Joel and Clarion's Russian Adoption Blog

Adopting Again

2010-08-17T06:44:00.004-05:00

Greetings, Everyone! After much prayer and discussion, we've made the BIG decision to start another adoption journey. Today we are sending our application to World Links International Adoption Agency to adopt a girl (age 3 -5) from Russia. We are requesting the Vladivostok region. Since our boys are from that same region it is very special to us, as are the dear ladies we'll be working with there. The home study process is already in the works. You can follow our journey at our new blog: backtovlad.blogspot.com. We definitely seek your prayers! Thanks and God bless you all!

Sincerely,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Have a great 2010!!!

2010-01-07T11:40:00.003-06:00

We hope that everyone had a great holiday and you all look forward to a wonderful year. We are incredibly blessed and have been doing so well. Joel is now pastor of a church, the boys are both in the church's school, and Clarion is loving the idea of getting back in the classroom next fall. We will see if it actually happens. She has taken steps to let the lutheran schools know she is available and excited to teach!

It has been awhile since we have posted and I have to say we have decided to say good bye to the blog for now. It was so wonderful to have this blog and read others as we were going through the adoption process. We would have been lost without it. Now that the boys have been home for almost a year and a half we feel it is time to stop the posts. Of course, the process is ongoing as we raise them but their actual adoption and arrival home is complete.

We just wanted to say what a blessing all of our blog friends have been. You all brought us hope, love, laughter, tears, and faith as we went through this process. Even though we have never met some of you we feel like we know you. We praise and thank God for you! There is a good chance we may be back at the blog late in 2010 as we start the process of adopting our daughter. We shall see what God has in store for us!

with love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav, and Sergei

Slav's 6th birthday!

2009-09-16T11:27:00.004-05:00

Slav- turning 5 just 2 days after arriving home in St. Louis!

Slav- turning 6 a full year after being home!

As you can see our oldest is doing great and full of spunk! He was so very excited to be turning 6. Once Sergei finished his birthday we were reminded every day how close we were getting to Slav's birthday.

We had his cousins and some friends over for dinner, presents, and cake and Slav had a blast! Of course, he is all about Spider-Man and aspiring to be a superhero. He was very excited about all of his gifts and having his brother and cousins to play with.

How much Slav has changed and grown this year! He is such a wonderful big brother, son, and friend. He has truly embraced his life as a Fritsche. He is so happy, loving, helpful, and energetic. We praise God every day that he has blessed us with such an incredible, brave, open- hearted little boy!

From Age Three to Four - Sergei's Birthday

2009-08-12T18:53:00.008-05:00

Sergei, Age 3, Aug. 2008, Artem Baby Home

Sergei, Age 4, Aug. 2009, St. Louis- Spiderman pose!

How much our little bundle of energy has changed in 1 year! He is reading easy books now, following directions so much better, showing lots of preference for mom and pop, and having an absolute ball being a Fritsche. We love him so much and are blessed that God has chosen us to be his parents! What joy and happiness he has brought to our lives!

His birthday celebration was so much fun. Joel's mom was here for his birthday and stayed 3 days. Other grandparents were missed but represented by fun gifts. Friends joined us for his meal and cake and presents. We got to see the St. Louis Basilica, eat at Fitzs, and have some adventure at Grant's Farm. Our little guys are tuckered out after the few days of marathon fun! More to come as Slav heads toward 6! Blessings to you all. May God be with you.

love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav, and Sergei

Vacation, vacation, vacation!

2009-08-01T11:14:00.017-05:00

Hello! We are now back home after a two week vacation in Texas. It started out a couple of days with Joel's parents. Then Joel left for the week and I drove with the boys out to see my parents. When Joel got back we had a family reunion with his family. Then we went to the beach in Galveston for a couple of days. A last dinner and good bye with my parents and one more day in Houston and then we headed home.

We all had a great time. We got to spend lots of time with family. The boys spent a good amount of time in the water both at the beach and at family pools. They sure did like the beach but I think that both of them prefer the pool! They are becoming little fishes in the water. We also had plenty of wonderful food and fun. It was a lot of visiting and spending time together so we will just give you some highlights:

feeding ducks at church and seagulls at the beach

seeing a snake and frog in the pond at Uncle Ron's house

playing in the sand at the beach in Galveston

going crazy at the Children's Museum in Houston

going out to eat at various restaurants

participating in a family reunion at Uncle Mike's house

STAYING IN HOTELS- the boys love this!

Hope you enjoyed the pics! We have our 1-year post-placement visit this coming Tuesday. What a joy to show how great the boys are doing! The Lord has truly blessed this family beyond our imagination!

Happy Fourth of July!!

2009-07-05T15:00:00.005-05:00

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July! We had a great day despite the rain. We spent the afternoon at our friends' house. We had some great fun, laughs, and food. We are not really sure the boys understand why the day was special but they sure loved the goodies from Grandpa and Meme. God Bless America!!

Nine Months Home!

2009-06-12T09:03:00.011-05:00

Today the ticker hit the nine-month mark. It's hard to believe we've been home for that long. What a great nine months it has been! Slav & Sergei are doing remarkable well. We couldn't be more pleased with them. The Lord has been truly good to us all!

It's been a great week. Clarion's parents spent a few days with us and we had lots of time to visit and spend time together. We had a family afternoon at Incredible Pizza on Monday. The boys were excited to hang out with Grandma & Grandpa and several of their cousins. It was a day for pizza, games and good times.

We'll keep the post short today. Enjoy the pics! The Lord's blessings to you all.

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Our Friend, Irina

2009-06-05T10:26:00.005-05:00

What a great surprise! Last week we read on the Clute's blog that Irina, the adoption coordinator for CHI in Vladivostok, was in the US for some business and vacation. We had hoped that we could have an opportunity to see her while she was here, and we were pleased to have that opportunity come along yesterday. We got together with Irina and a couple of her friends at the Pitman's house. It was so wonderful to visit with this dear lady who does so much to bring families together. We will always be grateful to her and Lana for all that they did for our family in Vladivostok. We were so happy for her to see how well our children and the Pitman children are doing. These children are so remarkable in how they adapt and grow with language and attachment in such a short amount of time. It's fun to see Irina's reaction to those changes as well. We were disappointed that Lana couldn't be with her on this trip, but we hope to see her again someday when we take the boys back to Russia to see where they came from. Enjoy the rest of your trip, Irina, and thank you for bringing our family together!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Fun, Sun & More

2009-05-17T18:03:00.017-05:00

Hello again! Here we are in the lovely month of May. Time is passing so quickly but as the title of this blog suggests we are having plenty of fun and sun with the boys.

The boys have really been into superheroes and goofing around as the pictures below suggest. They keep us on our toes but also in stitches! They also really love dogs. Not only Dodger and Dandy but the other dogs in the neighborhood too. They love taking walks and seeing which canine friends they will run into. (A favorite lately has been an adorable golden retriever named Ferdie) It has been really nice to see them connecting with the children and their families in the neighborhood as well. Spring has really seen them having fun with their friends.

They both continue to make great strides and we could not be happier with how they are adjusting in their first year here in the USA. Slav is excited about his last two days in preschool this week. Joel recently went with him to "Donuts with Dad" and Slav was thrilled to show off his classroom to his papa. He has brought back some wonderful writing from preschool and I see such growth in him.

Sergei has taken his ABC's to heart and can spell his name, Slav's name, and "Stop" (from watching the stop signs as mama drives) He still loves to read books with Mama and Papa. His coloring has become much more controlled as well. I see good growth in him as well.

They seem very confident and independent and want to do things "all by self." Of course, this is good and sometimes not so good. We have our struggles but are grateful for the gift of family. Slav and Sergei are tremendous blessings to us and we will be forever grateful to everyone who supported us through our journey to adopt them. Enjoy the pictures!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Zoo Day

2009-04-16T18:56:00.012-05:00

Greetings Everyone! We've had some very nice weather this week and have been wanting to spend a few hours at the zoo again. Our friends, the Pitmans, are on spring break this week, so we got together for a half day at the zoo. We didn't see all the animals, but we all had a blast and were tired out after a few hours of walking. If you've never been, the St. Louis Zoo is great and general admission is FREE! Here are some pics from the day...

