very much. Thanks for your prayers!

We're Going to Russia!!!!!!!!

Hello friends!! For those of you that have yet to hear, we found out last Wednesday that we are finally getting the opportunity to go to Russia!!!!!!!!! Here is a little information that I sent in an email last week:

It is with great joy and excitement that we are FINALLY able to share some wonderful news with you all. The Lord has decided that now is the time and has said "yes" to our prayers for a child!!! We are thrilled to share that "It's a GIRL" and we are traveling to Russia to meet her next Friday, December 11th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We can not believe it and are still just reeling from the news. It has happened so fast! Last Tuesday, November 24th CHI called and told us that the Ministry of Education had a little girl available and wanted to know if we would be interested. We said "yes" and then were hoping to receive a little more information. We didn't hear anything Wednesday and then CHI was closed Thursday and Friday. Our consultant was out on Monday, so I was finally able to talk to her yesterday. She told us that the Ministry of Education was not going to release any more information to us at this time. So, we had to either decide if we wanted to travel to meet her or wait on another referral. We immediately said, "YES, WE WANT TO MEET HER"!!!! The next day they already had our travel dates and shared with us that our appointment with the Ministry of Education is Monday, December 14th so we'll have to leave on the 11th!!!!! Our hearts are so full of gratefulness and thanksgiving to the Lord. All Glory to Him for truly performing a miracle in matching us with this little girl. We also feel so grateful for all of you - our sweet family and friends who have done so much for us by praying and supporting us in this very long journey. We cannot express in words how thankful we are for you. We covet your prayers as the true journey begins.

So, that is where we are!! Obviously, we were surprised and shocked that we are traveling to meet a girl and not a boy! But, we know that the Lord knows what we need and He is working out His plan for all of our lives. We are frantically trying to get some pink together and also choosing some girl names - if you having any suggestions, please send them! We'll have to name her on our first trip.

We were also surprised by how quickly all of this transpired. With the Ministry of Education worker being out sick and December rolling around, we had really given up on traveling this year. We wanted to go so badly but had decided to let go of our time line once again and were resigning ourselves to be okay if it didn't happen. How precious of the Lord to say "yes" when we had all but given up on traveling in 2009. I don't know why He did it and we certainly didn't do anything to deserve it, but in His wisdom He saw fit for the time to be "now". We are so very thankful and grateful.

Over the past week we have frantically been trying get documents together, book plane tickets, get our visas, wrap up things at our work, and pack!! My mom came today to help me get things finished. It has been really crazy and stressful, but it is so exciting, too!

We will fly out of Atlanta tomorrow around 1:00 p.m. eastern. We have a short layover in Washington, D.C. and then fly from D.C. to Moscow around 4:30 p.m. We should get to Moscow around 10:30 a.m. (Moscow time) on Saturday. We will then fly to Astrakhan on Sunday and be there for about 5 days. We'll get back to Moscow on Friday (18th) and fly home on Saturday. IF we make our connection in D.C., then we'll get back to Atlanta around 7 p.m.

I am going to try and update the blog while we are in Russia, but we'll have to see how that goes. Here are a few prayer requests. We covet your prayers:

*Traveling mercies and safety. Bags to make it! Smooth encounters in the airports and customs.
*Pray especially for us on Monday (which is late Sunday night for you guys). We will go to the Ministry of Education to receive our referral and then get to go to the orphanage. We will get to meet our little girl and also talk to the orphanage director about her medical history. Pray for our decision about her to be obvious and that God would fill us with wisdom and discernment.
*Pray for our time with this little girl - We will get to see her over a couple of days. Pray that she would begin to bond with us even this week.
*Pray that we would establish a good relationship with the people who work at the orphanage.

My brain is totally shutting down and that is all the specifics that I can think of tonight. Overall, we are just hoping and praying for an easy, blessed, and smooth week. We are hoping to see the Lord do "immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine."

Thank you, Thank you for lifting us up this week. My next update will probably be from Russia!!!

Prayer Request

I wanted to post a prayer request and update from this past week. I talked to Anna (our adoption consultant at CHI) on Thursday. I shared with her our frustrations about how things have gone and our concerns about the slow down in Astrakhan. She was very understanding and kind. She also shared with us that the official in Astrakhan who is in charge of assigning travel dates has been out on sick leave for the past month (4 -5 weeks). We found out about this a few weeks ago when she had been out for about two weeks. She was expected to return within a few days. But it has now been another two weeks, and she has still not returned to work.

