Snow Storm over New York

Wow, this is frustrating. Of all times for a snow storm to hit, just when we leave and have to land in that particular place! We feel like this time is just being totally fruitless because our children are at grandma's house and we are still here doing NOTHING! I am so thankful that I know God is a Sovereign God who holds all things in His hand. If I didn't know that right now I would be very angry. At this point I'm just a bit frustrated and I am wondering if we will even land tomorrow in New York. The snow and wind is supposed to continue through the night. Delta has rebooked our flights for tomorrow. We are going to miss our connecting flight to Vladivostok so that is having to be rearranged too. Because we are leaving a day late we are going to stay an extra day in Vladivostok which throws off all returning flights as well and it seems we are going to be paying extra for all of it. I could go on but I will not. We have an awesome travel agent named Anna in Chicago. She is working hard for us and I love her Russian accent. She gave me some good laughs today. We may never know why God allowed this to happen but He did and it is for His ultimate glory and for our own good. Maybe it is a test in patience and character. I sure hope I pass. I keep being drawn back to Proverbs 16:9 "A man's heart plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps." I also keep going back to James 4:13-15 "Come now, you who say 'Today, or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there, engage in business, and make a profit'. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.You are just a vapor that appears for just a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live, and also do this or that'." That puts your life into perspective doesn't it? I am praying that our flights will leave on time and arrive on time tomorrow. I am praying in a different way now though. If it be God's will may it then happen. I pray that I would exhibit the fruit of the Spirit during this entire process. God willing Nathan and Benjamin, we will be there as soon as we can! We love you so much already!

Friends are a gift from God

Well, we have 3 days before we leave and it is becoming crunch time. My wonderful friend Laura came over today and helped me get the memory books for the boys started. I am so thankful for great friends who have different talents than me! She is awesome! We are putting together a book for each of the boys with our pictures, the kids pictures, grandparents, pets and what the house looks like. We hope that the orphanage will let the boys keep it and look at it periodically so they can get to know what we look like. We just want them to know we are coming back for them. I cannot imagine what goes through a 3 & 1/2 year old's mind when someone like us comes and spends a lot of time with them and then unexpectedly leaves them again, especially one who has been abandoned before. To know that someone is thinking of them and that even though we had to leave doesn't mean we will abandon them, we hope, will instill a sense of hope and excitement in them. We are getting excited. There are many details to finish up here so Mom doesn't have such a tough time with Erin and Sam. We want her to be able to enjoy just being grandma. I cannot express my gratitude to those who have offered their help and to those who are helping. You do not know how much that means to us. An adoption involves many people and those who are supporters are half of the process. So from all of us THANK YOU! The journey is not over of course but a lot of the hard work is done. We will be leaving at 10:45 AM from St. Louis and flying to New York on Friday. I believe we have 2 hours between flights and then we depart for Moscow at 7:10 PM. That flight is listed as being 9 hours 35 minutes + 1 day. We will get to Moscow and have a relatively lengthy layover and then board our plane for Vladivostok. That flight is listed as 9 hours + 1 day. Wow! I've never traveled 20 hours and gained 2 days before. That also means we will be losing on the way back. I guess it is entirely possible to leave your place of departure and arrive at your destination at almost the same time you left?!? My brain can't handle it right now!! I will do my best to keep my blog updated while we are there. Since we are adopting 2 children that are 3 hours apart in different orphanages I don't think we will have quite as much down time as some adoptive parents but we will do our best. I hope to have plenty of pictures when we get back.