Congratulations to the Overstreets who had a successful court hearing today in Vlad! Here's hoping that many of you who are waiting will receive referrals and court dates soon! Blessings to you all!

Sincerely,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Christ is Risen!

2009-04-13T06:53:00.008-05:00

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Easter greetings to all of you. We had a wonderful weekend rejoicing in the goodness of God in Christ, first as we pondered His passion, then as we rejoiced in His glorious resurrection. Here are some pictures...

After about 40 attempted pictures, we finally got a good one. The boys have their moments where they are at each other's throats, but the above photo of them definitely shows their true feelings for one another. After being apart for more than a year in Russia, they are so happy to be together and to be part of a family. And we're thrilled that God chose us to be their parents! For all of you who are still waiting for referrals or for court dates, we know the waiting is hard, but it's so worth the wait. Hang in there. Keep the faith. Our prayers are with you. God's richest blessings to you all!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

CHI Easter Open House

2009-04-05T05:46:00.015-05:00

Greetings everyone! It has been so long since we have done a blog post. Time seems to be flying by as the days get warmer and longer. Things here at the Fritsche household are going extremely well. It is amazing how time and experiences knit a family together. Even though it has been only seven months since Slav and Sergei have joined us, Joel and I can hardly remember life without them.

Slav is doing so well in preschool. His teacher even stopped me as I dropped him off and mentioned how wonderful he was and how happy they were that Slav was there. I smiled that "Proud Mama" smile. My boy is just amazing! He is also dealing with losing some teeth and has had his first forays into the world of the "tooth fairy" (He LOVES the dollar store!)

Sergei is also growing and maturing right before our eyes. He is really working on following directions and being helpful. He and I have recently spent a lot of time reading "blooks" He knows all his ABC's and is very inquisitive about the things we discover in books. He is never far from my side and we have plenty of good laughs together. He is so unstoppable. Nothing gets him down.

Joel is done traveling for work for awhile, so we are very glad that our family will be together for a few months. A couple of weeks ago, Joel travelled to Seattle for work. He was able to see the Greens, the family we met in Vlad on our first trip. Rich, Helen and their son Roman took Joel on a whirlwind tour of Seattle. Roman lived in the same baby home as Sergei. What fun to keep in touch with all of the wonderful people we've met through the journey of international adoption!

Yesterday we went to Children's Hope International to join them in an Easter celebration. It was so wonderful to see how many children have found families through this agency! We know the families that we saw weren't even a small percentage of the people that Children's Hope International has helped. Praise God for CHI!

While we were at CHI the boys got to color some Easter pictures, hunt for Easter eggs, see the Easter bunny, marvel at a REAL fire truck, and play with a huge parachute. They had such a fantastic time! We also enjoyed talking with other people who have adopted children. It is so neat how everyone has their own story and every story is unique. This is one reason we have enjoyed looking at blogs so much.

Speaking of blogs and blog friends, we want to wish the Overstreets a happy and safe journey as they head to Vladivostok to pick up their son. He is in the baby home where Sergei lived. We are so happy for you! God be with you! Say Hi to Lana and Irina for us!

Being at CHI and reading other adoption stories has given us pangs of nostalgia that we aren't in the adoption process anymore. It was such a big part of our life for 2 and 1/2 years. We are looking forward to the day when we can adopt a sister for Slav and Sergei. My sister is pregnant and the other day Slav said " Mom, where' s your baby?" I said "You and Sergei are my babies." We know it takes planning and saving on our part for our family to grow. God's timing is perfect and we pray that should it be His will our family will grow once more in the not to distant future.

God's Blessings to you all as you ponder Jesus' passion this Holy Week. Here are some family pictures. Enjoy!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav, and Sergei

Six-Month Celebration

2009-02-25T23:06:00.008-06:00

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

2009-02-01T05:03:00.002-06:00

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!)

Snuggling fun and snow

2009-01-30T08:56:00.015-06:00

Hello everyone! As we get ready for a visit from the social worker we think about the fun that we have had with the boys the past few days. The snow makes for great snuggling weather and a lot of fun outside. It has been really great to watch the boys enjoy the snow. Sledding, snowball fights, and building a snowman are just a few of the wonderful memories we will keep from the past few days.

Things have been going extremely well and we continue to be blessed as a family. Slav and Sergei are such eager, sweet, loving boys who are always up for some fun. It is such an adventure being their parents.

Slav has really taken to school well. He knows his teacher's name and is getting to meet new friends. Sergei usually gets to practice helping mom at the store or some other such activity while Slav is in school. He needs the practice of behaving well in a public place. Slav has healed from his oral surgery wonderfully. His mouth looks and feels so much better. Both boys have grown some and gained weight since their last doctor's visit so we are grateful for health.

Other than the fact that all is going well we don't really have much to report. Joel has a very busy few weeks coming up with travel and preaching. Clarion is looking forward to their trip to California to visit her sister and family. The boys are looking forward to finally meeting the last of their cousins. Let's hope they are ready for us!

God's blessings to all! We pray everyone is well as we delve deeper into 2009!

Tattoos, Bunkbeds & New Friends

2009-01-12T06:37:00.009-06:00

Hey Everyone! What a weekend it was! We met our goals for the weekend of taking down Christmas decorations (finally!), setting up big boys beds and getting a number of things organized. As I (Joel) was going through some of my stuff, I found some "Pirates of the Caribbean" tattoos that I had stashed away. The boys saw them and of course had to try them out. Thankfully the boys didn't have any kind of skin reactions or irritations (something we thought of after the fact...what newbies we still are at parenting!).

Since Sergei did so well sleeping in a big boy bed at Joel's parents' house during the Christmas holidays, we decided to set up the bunkbeds that we've had down in our basement for the last year or so. The boys were very excited. We did not have the beds stacked downstairs, so when I showed them a picture of what they would look like stacked, the couldn't wait to have the bunkbeds in their room. It took a couple of hours. We had to disassemble the crib and toddler bed and store them away. Then we had to take apart the beds downstairs and reassemble and stack them in their room. We were pooped afterwards, but it was really worth it. The boys love their new beds!

This was also a big weekend for us because we made plans to get together with our friends the Pitmans, who have been home for a couple of weeks now with their three little ones from Vladivostok. We have been looking forward to meeting the children for quite some time. The Pitmans were just a few months behind us as we waited to be bring our children home. We have so enjoyed their friendship throughout the last year or so of our adoption journey. Now that both of our families are complete, our children can enjoy that friendship as well.

Eric and Becky and family are doing great! They are experiencing many of the same things that we (and many of you who have your children home) experienced in the first few weeks of being home. We have no doubt that things will progress as well as they did with us. Their children are beautiful. We were disappointed (but not surprised) that neither of our boys made attempts to speak Russian to Max, Olivia or AJ. We would love for Slav and Sergei to maintain the knowledge and use of their native language, but that is probably a challenge that we won't be able to meet. We still do our best to keep them connected to Russian culture as we look at souvenirs and pictures from our trip as well as Russian books and videos. Someday when the boys are older we hope to make it back to Vlad for a visit. We enjoyed watching The Pitmans' videos and reliving much of our own experience from just a few months ago. The Pitmans only live less than an hour away from us, so we hope for many more get-togethers to come!

God's blessings to all of you who are still waiting for referrals and/or court dates. It may seem like a long time now, but as everyone told us, once you bring your children home time really starts to fly. I can't believe that we're already preparing for our first post-placement report which is due next month. Wow! It's yet another opportunity for us to reflect on the Lord's tremendous grace and goodness to us these past few months especially!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Slav's First Day of School

2009-01-06T12:39:00.007-06:00

Slav started pre-school today. He goes two mornings a week. He was very excited this morning as we prepared for the day. Slav ate breakfast on "the special plate" this morning in honor of his first day of school. The special plate was a gift from Joel's parents years ago to use whenever a family member has a special occasion, like birthday's etc. Now that we have children it will get a lot more use.