The representative who works for Children's Hope in Astrakhan, Galina, is supposed to go to the Ministry of Education tomorrow (which is probably sometime tonight - U.S. time). Please pray that she will find out more information about what is happening with the government official who is sick. My hope is that maybe she can also encourage them to give us our travel dates.

Anna also shared that the Russian agencies close December 28th for the holidays. So, there is still a chance that we could travel this year.

Please pray especially for this Russian official that works at the Ministry of Education. Pray for her to get well and for her to return to work very soon. We would love to still be able to travel on our first trip before the end of the year. Pray that this would be God's will and that He would cause all things to work out to bring us to our son soon.

Thanks so very much for your prayers. I will post an update if and when I hear anything. I hope you enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.

If you say wait...

Hello friends! Slacker blogger returns. I hope most of you have our blog on your Google Reader, because you probably tire of checking the blog for a post - that is if you still check the blog at all. Ha!

I wish that I have had more to report over the past month, but things have sadly been pretty quiet. I had mentioned in the last post that we were hoping to be registered in our new region pretty soon, and we did find out a few weeks ago that we were actually registered on September 15th. It looks like they registered us before they had some of our paperwork. When I found out this date, I had mixed feelings. I was glad that it was earlier than I had expected, but then I was surprised and upset that we hadn't heard anything yet. It all felt too familiar. We get so close only to have nothing happen. I don't understand why this has been the case. I always thought that after you get registered everything was supposed to fall into place and happen quickly. But, that just hasn't been the way it has gone for us.

Over the past few weeks, I have felt very discouraged and have just been struggling with the wait. I think that the closer it gets to the end of the year the harder things have felt. I just want so badly for something to happen before year's end. So, every day that passes with no phone call can be really upsetting. But, Zac finally said to me that I need to try and let go of this desire for things to happen this year. And, he was right. I was almost feeling panicked at the end of each day. As much as I desire to go to Russia this year and get to meet our son, that just may not be what God has planned. I need to accept that it is very possible that we won't hear any news this year and prepare myself for that. So, this week has been better as I have tried to release this desire and accept God's timing.

As discouraging as things have been, Zac and I have both been very encouraged by all the love and support we have felt lately. We have both agreed that it seems the Lord is burdening people more and more to pray and be concerned for us. Just this week I don't think a day went by that someone didn't share that they have been praying for us. It has truly given us the strength we have needed. God has also been good to show us to not give up, so we are pressing on.

Thanks so much for your prayers. It means so very much! We'd love for you to pray with us that we would hear some good news soon and get to travel to Russia before the end of the year. However, it would be equally beneficial if you'd pray for the Lord to give us the grace to accept His plan and His timing - whatever that might be.

Here is a link to a great song that Rita Springer sings that has encouraged me - It explains the title of this post.

Last, here is something that Zac designed that I just love and think is really neat. We have seen one for China, but not for Russia:

The Waiting Game Continues

It has been too long since I last updated the blog. Now summer is over, school has begun, and football season is in full swing around our parts. It is hard to believe that today is the last day of September.

As you know we were hoping to have gone to Russia by now. In June, we were told we could get our referral as soon as four to eight weeks. Well, after August came and went we began to realize that something was probably wrong. As it turns out, our region just wasn't giving out referrals. They didn't have any children available in our preferences. This region was supposed to facilitate eight adoptions this year. At this point, they've only done two - and the last one was in May. They are free to do whatever they want, though, and we have to just accept that. Such is the nature of Russian adoption!

So, as much as we didn't want to do this again, CHI recommended that we change to a different region. We could have stayed in Yaroslavl out of stubbornness or trust their knowledge and recommendation to leave. So, we are back in the region of Astrakhan. We were in this region for a very short time early this year before we moved to Yaroslavl.

The good news is that as of right now Astrakhan is moving and requesting families. We were able to gather enough documents needed for our registration in Astrakhan in a matter of a few days. This allowed our documents to get hand delivered to Astrakhan through a family who was traveling there for their first trip. Sending documents this way was much quicker than mailing them. We still have a lot of other documents to get together for when we go to court in the future. But, we should get registered in this region this week. This could mean that we may be able to travel as soon as the end of October. If that were the case, we would be receiving our travel dates in a few weeks. It is always hard to share time lines and dates, though. We've always seen those dates come and go, which is hard. We are hoping, though, that this time things will be different.

