Miracles and Blessings

Before I say anything else, I must thank my Lord and Savior for the abundant miracles and blessings he has showered upon me and my family. Without faith in Him, there would have been no hope in seeing our adoption miracle take place. So, thank you Jesus for your precious gifts, and thank you for the people you have put in our lives to encourage and lead us through this journey.

I am writing from our lovely hotel room, with my son sleeping soundly in the next room! We were here in Russia just two weeks ago when we went to court and received the wonderful news that we were named as parents to our son Zachary. Here we are celebrating with our friends after court:

Soon after court,we came back home, made the final preparations, and spent 10 days working and getting organized for the arrival of our son. We made our third trip across the Atlantic on Monday.

Today we went to the registration office to get the birth certificate, then to the passport agency to see about a new passport for our son. Normally we were told this process takes a whole week to accomplish, but to our amazement, it was done in one day! We were told that our application for the passport was the last one they would take, as the office itself is moving to another location and will be closed tomorrow and for the next 10 days! If we wouldn't have received the passport today, we would have had extra days in Kaluga and a delayed trip home. But now, we will be able to go to Moscow tomorrow, and home in the USA for good on July 1. Its not the greatest photo of any of us, but here is a picture of our new family:

It has been a whirlwind day! We picked up our son at the baby home about noon. He was in good spirits, but had just come from being put down for a nap so he was very tired and bewhildered as to why we were changing his clothes and taking him in a strange car and going somewhere he had never been before. His eyes were huge as we drive through the city streets. One at our hotel, we tried to get him back to sleep, but it was too much. He wanted to explore everything!

After getting a little lunch, our translator and I went to see about getting a few souveniers. Mom, Granny T and Mom L- I hope we did okay on what we found for you! After the souvenier shop, I relieved Jason for a time from watching the baby while he went with the driver, translator and facilitator to pick up the passport after it was completed. When they came back, we all walked about 6 blocks to get some baby food and diapers. We thought having a stroller would make it a breeze, but the sidewalks in this town are just smaller versions of the potholes in the streets. It was definately rough. We were quite surprized Zachary didn't get sick from all the jostling around!

Once back in the hotel, Zachary ate some porridge and juice. That was a mistake- the juice I mean. You should have seen that kid run about 10 minutes after he drank it. He just laughed to himself running from room to room! That was at the time he NORMALLY goes to bed. We spent the next couple of hours waiting for the sugar buzz to wear off, entertaining him, and witnessing his temper come out. We actually saw him stomp his foot when he didn't get his way. That and he engaged in a YES NO battle with his papa over the internet connection cord that was so entertaining. Distraction helped for a while, but when nothing seemed to make him happy I managed to jiggle and rock him to sleep- but my arm muscles are now shaking from the fatigue. I'm such a wimp!

Tomorrow we go to Moscow. We will be in one hotel Wednesday night, and then in a different hotel the next few nights. I don't know the particulars. Hopefully it won't be out in the sticks! On the other hand, hopefully it won't cost us an arm and leg either. Thank you Auntie J for working out our flights for us! We are thrilled, and amazed that you could help us in such a short amount of time.

We'll write more soon if we can. We don't know what kind of internet connection we can get in the hotels. Wish us luck!