Slav has his own backpack and it was stuffed full of school supplies. His bear had to come along for the ride in the car. Here is a picture and video from this morning as we prepared to head out the door.

Mama, Papa and Sergei dropped Slav off together this morning. All went very well, except Sergei cried and cried because he wanted to go to school as well. He kept saying, "Go school." After a few minutes in the car, Sergei settled down and all was well. Mama picked up Slav a few hours later. The teacher had a good report. Slav was excited that he spoke English to the teacher. He sang, played and heard stories, among other things. On Thursday he'll have "show & tell" with his favorite Christmas gift. Good thing we have a couple of days to determine what exactly his favorite gift is.

Happy 2009!

2009-01-03T16:38:00.009-06:00

Hello everyone! We returned yesterday from a wonderful Christmas vacation in Texas. The boys experienced many firsts over the last two weeks. They had their first road trip, their first Christmas with us, their first meeting with many new family members and friends, their first fireworks, their first jacuzzi experience, and many more.

We all had a great time! We stayed with Joel's parents in Houston and drove out to visit Clarion's parents. It was a lot of time in the car but the boys handled it very well. They were overwhelmed with presents from loved ones but are becoming familiar with the real meaning of Christmas. They can point out Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in any nativity scene!

The boys continue to do wonderfully. Family and friends were amazed at their English and communication skills. Slav has his first day of preschool (two half-days a week) coming up next week and Sergei is looking forward to the extra time with mom.

Congratulations to the Pitmans who are beginning 2009 at home with their three beautiful children. We look forward to getting the children together. We continue to pray for all the couples and children involved in the adoption process.

Enjoy the pictures from the trip and have a blessed New Year!

Tree Decorating

2008-11-29T20:30:00.006-06:00

Tonight we had a great time eating homemade turkey noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Then we decorated the Christmas tree. What a night! Enjoy the video and pics!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

It's Getting Colder Outside

2008-11-24T06:46:00.012-06:00

Greetings everyone! We're having colder and colder weather here in St. Louis. It was still nice and warm when we got home from Russia in early September. It's so hard to believe that we've been home with our boys for over two months now. As of tomorrow, Slav will have been with us (counting our time in Vlad) three months. Unbelievable! While we were waiting in between trips, everyone always said that once you get home with you child(ren) time really starts to fly. That is so true!

Sergei is still sleeping in a crib, even though he is a tad over three years old. He has started climbing out several times during the night. We were very concerned about him falling while trying to climb out, so we took the side rail of the crib. Well, that was a mistake. Within an hour of going to bed, he rolled out of the bed onto the hardwood floor. Ouch! (This happened a lot while we had him with us at the hotel in Russia.) So we decided to put the rail back on but to put it as low as it would go. That way it still prevents him from rolling out of the bed, but if he climbs out he has much less of a chance of falling and hurting himself. Of course, with easier access in and out of bed, Sergei now climbs out two sometimes even three times a night. Thankfully, he usually goes right back to sleep when we put him back in the bed, except at 5:30AM when he is ready to get up. Gotta work on that one! We hope within the next six months to have both boys in big-boy beds.

The boys are definitely making progress with English. We have noticed that more and more they are speaking English to one another. The other day Slav was laying on the couch watching TV and Sergei stood right in front of him, blocking his view. Slav growled at Sergei saying, "I can't see!" They speak mostly English to us, but use a few Russian words yet. They have not stopped using the Russian words for "pee" and "poop," although they are beginning to say the word "bathroom" when they have to go. Sergei is using more and more two or three word phrases, one of which is "not yet." We're very proud of their progress with language!

Slav is making some progress with eating. Recently he ate some chicken noodle soup and actually liked it. One of the caretakers at his orphanage told us that he didn't like soup. He also ate about half of a small bowl of potato soup a few days ago. The biggest struggle with Slav's eating habits is not necessarily what he eats, but getting him to actually eat. When he is hungry and likes what is on his plate he usually devours his food. This is the case when he has sausage, hot dogs, corn dogs, bologna or chicken nuggets. Much of the time, however, Slav just eats so slow. He will chew on something for five minutes. Sergei, Clarion and I will be all done eating, sometimes even with two helpings, and Slav still has a long way to go to finish his food. Thankfully, at least we can usually get Slav to try a bite of something. Last night I made chili. Slav took a bite and hated it. It wasn't even the hot kind of chili. Sergei, as he does with 99% of the food we put in front of him, devoured his chili. He is a very good eater!

The boys love playing outside. With the colder weather, we've already started bundling them up with hats and gloves. Slav isn't a big fan of jackets, but he is learning that he must have it on to play outside when it's cold. Sometimes he throws a little fit, but once he realizes he's stuck inside, he changes his tune. Slav has gone from throwing big fits, to little whiny fits once in a while. He especially does it when he's tired. The good news is that whether it's a big fit or a little whiny fit, he quickly begins to understand that all the fit does is get him into further trouble. Back to playing outside. Just about everything Slav finds outside (sticks, etc.) gets turned into some sort of weapon. Slav also like to climb trees. Thankfully the tree on the side of our house is fairly small and he won't find himself to high up off of the ground. Sergei loves to play with the soccer ball. I will kick it all the way across the field and he will chase it. He would do this all day if I stayed out and kept kicking it. I think we've found a great way to tire the little guy out!

The boys are getting excited about Christmas. We were in the mall last weekend and they saw the Christmas trees and immediately started talking about Christmas. It seems that they have a pretty good idea of the tradition of Christmas. We're trying to work hard with them about why we really celebrate Christmas. Every evening before bed we sing a hymn and pray the Lord's Prayer. We are amazed that both boys get some of the words in the prayer, words that you wouldn't expect, like "hallowed," "trespass" and the like. Cool stuff! We have some great children's books that tell the story of Jesus' birth. Thankfully the boys love books!

That's all for now. Thank you for your continued prayers for our family! Congratulations to Eric & Becky who have their court date and will soon return to Vlad for their three children. As always, our prayers go out for all those who are waiting for referrals and court dates. God bless you all!

In Christ,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Halloween & Glasses

2008-11-04T06:05:00.008-06:00

The boys enjoyed their first Halloween last Friday! Slav went as Batman. Sergei went as Superman. It took a little bit of time for them to figure out the concept of trick or treating. We practiced at our front door several times before going out for real. We bought the boys the little plastic pumpkins with handles to hold all of their candy. When we left the house to go out and trick or treat, Slav said, "Papa, Batman no pumpkin." He was telling me that Batman doesn't carry a pumpkin. AFter a few stops at houses on our street he realized that carrying the pumpkin was a necessity. He had to get all his candy home somehow. Surprisingly, the boys have not begged and pleaded to eat all the candy. We give them a little bit each day and they're very happy with that. Ask if that's the case again next year!

Slav went to the eye doctor last week so that he could be evaluated in light of his strabismus. The appointment went very well. The doctor also determined that Slav is a bit far-sighted. Yesterday he got his glasses. He looks adorable in them. However, he doesn't like them at all. At first he kept trying to take them off, but thankfully he eased up on that. I think what he dislikes is that the nosepiece is rubbing on his nose and it hurts. We're hoping that he will get used to them over the next few days. If we determine that they are rubbing him too hard we will go back and see about getting them adjusted a bit. Anyway, all is well otherwise. Both boys will be seeing the dentist next week. We are pretty sure that Sergei has some cavities and we know for certain that Slav will need some dental work. His teeth are not in the best of shape. Here's Slav in his new glasses.

As for learning, the boys are progressing by leaps and bounds. Every day we hear new English words that we weren't even sure they knew. Slav's newest phrase is "Not glasses" Sergei even said "medicine" at the table last night to remind us that they needed their iron. They are each counting more and more each day and they are now masters of colors and shapes. Slav has moved on to letters and recognizing his name. Sergei is learning to hold a crayon correctly and follow lines. They make Mama so proud!

God's blessings to all of you who are waiting for referrals and court dates! Our prayers go out especially to Eric & Becky who are anxiously awaiting their court date so they can bring home their three beautiful children from Vlad. Their paperwork is being reviewed by the judge and it should be only a matter of days before they receive their good news. The Lord be with you all!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

A Very Big Week!