If you'd like to know more about Astrakhan, I wrote about it in this post. The main difference in this region is that we will travel "blind", meaning that we will not receive a referral until we get in the region. Also, many of the children in this region have Asian features due to its close proximity to Kazakhstan. We do have some apprehension about traveling "blind", but just have to believe that God will give us the wisdom to make the decisions that we'll face. We are hoping and praying, though, that we'll be able to accept our first referral.

I'm sure many of you wrestle with the same questions we wrestle with as you support us on this journey. Wouldn't it be easier to just give up and quit? Probably. Is the Lord trying to show us that this may not be the road He has for us? Maybe. Is there a better option out there? Possibly. Why are we (they) still doing this?

Well, that question evokes much more than a one word answer. I was actually thinking about this a few weeks ago as I was driving to Montgomery in a torrential down pour, after an extremely stressful morning of collecting the recent documents we needed to send to Astrakhan. I was very frustrated about the fact that nothing about this journey has been easy - especially the events of that day. As I drove 40 mph on the interstate barely being able to see a few feet in front of me, I asked myself the same question raised above...Why are we still doing this? Well, I remembered that we are still doing this because there is still a child on the other side of the country, whom we already love, who still needs a family. We are doing this for him. And I'll just tell you, when I begin to remember this reason and picture the son we hope to have, I can't help but smile. All the frustration, all the sweat and tears, all the waiting - he is worth it all.

We are also still doing this because the Lord has yet to release us from this journey. He has actually done quite the opposite and has continued to confirm that we are where He wants us. We are so thankful for the reminders, because we do question often. The Lord gave a verse to my Dad that he passed along to us. It has been amazing how much this verse just seems to keep popping up everywhere. It always serves to remind me to keep persevering:

"For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay." Habakkuk 2:3

I also like how this verse is translated in the Message:

And then God answered: "Write this.
Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness
pointing to what's coming.
It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait!
And it doesn't lie.
If it seems slow in coming, wait.
It's on its way. It will come right on time. Habakkuk 2:2-3


One last thing - we have begun reading an excellent book on the theology of adoption and the journey of adopting a child. We highly recommend it! The book is called Adopted for Life by Russell Moore. Here is a link to the book.

I will be sure to post of any new future developments. Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

Nesting

After this past week, I'm pretty sure that adoptive parents can "nest", too! Our big week of "nesting" began last weekend. We painted the ceiling in Fyodor's room, the hallway ceiling and the bathroom ceiling. Then, Zac installed a new ceiling fan and painted the air vents in the nursery and bathroom. The vents were silver and very large. Now, you hardly even notice them! While Zac was working on those projects, I just decided to go ahead and paint the bathroom which I had been wanting to do all summer. The rest of this week was spent painting our bedroom, which was another project that I'd been wanting to complete.

Me in my "do-rag". I learned the hard way once that you need to cover your head when painting ceilings unless you want paint all in your hair!

Zac did a great job on the ceiling fan, and it was not easy!!

You can see the painted air vent to the right of this picture.

I also decided that it was time to pick out nursery bedding. I have been looking for a LONG time and found some that I liked. I even posted about it once. I really liked that bedding, but wished the bedding wasn't so bright. I really want the nursery to be calm and soothing and not overstimulating. All the bedding that I've found in the past that fit this category looked very "baby-ish". I wanted it to be light in color, but have a "big boy" theme. Well, I finally found what I was looking for at Pottery Barn Kids. The only bad thing was that you can no longer buy it online. But, my mom went to the PBK in Birmingham and found all the pieces. So, instead of being indecisive and wanting to wait, I just bit the bullet and bought it!! It is adorable, and even though I haven't seen it in person, I think it is going to look great in the nursery. Here are a few pictures:

My mom even found the window valances. So, we are getting closer to setting up the nursery. We don't have any furniture yet, because we have to decide first about the flooring. Right now we have hardwood floors in the nursery, which is nice, but they aren't in great shape. Plus, we'd like to have carpet or a rug so that it is nice and soft and cozy. We did some carpet shopping this weekend with Zac's parents who came to visit and did find some that would work. We're just not sure what would be best. Any of you parents out there that have any suggestions about what has/hasn't worked for you, please share!

