Celebrating Independence

According to a few agencies in the US, there was supposed to be some news about accreditation today. Apparently there was a ceremony in Moscow at 11 AM to hand out a dozen or so certificates to the first agencies to be accredited. Because of the holiday here, some pre-adoptive parents or PAP's have been going bonkers on the FRUA website waiting for news. Our agency has been pretty quiet. I'm sure that they are being cautious and conservative with information until they have something concrete and factual. I can appreciate that. But as PAP myself, these little bits and pieces of information or rumor sound encouraging. Until I hear officially, I will try not to get too excited.

Today we are celebrating our independence as a nation. It strikes me that as we await the re-accreditation news, that although we are independent, we are also very DEPENDANT on other countries and other people. Jason and I are depending on God, our agency, the Russian government, and our future child's birth parents to help this dream of becoming a parent a reality. All of these things combined must work together inter-dependently for our child to come home.

So, we are celebrating our freedom today- that we can choose to adopt a child from a foreign country, and that the child will have the same rights, responsibilities and freedoms as a child born in the USA. In honor of this freedom, we took a bicycle ride around Lake Anita State Park this morning. Like this journey to adoption, it was a tough road at times with many hills and valleys, but it was worth the effort and joy. Along the way we saw a pair of trumpeter swans- a sight I have never seen in the wild. I quickly snapped a couple of pictures, however they look like two tiny little specs on the water in the middle of the picture below:



This afternoon, I am making the all-American Cherry Pie. Many thanks to Grandpa Troll for sharing the cherries from the special trees he has planted in the orchard! We'll complete the celebration tonight with a picnic at Grandma and Grandpa's house, then a fireworks display at Aunt Teen and Uncle Jeff's farm. Hopefully next year we'll celebrate with our little one in tow!