2008-10-26T14:21:00.017-05:00

This was a big week for the boys. Clarion’s mom and dad arrived this week for a visit to meet their newest grandchildren. The boys had a great time getting to know them. The boys have done so well meeting relatives. They have attached to their mama and papa very well and seem to know the difference between us and other family members. Temper tantrums are less and less every day. Usually they’ll only take place if one of the boys is very tired. Overall the boys are progressing nicely. Slav had a 24-hour stomach bug in the middle of the week and his temperature got up to about 104 degrees. The next day he had a light fever, but he was much better. The day after that he was back to his old self and asking for sausage, one of his favorite things to eat.

The boys were baptized at church this morning. This was the other big event of the week. Today is Reformation Sunday, a day when Lutherans rejoice in God’s free grace in Christ Jesus. It was great to see God working that grace in Slav & Sergei’s lives through the water and Word of Holy Baptism! Clarion’s brother drove over from Tennessee and Joel’s mom flew up from Texas. It was nice to have so many family members here as the boys were received into the family of God. The boys were very well behaved. We talked with them quite a bit about Baptism the last few days so they sort of new what was going to take place. Below are pictures from the last week or so, including the baptism.

God’s blessings to you all!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Coming up to 1 month...

2008-10-10T12:51:00.005-05:00

Wow, it has been awhile since we have done a blog post. Well, needless to say we have been very busy keeping up with two active little boys. Wonderful boys...but tiresome nonetheless.

What growth we have seen this month! Our little ones are so loving. There are lots of hugs and kisses (especially for Mama...too bad Papa had to go back to work) They both crave love and attention and we are trying to be patient with their demanding ways. Slava is counting to ten, knows his colors, and various shapes. Sergei is trying to master his colors, does pretty well with shapes, and loves practicing counting. They both just adore their cousins that live up the hill. Every day they want to see them. Slava told me he loves August and every day he says " August school?" Which means "Is August in school?' Now, Slava says "Mom, hachoo school" meaning I want to go to school. Sergei is definitely calming down and responding to discipline. It's difficult to discipline him because he wants to touch and see everything and doesn't really understand why he gets in trouble so much. So, we try to set boundaries without destroying bonds.

We are finally getting into a routine and things are beginning to calm down. Clarion's parents will be flying in on the 20th to meet the boys. They are staying a whole week and the boys are being baptized on the 26th of October. It's amazing that soon we will be heading into November. Time does fly.

So, things are going well from our end. Busy, but certainly good. Our prayers are with all those who are in the adoption process. It is amazing to see God bring families together. We certainly praise Him for ours. Here are some more pictures from this month for your enjoyment.

Blessings,
The Fritsches

First Week at Home

2008-09-21T15:54:00.011-05:00

Hi Everybody! We've been home a little over a week now and a lot has been going on. Here is everything from my (Joel's) perspective. Grandma and Grandpa Fritsche (aka Babushka & Dedushka) were here to greet us when we got home and spend a week with us. The boys really enjoyed their time with them. As you can see from the attached pictures, the boys got haircuts right away. They did so well at the barber shop. We'll definitely continue to get their haircuts there. The barber is great with them.

Last Sunday was Slav's birthday. I think we successfully communicated to him in Russian that it was his birthday. He was very excited to learn that he turned 5 that day. Now he counts to five in English all the time. Even Sergei can count to five! We had a nice birthday celebration with ice cream cake and birthday cards and balloons.

We spent a few hours at the St. Louis Zoo on Monday of last week. The boys had fun trying to feed the giraffes and trying to feed popcorn to Mama & Papa. We'll definitely be going back to the zoo, especially since it's less than ten minutes from our house and FREE. We also made an outing to the Mills Mall where the boys got to ride the carousel. They thoroughly enjoyed that as well as a look at the animals and fish at Cabela's.

The boys are behaving fairly well. Sergei gets into trouble when he touches something that he knows he should not. Slav tends to throw very loud screaming fits when he doesn't get his way. We usually have at least two of these per day. When he screams and cries his punishment is having to sit by himself on his bed. He does not like this at all. If he continues screaming (which he tends to do) he gets a spanking on the behind. I have not enjoyed giving the spankings, but I feel they are necessary. Slav knows that he should not be screaming at the top of his lungs continually, but he chooses to continue doing it. Thankfully the fits tend to last no longer than five or ten minutes. Unfortunately right now he is throwing a fit because he refuses to share anything with Sergei. We have explained that many of the toys belong to both boys, but Slav has a very difficult time with this concept. We will continue to work on this. I am really working hard to have Slav listen to me and look at me when I call him, especially when he is in trouble. I have lots to learn as a Papa.

As far as eating goes, Sergei is our little champion eater. He eats almost everything that we give him. He has eaten sausage, various soups, various yogurts, oatmeal, bread, cheese, pizza and numerous other things. Slav on the other hand is a very picky eater. He loves sausage (breakfast sausage and types of dinner sausage). He does not like to try new things. Saturday morning I made waffles and Slav didn't want anything to do with them at first. I snuck a little bit of syrup onto his lip, then he realized that he would like the waffles. Slav absolutely hates eggs. He wouldn't touch them in Russia and he won't here either. Sergei loves them. We think Slav will warm up to typical American foods as time goes by. He ate some chicken fingers at the Vlad Inn at first, but then only wanted fries. He refused to eat McNuggets at McDonalds in Moscow. I made him try a bite, then I could tell that he didn't think it was all bad, but he didn't want to let on that he didn't hate them. He is already warming up to breaded chicken strips, so we hope he'll do the sam with other foods.

All in all, things are going very well. The boys have enjoyed playing with their cousins here in our neighborhood. I think that this will be really good for them, especially since Clarion is spending this first year home schooling them. We were worried that the boys would be afraid of our dogs, but after a week, we are convinced that it is the other way around. The boys tend to treat the dogs well, but the dogs definitely fear them.

Our prayers go out to everyone in the Houston area, especially many of our loved ones who are still without power, including Mom and Dad who returned home Friday. Thanks for continuing to pray for us and our family. We appreciate all of you love and support! We'll write again soon.

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

More Pictures from Russia

2008-09-16T11:19:00.018-05:00

As promised, here are some more pictures from our stay in Russia. Things are going very well. I'll post another update in the next few days along with some pictures since we've been home. Blessings!

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Back Home Safe and Sound

2008-09-13T15:02:00.005-05:00

Greetings everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days. In Moscow at the Holiday Inn the internet is expensive, so we didn't purchase any internet cards. At McDonalds you can get thirty minutes of free WIFI, but by the time Drew Payne and I were done sending e-mails, we ran out of minutes so I couldn't do a post. Anyway, below is what I intended to post from Moscow...

Greetings from Moscow everyone! We made it safely! We were sad to say goodbye to friends in Vlad yesterday, but were eager to move on to the next leg of our journey--Moscow. However, we were not looking forward to the long 9-hour flight from Vlad to Moscow. We left the Vlad Inn at 11AM on Tuesday morning to head to the airport. On the way we picked up Lana so that she could se us off at the airport. Timing worked out very nicely. Lana helped us get checked in, then she bid us farewell. We made our way through security to the gate and only had to wait a couple of minutes before they started boarding our flight.

The boys were very excited to get on the airplane. Clarion and the boys had the three middle seats and I sat across the aisle from them. It worked out ok. Poor Clarion had the blunt of taking care of both boys. I helped as much as I could. We gave Sergei a small dose of Benadryl when we got on the plane. Slav is pretty smart and wouldn't go for our trickery. He wouldn't take the Benadryl. The Benadryl made Sergei very tired, but unfortunately he had a very hard time getting comfortable which made it very hard for him to actually sleep. He did manage to sleep a little bit, but definitely not enough. We both took turns walking him up and down the aisles of the plane. We learned that he gets very scared when you flush the toilet in the lavatory on the plane. Sergei was a little cranky the first few hours since he was uncomfortable and couldn't sleep, but actually did quite well for the rest of the flight. Overall, I'd say Sergei did very well on his first plane ride.