I talked with Leslie this week. She said that our paperwork is at the Department of Education in Yaroslavl. I'm not sure if that is a new developement or if it has been there for a while, but she feels that we should hear something very soon. I told her that I hope Russia's definition of "very soon" is the same as mine! I sure would love to hear from her this week! Please continue to pray for this referral process and for the Lord to sovereignly intervene and work through the adoption officials in Yaroslavl to match us with the child that is meant to be ours. We know His purposes will prevail for our family. Hope to post some good news "very soon"!

Summer Highlights

Here are a few pictures of some of the things we have done this summer. I hope this will serve as a good catch up for my slacker blogging!

Zac turned 30! We had some friends and family over to celebrate. Zac had really wanted a surprise party - a surprise party, though, that he knew about. Ha! So, we all pretended to surprise him.

My mom came down for a few days to help/teach me a little about sewing. We made two matching roman shades for my side and back doors. We are planning on getting new doors, so we made the curtains to match that window size. I still wanted to hang them in the meantime, so they're a little small on our current door windows. I really like them and enjoyed learning about sewing. I'd love to learn more!

My sister was in a wedding for one of her friends. I drove up to Birmingham to see her and go to the wedding.

On June 7th, Zac and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. We ate at Amsterdam Cafe and then walked around Samford Hall. Zac proposed to me right in front of Samford Hall all those years ago. While we were there, we ran into Zac's sister and she took our picture!

One of my dear friends from high school and college, Morgan, came to visit for the day. She lives in San Diego now so we don't see each other very much.

On June 13th, Zac participated in his 2nd strongman competition in Douglasville, GA. He did really well! I tried to take some pictures and video of his events. He was also able to make a few new friends.

At the end of June, I went to a reunion with some more of my dear college friends. We try to get together once a year. We went to Lake Martin for a long weekend. It was really great to get to see them!

A few weeks ago my friend Naomi came over for a few hours, and I finally got to meet baby Patrick! He is precious.

For the fourth of July, we went to Birmingham and spent the weekend with my family. We had a lot of fun and also learned a new domino game that we played all weekend.

Last week, Zac and I went to Orange Beach for a few days for a late anniversary trip. It was the first time we have gone to the beach by ourselves. The weather was perfect, and we had a great time relaxing & swimming & laying out. While we were there, we found out our friends Ryan and Mandy and their girls were in Gulf Shores, too. We met them for lunch one day. We feel like this might have been the last time we'll be able to get away for a while (except for when we go to Russia!), because we'll have to stay at home a lot once Fyodor gets here.

Hopefully, my next post we'll be with some news from Russia. Keep praying!

Nothing Yet

Well, it has been four weeks today that we found out that our documents were being registered in Yaroslavl. As you may remember, Leslie felt that we could receive our referral as early as a month. Well, here we sit...one month from that conversation. I emailed her yesterday and she hadn't heard anything, so we continue to hold our breath. We try really hard to not get a time line in our minds, but when a time line is given to us it is hard to not start getting our hopes up. It just makes the waiting that much harder. So, the days are starting to be filled with more anxiety and building with anticipation. I guess that is not all bad, but I am trying to stay guarded in case something not desirable happens like last time. We've been this close before and things didn't go the way we hoped. Let's all pray that doesn't happen again!

Please just continue to pray for the son that the Lord has for our family and that we would get to meet him very soon. Pray for his protection and that God would take care of him until we can bring him home. Also, pray for peace-filled days for us and for sufficient grace and strength to keep trusting and waiting.

On a much lighter note, I am hoping to post some pictures to catch you up on what we've been doing this summer. Right now, I'm having trouble getting them all in one location to upload them. I hope to do this soon! Thanks for your continued support and prayers!

Some News, Finally

I realize the blog has been pretty quiet around here. We just haven't had any adoption news to report lately. However, last week we received some good news that I wanted to share.

In my last post I had mentioned that we were moved to a new region and that I wasn't sure where we would fall "in line". There was a couple at the time who were in the process of completing their adoption. Once their adoption was finalized the region would proceed with a new family. When I asked Children's Hope about who would go next, they really weren't sure because of the fact that our paperwork was submitted around the same time as another couple's paperwork. We were really hoping and praying that we would be chosen next.

