Moving Forward and Great Video

Well, we are slowly but surely putting together the dossier. I feel kinda smart to just know all this 'adoption lingo' now - words like dossier, I600-A, homestudy, appostilles, etc... I was clueless just a short time ago. We are almost done with some of the most time-consuming parts of the dossier (the word for the whole packet of papers/documents that must be submitted to the country of adoption). The most time consuming document is the CIS Approval - which after waiting for over six weeks, we are finally going to get fingerprinted in a few days. We have quite a few little documents to get together - which individually don't look like much...but when you put them all together and throw in a few snags for each one... it is quite time consuming and confusing. And to know that if one little mistake is made (like a mispelled name one time) - then the whole thing could be slowed down by months or more...just a little bit of pressure :)


At the same time as we are doing all this, we are hearing worse and worse news from facilitators in Ukraine about the conditions over there for adoptions. Things are just not easy in Ukraine - very unstable, changing constantly, and with different reports from different people. Anyways, more on that later.


On a very positive note, we have had the incredible blessing of being able to talk to Nastya and Katya quite often. It is wonderful to hear their voices! It is kind of crazy to talk to them halfway across the world and in a totally different time zone. We know that this is pretty unusual to have the chance to talk to them regularly and we are very grateful. We had no idea when Nastya left if we would be able to contact her at all. Through an amazing set of circumstances, we made contact with one of her caretakers who is also a translator! She cares deeply for the children and is willing to let us talk to them most every week and translate for us. Nastya sounds good and always very excited to talk. We love her and miss her and have been thankful to get to know Katya quite a bit through talking with her as well. They ask all the time when they can see us again... They are also so excited to talk and tell us about what they are learning in school, what they like to do, what they had for dinner... They tell us that they talk about us and pray for us every night in their beds - which are next to each other. They often discuss the bible classes they have and the missionaries who come on Saturdays. The same person who is translating for us is also giving them extra English lessons each week (in addition to what they already have in school). It is fun to hear them talk in English a little and they think it is hilarious to hear us try to talk in Ukrainian!



They both seem to be a part of our daily conversations and prayers. We are always imagining what they would think about this and we wish they could do that... We did send a package that arrived recently.


Please keep praying that the Lord's will for these precious girls would be done... We know He loves them more than we ever could even imagine and we pray for His hope, salvation, joy, and love to be poured into their lives.


Here's a video on Ukraine that was recently made by an adoptive family in Florida. We have followed her blog for some time. Check it out if you are interested - an amazing story - start at the beginning.

www.kristinasstory.blogspot.com

And please watch the video.


James 1:27
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.