Slav was great on the plane. There were only a few moments of frustration. Aeroflot Airlines gives a little kids pack to the children on the flight. In Slav's kid's pack was a puzzle of an airplane. He insisted on working on it right after takeoff, before he could put his tray table down. Well, it made for interesting puzzle work. He was tired and cranky as he worked on the puzzle, but he and Clarion finally finished it. After handing the puzzle over to me, I accidentally spilled all of the pieces. So now we are several puzzle pieces short. Anyway, Slav made a couple of friends during the flight, a guy probably in his twenties and an old man. Slav talked to them for at least an hour, maybe more. It was cute. They kept smiling at Clarion and me as they talked to him. You could tell they thought Slav was a great kid. We had two meals on the flight. Both boys ate very well. All in all, none of us got much sleep on the flight. We were all thrilled when the plane touched down in Moscow. We were taken by surprise to find it quite chilly and rainy in Moscow. Clarion and I were both in shorts, the boys in pants and short sleeved shirts. Thankfully we had their jackets along.

Once we got to baggage claim, there was an excruciatingly long wait for luggage. The conveyer did not even start running until about 45 minutes (seriously!) after we got there. It's the longest I've ever waited for bags at an airport. What really stunk was that both boys had to use the bathroom, but the toilets were on the other side of security. After waiting for about 10 or 15 minutes we finally decided that Clarion and the boys should exit and hit the toilets and look for Mia, our CHI interpreter. I waited for the bags for another half hour. Finally the bags came. Grabbing your bags from the carousel at Russian airports is always an interesting experience. Everyone crowds in and just kind of shoves people out of the way when their bags come. As soon as I had the bags I made may way out and was met by Mia. She took me to the car where Clarion and the boys were waiting. We had about a 1 1/2 hour drive to the hotel with Moscow traffic. Slav dosed in the car for a bit. Unfortunately when we arrived at the hotel the boys were wired. The other bummer of a thing is that embassy paperwork needed to be filled out right away (which I expected) so that it could be submitted early the next day. So, Clarion and the boys hung out in one of our rooms and Mia and I worked on paperwork in our other room next door. Mia informed me that CHI would submit our paperwork for us on Wednesday and we would have a free day in Moscow. However, CHI is very busy with numerous families in town this week, so we would be unable to get a driver from CHI. After Mia left with the paperwork, Slav and I crashed in one room and Clarion and Sergei in the other. Thankfully they brought a little pack 'n play for Sergei to sleep in.

Today (Wednesday) we decided to brave the Moscow Metro subway system and venture out to Red Square. I spent an hour or so this morning planning our route. Thankfully a Metro station is right across the street from our hotel. We were a little nervous, but we made it. The Metro is cheap and fairly easy to figure out, despite the fact that nothing is in English and the attendants really don't speak English. We counted the number of stops until we came to the stop where we needed to get off. When we exited the train and made our way back up to the surface, there was the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer, staring us in the face. It was really great! We took a few minutes and got our bearings and started toward it. It was definitely a challenge to walk with two little boys in the cold, wet weather, trying to balance a travel guide, digital camera and video camera. I've got to hand it to my family. Clarion did great, often having to carry poor little Sergei, just so we could move a bit faster (and sometimes just to keep hold of him since he sometimes just darts off after a bird or after something else). The boys also did well with three hours of walking in the cold and off-and-on misting rain. Anyway, we did the quickest tour of the area anyone has ever taken. From Christ the Redeemer we walked along the Moscow River toward the Kremlin. We walked along the perimeter of the Kremlin through Alexander Gardens. There were a lot of beautiful flowers. We saw the tomb of the unknown soldier and the Russian guards standing by. We walked from there to Red Square where we finally got our shot in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. It was cold and wt and Slav kept saying, "ustal," which means "tired." So we took a few pictures, even one outside of Lenin's tomb (which was unfortunately closed). We quickly made our way down the rest of our route, past the statue of Karl Marx and then thankfully we spotted another Metro station which would take us back to Sokolniki where out hotel is. It was about a ten minute ride on the metro. We're quite proud of ourselves for venturing out and braving the public transportation in Moscow. I wish we would've had more time. If the weather had been better we might have stayed out longer.

As I said, we're now home safe and sound. We'll give another report soon when we have some time. The boys are still quite wired but Mama and Papa are tired. Thankfully my (Joel) parents are here to lend a hand for a few days. Thanks again to all of your for your prayers throughout our journey. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

P.S. - More pictures from our trip coming soon!!!

Finally a Family of Four

2008-09-05T14:03:00.003-05:00

Greetings again from Vlad. Today was gotcha day and we're all four together at last. It was a long, crazy day with lots of running around and sitting in Vlad traffic. What a day to remember! Pictured from left to right is Mama, Sergei, Slav & Papa. This is a day we've looked forward to for a long time. Thank you to all of you for your many prayers and words of encouragement. We'll try to blog about our adventures as much as possible in the days ahead. We have three more days in Vlad after today, then three days in Moscow and then we'll be on our way home.

Love,

Clarion, Joel, Slav & Sergei

Still Waiting out the Ten Days

2008-09-01T17:52:00.000-05:00

We’re still doing well here in Vlad. Boy these ten days can be long, especially when it rains. We’ve had days of rain interspersed between some very beautiful days. We really enjoy going to the beach with other adoptive families and their children. The children play at the playground, throw rocks into the water while the adults visit. Then we usually have a nice meal of shashleek (kabobs) at the café. Great stuff! Things have been kind of crazy at the hotel the past few days because Putin has been in Vladivostok and he is staying near the Vlad Inn. Many of his aids are staying here at the hotel, so we’ve had lots of activity here, even roads up to the hotel closed to car traffic for security reasons. We’ve taken our older son with us twice to visit his little brother at the baby home. We’ll do another visit tomorrow, then pick little brother up on Friday. We leave Vlad on Tuesday, September 9th. We’ll try to post again before that, hopefully with pictures. Blessings!

Joel, Clarion & the boys

Waiting out the Ten Days

2008-08-26T22:41:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone! The internet connection in our room has been crummy, so I'm down by the front desk with a much better signal, but I will keep this short to conserve internet time. We're doing great! We can't wait for the ten days to be up. They should be up on September 4th and we'll have both boys with us at the hotel. Yesterday we were able to have both of them together for a visit at our youngest boy's baby home. We had a blast and got a good taste of what we'll be experiencing when we have both boys with us. Our youngest is full of energy and keeps us running around almost constantly, while the older is a bit more reserved, but still a lot of fun. Yesterday was the first time the boys have seen each other in over a year. They had a joyous reunion and will be together for the long haul very soon. Well, we just wanted to say hello and give a brief report. We'll post again when we can. With the bad signal in our room, we may not post often, but know that we're fine and having a wonderful time here in Vlad. God's blessings to you all!

Joel, Clarion & the boys

We are Officially Parents!

2008-08-25T05:00:00.002-05:00

Hello Everyone! We had court today and have been approved to adopt our two wonderful boys. It was truly an awesome day. We will post more as we wait out the ten days, then pictures when the ten days are up. For now, thank you to so many of you for your prayers! To God be the glory!

Joel & Clarion

Back with Our Boys

2008-08-22T04:08:00.002-05:00

Hey Everybody! What a day we had today. First of all, Clarion and I were exhausted last night (Thursday) so we went to bed early. Naturally, we then woke up at 3AM because we were thinking about the visits with the boys that were ahead of us later in the day. We left the Vlad Inn at 1:30PM with Lana and our driver. First we went to see our older son. After a couple of minutes waiting, they took us up to one of the rooms we where we met with him on the last trip. There he was with the biggest smile on his face, so happy to see his mama and papa again. He told Lana that he remembered us and was happy to see us. Lana also told us that she asked him if he wanted to go home with us and he said yes. She told him about the long plane rides and everything and he told her he wasn't scared and is ready to go. He is still a very quiet little boy, but we had a great visit with him. He loved the book that Clarion made from the first trip. He really enjoyed paging through it. The social worker joined us for much of the visit and it was really nice visiting with her. She is very supportive of the adoption.