Well, a week ago we found out that we are the ones who should get to go next!! Our documents are now in the process of being officially registered. This means that we could receive our referral possibly within the next 4 to 6 to 8 weeks. Things tend to slow down in the summer, but CHI still thinks it could happen in four weeks, which would be awesome!

We are trying to remain "cautiously" optimistic (thus the use of the words "should" and "could"). While we are very happy about this news, we know that anything could happen. So, we are trying to not get our hopes up too high. But, this was still exciting news, and we are very thankful for it!

We do have a few prayer requests. First and foremost, please be in prayer for our referral process. When we are matched with a child we will have to determine based on the information we receive, which may not be much, if we would like to travel to meet him (I think this is how it might go). Please pray that this would be an easy process and the God would fill us with much wisdom. We don't want to have to make a tough decision - we'd love for it to be easy! Please be praying for the child the Lord has for us and that we will know him when we see him. Pray for the Lord to show us/direct us to the child he has chosen for our family (which I know He will)!

Also, our immigration approval is expiring in about a month. We are working to get this renewed, but we have to do a home study update and this update then has to go through DHR all before it can make its way to CIS. We have submitted everything but this. Please pray that our approval would be renewed very quickly. It shouldn't cause too much of a problem, but I will feel much more at ease once it is renewed.

We feel that in some ways this journey is just beginning. There is a lot that still must take place for us to reach the goal of bringing home our son. Please pray that this will be a very smooth process and that we don't run into any problems.

The next news we hear should be about our referral, so stay tuned...Hopefully, it won't be too much longer!

Oh, and I am going to try and update the blog with other things that have been going on soon. Since it is the summer, maybe I'll get better at blogging!

Yaroslavl

I know, I know - long time, no post. A lot has transpired since my last post and I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed.

About a month ago, we found out that we had been transferred, yet again, to another region. After our documents made it to Astrakhan, the region came back and said that they had no boys in our age range and/or requests available for international adoption. That seems strange, but who knows. We really had no control over this so we had to just go with it and trust that the Lord was guiding us to where we needed to be.

We have now been moved to a region called Yaroslavl. Yaroslavl is north of Moscow and takes about 4 hours by car to get there. If we do stay in this region, we may actually end up taking three trips instead of two. This could be a better option for Zac as he would get to take off less time from work. We would go on our first trip a few weeks after we receive our referral and meet our child. Our second trip would take place about a month later and we would be gone for about a week for our court appointment. Then, we would come home to wait out the typical ten day waiting period before we could pick up our child. Our third trip would last a week to a week and a half and we would get our child and come home for good!

I'll be honest, the last month has been tough. We haven't really known what to think about changing regions again. The bad news was that we had to re-do almost all of our documents...again. My consultant, Leslie, really emphasized that it would be good if we could get everything done as fast as possible. So, there was some added pressure there, but then she shared about a week later that another couple had been moved to this region from Astrakhan too. She also mentioned that we were kind of in a "race" between them to get documents in the region. Knowing all of this I did everything I could to work as fast as possible. I had to do many of the documents and then Lifeline had to do the others. It is always difficult when having to work with outside sources - working on their time table and pace, having to explain how to do the documents, dealing with being in another city, etc. This was the most stressful part of collecting our documents, and we were very disappointed that we didn't get our documents from Lifeline as quickly as we had wanted.

Finally, though, after an initial failed attempt last Monday to get everything collected and certified (who knew about "Confederate Memorial Day" and that government offices close this day...ugh!) everything got mailed to Children's Hope Tuesday and then sent to Russia on Wednesday. It was the biggest relief, and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again - this really took a lot out of me (and Zac, too).

I really don't know where we stand in the region yet. We did find out that the other couple who had been moved to this region got their documents in the Thursday before we sent in ours - so they ended up being about a week ahead of us. This was upsetting at first, but I'm still not sure that this will mean they'll be ahead of us in "line." Children's Hope usually assigns line order based on how long you've been waiting. I can't imagine most people have been waiting as long as we have. Originally, Leslie had told us we would be first in this region, but that was before this other couple was moved. I'm hoping to get a clear answer on this soon.