Unexpected gifts

Have I said that God is good and absolutely amazing? I checked the mail a couple of days ago and found our mortgage statement in there with the big words "Urgent Escrow Information" on it. Every year for 9 years we have had an escrow shortage and ended up having a higher payment each month to make up the difference. So I opened it and on the back page in bold letters it said "Escrow overage" and there was a check there for $298.80. That had never happened before EVER! Wow how I love those gifts that God sends through the mail! It is always when you least expect it and when you need it the most. The men at our church pulled Dan aside on Sunday and gave him some money as well. With that plus our escrow check it pays for at least 5 nights in a hotel in Vladivostok. Every bit adds up and I am trying to write down everything so I don't forget what an awesome journey this has been. At the beginning Dan and I thought we had the whole thing figured out by refinancing our house and using the home equity money to finance this adoption. God had other plans and now I know that it was to be a lesson in trust and obedience. He led us here and He will see us through. What a peace and comfort that brings. It makes me cry as well. Humility is a really good thing. We received our visas today and I breathed a sigh of relief. It is scary sending your passport off to someone you don't know, hoping it gets there and hoping it gets back with what it needs to have. Our names are printed in Russian and it looks really neat. We will leave 2 weeks from tomorrow. I have been trying to get little things done as I think about them. Tonight was parent teacher conference for Erin so I gave Mrs. Wagoner the dates she would be gone and mom's phone number. Erin is doing well in school and Mrs. Wagoner is such a nice teacher. We discussed Erin's ability to be so disorganized but at the same time understand concepts that children her age don't get. She is really smarter than me. Her problem solving skills surpass mine by a long shot. She is so creative too. I went into her room the other night and she had found 2 plastic water bottles, put tape over them and labeled them like this:

Rare piece of air

Good bottle pets

Warning: Do not touch

The second one was labeled like this:

Well trained piece of air

Warning: may bite if treated badly/do not touch

How funny is that? I look at them and laugh every single time! I love the personalities of my kids and I know the new boys will be no exception.

"Biometrics" is a really big word......

Today was a really great day! I got to spend the day with Dan uninterrupted by little people. Sometimes we just need that! We drove to St. Louis to have our "biometrics" done. Actually it is just computer generated fingerprinting that took about 5 minutes a piece but cost us $160. Hmmm, I wonder why our fingerprints from August that only cost $106 were not acceptable? Maybe because they were ONLY $106 and not $160? LOL All you can do is laugh or you will pull your hair out! At this point in the adoption process what's another $160? It is but a drop in the bucket! (Another big LOL) Anyway, it was still a good day even if we did drive for 2 hours for 10 minutes total. You gotta do what the government tells you to do sometimes. After our fingerprints we went to eat at Landry's Seafood House and it was really good. I highly recommend it. Then we went to Krispy Kreme to buy Sam some donuts for his birthday treat for school tomorrow. AND NO we did not eat any (at least until we got home...I only had one) !! I can't believe my baby will be 5 tomorrow. Our lives are really but a vapor as the Bible says aren't they? Next was Target and a little birthday shopping. They had some really good deals on clothes for Sam. He needed new pants because last week the old ones were just right. This week they are highwaters! Maybe he really won't be 35 lbs. forever! Then we came home. Mom was kind enough to come and stay with Sam today and Mrs. Laura was kind enough to bring Erin home from school. Dan is at his men's prayer group right now and the house is quiet. I love this time of night but I never seem to get done what needs to be done. I end up, well, you know, ......writing on my blog! Anyway, I love life. I love seeing God in everything and I love how God brings people into my life and into my families lives. Today while we were being "biometricated" the woman doing my prints couldn't get a good reading at first because my hands were so dry and rough. She said to me, "Almost every adoptive mom that comes in here has hands like this. You all must work very hard!" I laughed and told her "Yes, I think we probably do. Especially those of us that already have kids at home." She told me she thought just by looking at me and talking with me that I seem to have a lot of love in me and the kids we adopt were going to be very loved. That was very sweet. It is moments like these that I know God is speaking directly to me. I love how He does that! On our way to Union Station to Landry's we thought we might ride the metro-link. While we were standing there this guy beside us starts complaining (using some interesting words) and yelling at the ticket machine. He says, "That machine took $2 of my #@!@#& money and only gave me back 75 !#@&*# cents!" I had my hand in my pocket and I felt the $3 I had in there which had been in there for weeks. I had almost spent it a couple of times and I didn't for some reason. Now I knew why. Isn't God just awesome? So I say to him, "How much money did it take from you?" and he tells me again still VERY angry. I took out $2 from my pocket and with a smile I handed it to him. He looked at me and says, "Are you serious?" I say "Of course. Take it and I hope your day gets better." His anger turned into instant gratitude and he says, "You are awesome. Thank you so very much!!!" I was so very blessed by that and to see someone so grateful for $2 warmed my soul. God has been so good to me today as always. Praise His name forever! Thank you God for the opportunity to serve You by serving others. What a privilege it is to call You Lord and Master of my life. Amen