Next we drove to our younger son's baby home. They told us that they would bring him down and that we would spend our time with him outside on the playground. That's a good thing because he is still a barrel of energy. He came down the stairs and jumped into his mama's arms with the biggest smile on his face. Then it was papa's turn for a big hug. We went outside to play. This little guy took us around the entire playground. We chased him back and forth. He played on the swing and then the slide. He had a blast with the little toy that Clarion brought along. The best part is that one of the ladies at the baby home told us that he remembers us and that he continually tells everyone at the baby home that he has a mama and a papa. That just made our day. He has definitely grown a bit, but is still a little guy. We had to say goodbye after about 45 minutes. The next time we see him should be sometime after court and we will most likely have his brother with us.

Anyway, we had wonderful visits with the boys today. Thanks for your continued prayers. We'll post again soon!

Blessings!

Joel & Clarion

Back in Vlad

2008-08-21T11:14:00.002-05:00

Hello! Just a quick post to let everyone know we are back in Vlad. We arrived around 11:30AM on Thursday. It was great to see Irina when we got off the plane and bussed over to the terminal. There is another family who just arrived as well. They have court on Monday also. We are going to see our boys this afternoon. We are very excited. We'll post more later. Thanks again for your prayers!

Joel & Clarion

Moscow!

2008-08-19T07:00:00.012-05:00

Hello everybody. We have made it to Moscow without incident. We left Monday morning at 8:45 and flew to Atlanta. We had a layover and at 3:30 we left for Moscow. We arrived in Moscow after a 10 hour plane ride where Mia picked us up and we drove another hour and a half to make it to the Holiday Inn Sokolniki.

Once our passports were registered we decided food was in order. So, we took a look around and thought that, for now, since we're tired, McDonalds was our best bet. So, we had fun trying to decide how to order what we wanted. The food was great and we couldn't beat the price, especially since we just shelled out 890 roubles for the scratch card to access the internet.

We're saving the sightseeing until we come back with the boys in three weeks. That way we can have the signature "Red Square" photo with all four of us in it!

We leave for Vladivostok tomorrow at 7:10 pm and arrive there on Thursday at 10:30 am. Once we get settled there we will blog some more. Here are some pictures. Enjoy! Thanks for your continued prayers!

Love,

Joel and Clarion

Packed and Ready to Go!

2008-08-17T20:12:00.002-05:00

This past week was crazy, but a great week. We had family from out of town with us for a few days to celebrate our good news. By Monday afternoon we had our visas ordered and our flight itinerary in the works. The flights were booked by Tuesday. Our visas arrived Friday. We've double, even triple-checked all of our documents and we're 99.9% certain that everything is in order. We finished packing today and might be a couple pounds over the limit, but we'll see. We'll be heading to the airport bright and early tomorrow and we'll be on our way. Thanks for all of your prayers! May God bless all of you who are waiting! We're especially praying for Cindy as we head out. We're praying that she gets her court date this week and can join us during part of our stay in Vlad. Our next post should be from Moscow! After a brief stay there we'll be on our way to Vlad and to see our boys! We can't wait!

In Christ,

Joel & Clarion

Court Date!!!

2008-08-11T12:22:00.001-05:00

We just learned that we are scheduled for court on August 25th. The Lord is good! Thank you to all of you for the many prayers you have offered up in our behalf! We'll post more later. We have so much to do!

Love,

Joel & Clarion

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE ONE!!

2008-08-09T16:48:00.002-05:00

Our youngest boy turns 3 today. Wow! We had so hoped to be with him on this birthday but we must comfort ourselves with the thoughts of many birthdays to come. We know God is watching over him and his brother as we get ready to go to Russia and bring them home. As usual, we are hopeful the call will come this week. Please pray that our family will be united soon.

God's blessings,

Joel and Clarion

Our new hope....

2008-07-29T20:44:00.002-05:00

Our papers are with the judge!!!! Can you feel the hope of a court date in the air? Can you? We were told by Marti today that the judge has all of our papers and we would know when our court date was within two weeks. Hopefully we have a judge that makes decisions quickly and it won't take two weeks. Get ready boys to join your new family!!

So, folks, there you have it. We will be going to Russia very soon. How soon is up to the judge. We would appreciate comments from any of you who know how long the judge deliberated over your paperwork before giving you a date.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. Ours continue to be with those who wait. God's blessings!

Joel and Clarion

A New Week Brings New Hope

2008-07-27T13:32:00.003-05:00

Dear Family & Friends,

We don't have a court date yet, but a new week always brings new hope. The Lord's mercies are new every morning. We try to remember that every day. It's always true no matter what we are feeling or experiencing. In Christ, we live each day in the forgiveness that Jesus won for us on the cross and gives to us freely through faith in Him We live in the blessed hope of eternal life. That hope is our anchor, and without it we wouldn't have made it this far. With that sure and certain hope, we are able to move beyond all of our disappointments, especially the days that pass by without any news on the adoption front. We begin this week with hope in Christ and with confidence that God hears our prayers and will answer according to His good and gracious will.

Thank you for all of your prayers in our behalf! The Lord hears and will answer in His time. Please also keep a couple of other adoptive families in your prayers this week: Bill & Myra who are heading home soon from Moscow with their son as well as Eric & Becky who are in Vlad for their first trip to meet their THREE children. In fact, Eric & Becky will be heading to the MOE in Vlad in just a few hours from now. We're thrilled for them. The Lord is good indeed. Blessed be the name of the Lord! We're confident you'll hear from us soon with news of a court date!

Love,

Clarion & Joel

Five Months!

2008-07-08T05:38:00.001-05:00

Five months! That’s what the ticker hit today. It’s been five months since we said goodbye to our two little guys in Vladivostok at the end of our first trip. We never thought it would take this long. Of course, we’ve said that before. We’re now 27 months into this adoption. We once thought we’d be done by the end of 2007. After much prayer, we accepted the reality that it would be early 2008 when we’d finally start our family.

When we received our referral for our two sons in Vlad in October 2007 we were so thrilled. The end was in sight. We’ll travel in December, go back in April for court and we’ll have the whole summer to spend with our boys. Early December came and went without any travel dates. Then the call came. “You’ll be spending Christmas in Russia.” Very cool. But it didn’t happen. Travel dates finally came in January and we left January 31 for Vlad, almost four months after receiving our referral.

We went on faith. We had very little information about our boys. We didn’t know their names. We didn’t know what they looked like. We didn’t know what orphanage they were in. We didn’t know any of their medical information. The one piece of information we had, their ages, wasn’t even completely correct. So much uncertainty! So many unknowns! Yet the Lord was about to show us His hand of blessing.

On Monday, February 4, 2008 we met our sons. They’re wonderful. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience meeting them and spending time with them a little bit each day for a week. The stress of the long wait was completely gone, out of mind. All that mattered was the boys. Before we left Vlad on our last day there, our younger son pointed at our pictures that we left him and said, “Mama, Papa.” Wow! Amazing! That was five months ago today!

Five months! The Lord’s time isn’t our time. As the Bible reveals God’s plan of salvation, we certainly learn that. “In the fullness of time, God sent His Son, born of a women, born under the Law, to redeem those who are under the Law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Galatians 4:4). The Lord is good. He works all things according to His good purpose. Despite our ups and downs, despite our focus on ourselves, He keeps giving. He gives us the Lord Jesus and His cross-won forgiveness each and every day. Even during these five months of waiting He’s giving the gift of patience. He fills in what is lacking. Our boys are in His hands and the whole adoption is in His hands. Thanks be to God!!!

Fun Night!

2008-06-28T21:59:00.002-05:00

No court date yet everyone. However, we have heard that we are just waiting on a document from Moscow that needs to be signed by the mayor of the boys' town. Once that is done Irina can go to a judge and set a court date. Let's hope this week or next!!!

Meanwhile, we had a fantastic time tonight getting together with Eric and Becky (the link to their blog is over on the side) who are waiting to go to Vlad and meet their children. We hope to all go at the same time. Thanks for a fun time guys!