If we are first in line, we might be able to travel this summer - maybe June or July. I am really hoping that this will be the case. We are very weary of waiting and extremely anxious to finish this adoption process.

We would appreciate your prayers for our referral to come soon and for continued perseverance while we wait. We have been struggling with discouragement lately. More importantly, please also keep our son in your prayers and that he would be well taken care of while we cannot be with him. Pray for us to be united soon.

I'll end with a picture since I haven't posted one in a long time. This was taken Easter Sunday.


And, here is Gracie's Easter picture for a little humor:


I'll try and update more frequently as I know more!

One Year

It has been way too long since I last updated the blog. I've been wanting to update for the past few weeks, but just haven't taken the time. Here is an attempt at an adequate update:

First of all, it has now been a year since our paperwork went to Russia and we've been waiting on a referral. I really didn't expect it to take this long, so it is a little surprising that we're still where we are. Of course, we did get delayed by the situation that came up in January, and we have always known it could take over a year or more. I just really didn't think that it would. But, the Lord sees fit for us to continue to wait, so waiting is what we continue to do.

In February, about a week after we were assigned to a new region, we got another piece of discouraging news. Russia put together a list of adoption agencies that had not complied to post-adoption reports the way Russia expects. It was a very long list with several agencies per state. Well, our home study agency, Lifeline, was on the list. Basically, Russia sent this list to all the regions and encouraged them to not move forward with new adoptions from any families who were using these agencies as their home study provider.

At the time, we were not sure what this would mean for us. Worst case scenario - we'd have to re-do our home study with a new agency. Thankfully, though, when we contacted Lifeline they were already aware of the problem, had figured out what had happened and sent in the necessary documents that should resolve the issue. Russia stated that agencies can be taken off the list once they correct the problem. I received an email on February 24th that Lifeline had at that point mailed the necessary documents to Russia. It is now up to Russia to review the documents and decide if what Lifeline sent in is enough to be taken off the list. Well, at this point we have still not heard any news on Lifeline's current status. Please pray that they will get on the "good list" soon, because this could make our documents "pending" until the Lifeline issue is resolved.

The other factor to this situation is how Astrakhan feels about this list. Some regions have come back and said it is not a big deal, while others have felt quite differently. News about this list came to us on February 19th, and we still have yet to hear any news about how Astrakhan wants to handle things. So, we are hoping that if they really cared they would have done something by now, but you just never know.

I talked with Leslie, my Children's Hope contact, a few weeks ago and she mentioned that things in Astrakhan (as far as referrals and adoptions) are continuing to move along. It seems that Astrakhan proceeds with two families from each agency at a time, which is great! It looks like two families that traveled in early January are awaiting a court date to travel back to adopt their children. One family has received their court date. Lesley feels that after these families receive their court dates, then two other families who are currently registered in the region should receive their travel dates for their first trip, and then they should register two new families - which should include us!!! However, because of the Lifeline issue I am worried that they could skip over us and choose another family that is not working with an agency on the "list."

If we were registered in this new batch, it should mean that we would receive our travel dates to go on our first trip a few months later. This could mean that we would get to travel this summer (maybe June?) - which would be wonderful!! If we don't get registered, it would probably push our first trip to late summer/early fall.

All of this is making me very anxious. I feel like it is all coming to a penacle and I don't want to miss our opportunity to be registered at the soonest opportunity. I feel compelled to do anything and everything to fix it, but I have done really all that I can do. But, I just can't stop thinking about if there is something else that can be done. It's so hard to know that everything is completely out of my control, because I just want to rush in and intervene and make sure that we get registered in this new batch of families. But, once again, it is completely in the Lord's very capable hands and we have to just trust whatever decision He makes. Can I just be honest and say that this feels really hard right now?! We do want His plan, but days like today I feel desperate for His plan to be on my timeline. We are just so ready to get this waiting over with and begin our new life with our son. The thought of it taking even longer is really hard.

Would you please pray for this situation? Please pray that the situation with Lifeline would be resolved and they would receive a favorable status soon. Also, please pray that the Lord would open the doors for us to be chosen as one of the families to be registered in the region with this new batch of families. Last, would just please pray for the Lord's peace to reign in our hearts and for us to continue to trust His plan as we wait? We are so grateful for your prayers and concern.

Astrakhan

The past few weeks have been difficult. We have been watching and praying for the Lord's intervention on our behalf. Thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers, phone calls, emails, etc. They have truly helped to encourage us to keep pressing on.

