Six-Month Celebration

Hey Everyone! Today is the six month anniversary of our court date. On August 25th we nervously sat down in the courtroom in downtown Vladivostok with Lana, our translator. We answered questions about our boys, our jobs, our finances. About 45 minutes later we were declared the parents of Slav and Sergei. What a day! What a celebration we had that evening! We continue to praise and thank God for the wonderful gift of family and for all those (all of you!) who prayed for us and encouraged us through the journey of adoption. To God be the glory!

Today we celebrated the six-month anniversary of our court date in a very special way. We're out in Los Angeles visiting family and we decided that today would be a perfect day to go to Disneyland. So off we went! We could've spent several days here riding the rides and having fun, but we managed to do as much as we could in one day. We all had a blast! The boys got to meet Mickey Mouse and everything! What a day! What a celebration! We're so thrilled to be a family!

Our six-month post-placement report went very well. One of the social workers from our adoption agency came over earlier this month to do the home visit for the report. We had a great visit with him. He was impressed with how well the boys are doing, especially their language skills.

We recognize the importance of following through with the post-placement reports and are happy to let our Russian friends know how well our boys are doing. Our prayers go out to all of you who have been affected by the recent list of home study agencies which were blacklisted because they supposedly didn't follow through with post-placement reports. We pray that all will come together and that your adoptions will proceed without difficulty. We pray also for your children who are waiting to be united with you. May God continue to keep them in His tender care!

Below are some pictures from our special day today!

Love, Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Book Tag

We've been tagged, first by the Overstreets, then by the Gebhardts.

The rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open to page 56.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.

5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!

6. Tag five (or more) other people to do the same!

The nearest book is "Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel" by Nahum M. Sarna.  (I was doing a study on the Exodus last week and the book is still laying next to the computer.)  Here's the excerpt:

"By restricting his petition to this limited and reasonable item, rather than demanding the wholesale and permanent release of the people, Moses might succeed in outwitting the pharaoh.  The immediate and outright rejection of even this modest request exposes the true nature of this monarch. No wonder, then, that the divine proclamation to Moses introduces a note of caution. The one called to be liberator of Israel is forewarned of the implacable obduracy of the king of Egypt.  Moses must be prepared at the outset of his new career for a long series of disappointments and failures in his dealings with the pharaoh."

We tag:

1. Rich & Helen

2. Cindy

3. Bill & Meghan

4. Carolynn & Steve

5. Concordia Blog Cabin (Alison or Kyle, you better do it or else!)