Blessings to all who are waiting to travel on first or second trips or who are still waiting for a referral. Just know that God's timing is perfect even though it seems endless to us. You are all in our prayers!

Joel and Clarion

The waiting continues

2008-06-27T05:26:00.005-05:00

Hello, everyone! Unfortunately, we're still waiting for news of a court date. A couple of other families from our agency received a court date of July 10. We rejoice along with them, but can't help but be a bit envious. At least one those families travelled to Vlad on their first trip after us, but timing is unpredictable in international adoptions. Things don't always go in order. We have been very disappointed in the St. Louis staff from our agency because they are never able to explain the delays. That seems absolutely crazy to us in this world where instant communication is at our fingertips. Speaking of instant communication, another family in Vlad picking up their newly adopted child has been kind enough to inquire of the Vlad staff about our case and send us e-mail updates. As far as we know, Russia's government social workers in Vlad are working to finish up our boys' paperwork and we should have good news of a court date very soon, hopefully within a week or two. Our agency coordinator has told us to hold off on updating documents that are soon to expire, which seems encouraging. We both agree that this LONG wait has been the most difficult thing we've ever had to deal with. We have our ups and downs, usually one of us is positive one day and the other of us is a bit down. So we take turns encouraging one another. We had hoped to have the whole summer at home with our sons, but the Lord's timing is better than ours. Thank you for your continued prayers for us and our boys. We are thankful that, even though we are apart, they are well taken care of by the wonderful caregivers that they have in Russia. Please also pray for the other families who are waiting for referrals, travel dates and court dates, as well as those who have recently completed court and will soon bring their children home. Hopefully we'll have more news soon!

No More Paperwork???

2008-06-03T21:14:00.002-05:00

Today my (Joel's) FBI background check report came in the mail. Clarion's arrived last Saturday along with both of our Missouri background checks. Everything has now been notarized and turned in to our agency. They will have all of the documents apostilled and sent off to Russia this week. We should be done with all of our paperwork updates now! What's next? More waiting!

Clarion is in California this week visiting her sister and getting away from it all. I am at home taking care of the dogs, cleaning up the basement, and getting ready to teach a summer course here at Concordia Seminary in Biblical Hebrew. It's nice to have something to keep me busy!

We are definitely very anxious! Each day brings hope for a call that we have a court date. Please keep us and our boys in your prayers. We hope and pray that the boys know that we are coming back for them soon. Please pray also that we get a court date before our medicals and psych evaluations expire (mid-July). Our prayers are with all of the waiting families and their children! God bless you all!

Love,

Clarion & Joel

Fingerprints and more fingerprints

2008-05-18T04:39:00.006-05:00

Greetings, everyone! No BIG news yet! We recently found out that Vladivostok now requires state and FBI background checks on adoptive families who are getting ready for court. So on Thursday we went downtown to the county police headquarters and got fingerprinted. This fingerprinting was done with ink. We immediately filled out the necessary forms for the FBI clearance and dropped them in the mail that afternoon. Yesterday we received the notice for the fingerprinting appointment we have been waiting for. On the 27th of this month we get to go downtown to CIS to be fingerprinted electronically. This is for the extension of our document that gives us permission to adopt two orphans from overseas. The last thing we have to do is send off for a state background check, which we will do tomorrow. Thankfully, we don't need a set of fingerprints for that one. It's just a name check.

Last week we also met with our pediatrician, who came highly recommended by Clarion's sister. We will also be talking to the IA doctor soon. We are definitely going to take the boys for an appointment with the IA doctor very soon after we bring them home. IA doctors have tons of experience with the Russian medical terminology in the reports and are able to do all kinds of testing to determine what immunizations the boys have and much, much more. Our pediatrician said that the IA doctor can do all of the testing that needs to be done right there, which means they would need to draw less blood from the boys than if our pediatrician ordered the tests. We don't look forward to the boys having to be poked and prodded at all, but we know all of the tests will be for their good.

As we wait we're just trying to keep busy. Joel is teaching Hebrew this summer at the seminary where he works. He's been looking forward to that for months now. It almost didn't fly, but he managed to get just enough students to sign up for the course to make it go. Clarion is hoping to get all of her planning done for next school year. She is going to be teaching pre-school from 8-11AM Monday through Friday next year. Her goal is to get everything planned out, just in case we end up going back to Vlad later in the summer. We want to have as much down time with the boys as possible once we get back home. Thankfully, the boys will get to go with her to pre-school each day and then they can spend the afternoons with Mama at home.

As for timing, we could get a call any day now for a court date. Or we may not get the call for another month. Who knows? International adoption certainly keeps you on your toes. We are pretty sure that there are a few families who did their first trips to Vlad shortly before ours and are also waiting for court dates. Things don't always go in order though. We certainly continue to pray that the Lord will get all of us over there for court soon so that we can start our new lives with our beautiful children. As always, thank you for your continued prayers for us and for our little guys! To all of you who have brought your children home in recent months, thank you for your comments. Your stories and words of encouragement are an inspiration to all of us who are waiting. God bless you all!

Love,

Clarion & Joel

To pass the time...

2008-04-26T13:31:00.014-05:00

It is truly amazing the things that you can find to occupy yourself with while you wait for time to pass. We are so anxious to get back to our boys that we can't sit around idly. We are finding little projects to keep us busy and to take our minds off of the boys. The fabulous spring weather certainly helps. We took the opportunity to spruce up our back yard when we had such beautiful weather here last week. As you can tell, we have more work to do. Grass doesn't seem to grow well in our back yard.

We still don't know for sure when we will be going back to Russia. We met with our case worker yesterday and turned in all of our paperwork for court. Our case worker in Vladivostok has everything she needs to meet with the judge and set a court date. However, there are several Russian holidays coming up. Therefore, we should not expect to hear anything until mid-May. If we receive some good news by then, we should be traveling in early June. It will be about a three-week trip, so we may even be gone in part July.

We continue to pray for ALL waiting families and the children who really want to come home. We know that patience is a virtue and will be rewarded when we hold our children in our arms.

Love,

Joel and Clarion

Even the dogs can't wait for the boys to come home!

Court Petition Sent!

2008-04-03T20:42:00.002-05:00

Good news! This morning we met with our coordinator at CHI to sign our court petition. What does this mean? Well, first of all it means...more paperwork. Today we felt like we were back in December 2006 (that's the month we completed our dossier). Thankfully, we did a series of paperwork updates this past November, so we're not completely overloaded, but today we kicked it into high gear. It's time for new physicals, a new letter from our bank that says we are able to buy a house (we need this since we currently rent), an extension for our I-171 (a form from CIS giving us permission to adopt two international orphans), a psychological interview and a couple other updates. We don't think we're crazy, but we might be after all this paperwork. Honestly, this is nothing compared to December 2006 and getting together the dossier. It will take time and patience, but we can get it all done.

Secondly, filing our court petition means that we're getting closer to receiving a court date. We're trying to get the above documents together as fast as we can. There's no guarantee that that will make a court date come sooner, but it's always good to get it all done as quickly as possible, but also done correctly. Some of the documents only have a three-month life, so we're confident that we'll return to Vladivostok, go to court, and bring home our boys before the three months are up.

We ask for your continued prayers, especially that we could get back to our boys in Vlad as soon as possible. We miss them so much. Since our court petition was headed off to Vlad today, we went ahead and included two new cards for the boys. This week's cards included pictures of their finished room (if you haven't seen it check our previous post). We're so ready to have our boys home! So are the other 20 or so families who are also waiting to go back to Vlad for their children. If there's one thing this whole journey has taught us, it's to look beyond ourselves and recognize that so many families are waiting to be reunited. It's really all about the wonderful, beautiful children God has picked out for us all. We pray that He would bring each of us together with our children at His appointed time. We'll keep you posted as we know more. The Lord be with you all.

Love,

Clarion & Joel

P.S. - Thanks, Mom, for chasing down marriage documents for us!!! What would we do without you!