Well, thankfully God has intervened! One week ago we received a call from our agency that we have been moved to a new region (I meant to update the blog sooner)! This is great news because other than the problem completely going away, this was the next best/easiest thing. We are so thankful that it was possible for us to move to a new region and that the Lord just did it. We weren't faced with a difficult decision - God made the decision for us. We feel confident that this is the best thing and thankful for whatever the Lord is doing. We're not sure why we weren't just placed in this region to begin with, but God does and we are trusting Him. We know His timing is perfect and many things need to line up for us to adopt the child God has chosen. This move must be one of the ways He is accomplishing His purposes.

Our new region is called Astrakhan (pronounced Aus-tra-han, the "k" is silent). It is located in southwest Russia and is very close to Kazakhstan. Our adoption consultant wanted to know how we felt about a child with Asian features because many of the children in this region have Asian features (probably due to the proximity of Kazakhstan). Of course we said we had no problem with that! She did say that for whatever reason it is more common in girls than in boys, though. Who knows?! Also, Astrakhan is about a two hour flight from Moscow.

Changing regions really will not put us too far behind. When you are moved to a new region, you get placed in line right were you should based on how long you've been waiting. So, we will be placed fifth in line, which means that those ahead of us have been waiting longer. It does seem, though, that this region may move a little quicker than Cheboksary and may also proceed with several adoptions at the same time, where as Cheboksary proceeded with one adoption at a time (I think). Also, I asked my consultant if she could give me an idea of a timeline for our wait and she said that she felt we should be able to complete our adoption this year! That was great news!

The other interesting thing about Astakhan is that we will not receive any information about our referral until we arrive in the country. So we are essentially traveling "blind". This seems scary, but we will be able to talk with the International Adoption Clinic while in country once we receive medical information on our child to help us make a decision about whether or not to accept our referral. If we decide to decline the referral, if another child is available then we'll be able to meet that child before having to travel home. Thankfully, the Lord is in control of all of these details, and we are confident that He will work them out at the appropriate time. Also, my consultant shared with me that two families just returned from their first trip to Astrakhan and were both very pleased with their referrals, so that is good news!

Thankfully, most of our paperwork from Cheboksary will tranfer to Astrakhan without a problem. I do have some documents to re-do, but I don't have to start over from scratch. I was very glad to hear that! So, I am now working to get this completed as soon as possible.

Thank you again for all of your prayers. We are so grateful and relieved to be out of a bad situation. It is a blessing that a resolution came so quickly and we can once again be waiting for a referral. Please pray for a smooth transition into our new region, for our paperwork to be completed quickly, and for us to receive a referral soon!

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save..." Zephaniah 3:17

If you'd like to see where Astrakhan is located, click on this link! Be sure to enlarge the map and you'll find Astrakhan by Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea (it's also near number 36).

Disheartening News

I was secretly hoping that the next post I wrote would be to tell everyone that we had received our referral. However, it doesn't look like that may happen for a while now. As some of you know, last Thursday we found out some very disheartening news about our adoption. It is a bit of a long and detailed story, so I certainly won't try to explain all that it entails. But, here goes...

As mentioned before there were two other couples assigned to the region of Cheboksary from our agency. One of these couples traveled last fall to meet their referral for a sibling group. It appears that something happened while they were in Russia to upset them. We found out last week that they are now attempting to sue Children's Hope. The problem is that in order for Cheboksary to continue assigning referrals to people from our agency they will need a few letters from this family stating that they desire to have their paperwork removed from the region. It seems simple, but now that a lawsuit is involved, CHI has no way of knowing how soon (or how late) they will submit this request. So, we are now in limbo and were told that nothing can happen until these letters are sent.

We are truly heartbroken, frustrated, angry, sad, discouraged, confused. What we have worked for for so long and that seemed to be within our grasp seems to now be completely falling apart. We are very confused as to what we are to do now. In talking with our adoption consultant, we have decided to take the next 3-4 weeks to see what happens and to pray about our next step. Our consultant will be talking to her contact in Russia also about what would be best for us to do.

The difficult thing is that there really is no easy, quick fix. We obviously have the choice to just completely give up, to change agencies, to change countries, or to possibly change to another region in Russia. Zac and I both feel very strongly against giving up completely. We also feel, however, that this is exactly what Satan want us to do (he would love for us to quit!) and that he is using this to try and lead us away. It just confirms in our hearts once again that this little boy must be something pretty special, and we believe that we must continue to fight for him no matter what.

Despite our sadness, we are trying to cling to what we know is true - that God is in control and that He is sovereign. This did not surprise Him and it does serve a purpose. He is a mighty God and He can make a way where there seems to be no way. He is capable of doing immeasurably more than we can truly ask or imagine. We are praying that we would see Him do that very thing very soon.

We are in great need of your prayers. Please pray for strength, grace to continue to wait, wisdom to make the right decisions, and for God to intervene and sort this problem out quickly. Please also pray for the other family to be grievously burdened to file the necessary paperwork so that other families are free to adopt once again.

Through this situation we are once again reminded that our hope can be in nothing else than Jesus. He is still good and we will trust in Him once again. It is all we can do. We have to continue to believe in the promise of a son that He has given to us. We long for the day when we can look back and rejoice over His beautiful timing and His wondrous works on our behalf.

The Lord led my dad to a verse a few weeks ago that reminded him of our adoption. It seems to be even more fitting today than when he first read it.

"For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay." Habakkuk 2:3

New Year, New Hopes - An Adoption Update

As we begin this new year, our hopes are high that we will bring home our son before the end of 2009. As you may remember, we were told in October that we could receive our referral as early as January. So, I just wanted to update you on where we are at this point.

Most countries shut down for several weeks to a month around Christmas and New Years, so the officials in Russia have just recently gone back to work. Our agency mentioned in an email that they already have completed 2 adoptions and have 1 court and 6 first trips scheduled this year, so it appears that things are up and running! This is good news because sometimes the first of the year can be slow. Unfortunately, there has been no news to come out of our region as of last week when I talked to our adoption consultant.

If you've been counting (see bottom of this page), we are now in our 10th month of waiting on our referral. I can not believe that it has been that long. After hearing what we heard in October, we had a month in mind to look towards and there seemed to be a little light at the end of a very long tunnel. But, now that we've made it to January the waiting has become more difficult. We once again have no idea how much waiting is left, which feels discouraging. We just keep praying and hoping to receive that very exciting phone call very soon.

So, in the mean time...guess what? We have more paperwork to do! The first set of documents that we sent last March expire next month because they will be a year old. All of those documents were notarized and apostilled in February of 2008. The good news is that this process will be much easier this time around than last. First, I've done this before which always helps - I'm not in uncharted territory anymore. Also, I have each of the documents that I have to create saved on my computer. They just need a little tweaking and a fresh notary and apostille. Last, the only other party that I'll need documents from is our home study agency. When I have to rely on many other people other than myself for documents it can get hairy. So, I really don't think it will be too difficult. I am hoping to get them sent to Children's Hope by the end of next week. We'll see!

The other thing that we have to update is our fingerprints that were taken for USCIS approval. These were valid for 15 months and expire at the end of February. The wonderful thing is that you can have a one-time fingerprint renewal for free! I am waiting to hear back about when our appointment will be - it is VERY important that anything involved with our CIS status does not expire, since this is our approval from the US to bring in a child from a foreign country.

Other than updating paperwork and such, we are beginning to feel the pressure to start getting ready as much as we can. We haven't done much preparation up to this point, but know that there is much to learn and much to do. As a part of our preparations we are going to attend a seminar this weekend that is put on by the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham called "Preparing Families for International Adoption". The clinic's pediatricians, as well as their family therapist and developmental specialist will be presenting. We are looking forward to learning some very important information to help us parent the child that we adopt.

We continue to covet your prayers for us as we walk this journey. As always, prayers for our son are of the most importance to us. You can also please pray for continued strength and grace as we wait. And, we would love for you to agree with us in prayer for a very soon, glorious uniting with our son. We are always grateful for those of you who continue to walk this road with us and pray for our needs. We know you are weary, too. May we all be given relief from the hot sun of this difficult journey very soon!

I will end with a scripture that brings me much hope as we begin this year. I hope so much that at the end of 2009 these words will ring so true:

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:18-19

I also like this verse in the New Living Translation:

"But forget all that - it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers through the dry wasteland." Isaiah 43:18-19