Room For Two

2008-03-22T18:41:00.006-05:00

Greetings, Everyone! No news as of yet on the adoption front. As always, the waiting continues. Joel spent last week in California traveling for the seminary. While he was gone Clarion and her sisters got to work on the boys' room. Most of it was set up. It just needed some paint and a little bit of decoration. We decided to go with a sports theme. We'll continue our search for some more wall hangings and the like, but for now the room is ready for our two boys. And so are we!!! What do you think of the room?

A blessed Easter to you all!

Joel & Clarion

Weekend in Houston

2008-03-12T18:12:00.006-05:00

Things continue to be very busy for us as we wait for a court date in Vladivostok. Students visiting the Seminary, Joel's deliberation with his call to Freistatt, work, and preparing the house for the boys has left little free time. To add to the craziness, we had a surprise trip to Houston this past weekend.

We were in Houston for the funeral of Clarion's grandfather. He was a beloved minister in the LCMS and a fantastic man. He was 94 years old and died peacefully with his children surrounding him. It was a sad time because he will be missed but it was good for us to see many extended family members.

All of our family members were so excited to see pictures and video of our boys. We kept hearing how adorable they were and how excited everyone is to meet them. Hopefully, they won't have to wait too long. We ask for continued prayers that we will be heading back to Russia soon. Our prayers are with all families who are waiting, especially those who are traveling.

Blessings,
Joel and Clarion

Lord, help the time pass quickly!

2008-03-05T06:48:00.004-06:00

Throughout the LONG periods of waiting in the journey of international adoption, one of our prayers has certainly always been: "Lord, help the time pass quickly!" Well, He certainly tends to give us things to keep us busy. Yesterday it was a snow day.

I (Joel) just spent the weekend in Houston where the temperature was in the upper 70s. Even in St. Louis, the temperature got into that 70s range on Sunday. But then, on Tuesday...SNOW DAY! What do you do on a snow day? Well, if you're Joel and you have bronchitis, you sit home at the computer all day catching up on work (e-mails, planning, etc.) then read all of your favorite adoption blogs. If you're Clarion, you play outside with your dogs in the snow, then cozy up with them in the recliner and study some Russian.

Also, to help pass the time during the waiting period, I have received a call to serve as pastor of a congregation in Southwest Missouri, about 4 hours from St. Louis. For those of you who don't know, I am a pastor. I have served as a parish pastor in Wyoming and in Texas, but for the past almost three years I have served on staff at the Seminary from which I graduated in 2000. In our church, the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, when a pastor receives a call to another congregation, he takes some time and prays for the Holy Spirit's guidance in where he should serve. Anyway, that's where we're at. We'll be adding that to our prayers over the next few weeks. If it is the Lord's will for us to move, then we will wait until after we've come back from our second trip and have brought our boys home. We welcome your comments and especially your prayers. God's blessings to all of you who are waiting!

In Christ,

Joel & Clarion

More waiting...

2008-02-18T21:48:00.003-06:00

Dear Everyone,

Thank you so much for your many prayers and words of encouragement during our first trip to Vladivostok! What a fantastic trip we had. So many of our prayers were answered. The Lord brought us safely to our beautiful sons in Vladivostok and safely back home to St. Louis. We miss the boys tremendously and are counting the days until we receive a phone call from CHI to tell us we have a court date and can return to Russia. We expect at the least a three-month wait, but it could be longer (let's hope not!). Until then we're both trying to keep busy with work, fixing up the boys' room and doing some traveling to see friends and family.

As we get further and further into this adoption journey, we come into contact with so many people with similar stories. Some of them have already brought their children home. Some of them are waiting for their first trips to Russia. Some, like us, are waiting to return for court. Some of them have been waiting for quite some time. We ask that you would continue to keep us in your prayers, but also all of the families who are waiting to bring their children home. The Lord be with you all.

Love,

Clarion and Joel

P.S. - I'm getting better at tinkering with the blog. You'd think somebody like me (Joel) who is in to technology could get a handle on this stuff. A little time and patience and it becomes a cinch. Earlier this evening I put the Vladivostok and St. Louis clocks on the blog as well as a ticker to count the days since we concluded trip #1.

The BIG day!

2008-02-05T03:28:00.000-06:00

Now that we have WIFI internet (for who knows how long) we thought we'd do a quick blog update. Our time in Vlad is going very well. On Monday we met our boys. The day began with a visit to the Ministry of Education to officially receive our referral. It was quick and painless and we were off to see the boys. We cannot list names or post pictures, but we can briefly tell the story.

The boys are ages 2 and 4 and are at different institutions because of their age difference. Children age 3 and younger are in baby homes and children 4 and older are in orphanages. We went to the baby home first to meet our first son. He is a little sweetie! The meeting was perfect. He did not cry or scream. He smiled. He laughed. He hugged us. What an answer to prayer. We only had thirty minutes with him that first day, but they were thirty wonderful minutes both of us will never forget. He is healthy and happy!

After our time at the baby home we went to the orphanage to meet son #2. He has a much quieter, shy personality than his little brother, but is an extremely sweet and brave boy. We played with him and a bear that we brought him. He hugged us both and smiled at us. I think he has been through a lot in his four short years. He has not seen his little brother for almost a year. He was extremely attached to him. On our second visit we were able to show him pictures from our visit with his brother. You could see the look of sadness in his face at seeing his brother. But we assured him that his brother is happy and healthy.

After reviewing the medical records of both boys, we are committed to adopting them and bringing them home in the months ahead. We will be able to visit the boys more over the next couple of days. Hopefully we will be able to post more. But we wanted you all to know what a blessing this trip has been and how wonderful the boys are. We can't wait till we can show off our sons to all of you! Thanks for your continued prayers. And thanks for the comments you've been leaving us on this blog. Keep 'em coming!

Love,

Clarion & Joel

The Venture East

2008-02-02T19:59:00.001-06:00

International adoption is a grand adventure, but for us, the real adventure has finally begun: traveling to the Far East. Preparations began about a week before departure. Thanks to Cheryl (Joel?s mom) for coming to St. Louis and getting us packed and ready to go! The days before our departure were certainly not stress free thanks to all of the weather forecasts. Snow! Why this week? Why Thursday? Does the Lord have a sense of humor? I?m sure He does, but it wasn?t for the sake of humor that He brought us snow on Thursday, the day of our departure. The fact that we were able to get out of St. Louis, despite a few inches of snow falling was a reminder that all things are in the hands of the Lord. What a way to begin such an arduous adventure!

Our flight from St. Louis to LAX was scheduled for a 7PM departure on Thursday, January 31. We took off about an hour and a half late, which would leave us about an hour and a half at LAX to make our connection on Korean Air to Seoul, South Korea. An hour and a half isn?t much time when you have to hit the bathroom, transfer to another terminal, get boarding passes, go through security (again!) and (maybe) get something to eat. In our case we got water, snack mix and chocolate covered raisins. No time for one last McDonalds! The good news: we made it to our gate, onto the plane, and in the air to the Far East. We knew we were really cool when the flight attendant announced on the flight to LAX that there were passengers that needed to connect to the Far East and needed to deplane first. That's us!

How can we describe the flight to Seoul? LONG!!! 13 HOURS LONG!!! But, it was a good flight nonetheless. We have to hand it to Korean Air. They know how to do a long flight. They have an outstanding in-flight video system and impeccable service. Movies, inflatable neck pillows (thanks, Mom!), wine, bimbap noodles (or something like that) and Tylenol PM are a must for a flight to Korea.

We landed in Seoul around 6:30AM on Saturday, February 2nd. Security was pretty painless. We didn?t have to take off our shoes or remove electronics from our backpacks. South Korea rocks! Incheon International Airport in Seoul is fantastic. They have KFC, Dunkin Donuts and (thanks be to God, says Clarion) Coca Cola! They also have everything in English and take U.S. Dollars! We stopped for a Coke and then did a lot of walking around to make up for 13 hours on a plane and two more hours on a plane to Vladivostok. We had about three hours to kill. Our entertainment at the gate for our flight to Vladivostok consisted of listening to Korean flight attendants shouting out the names of destination cities when it was time to board flights and listening to the good Russian folks around us and trying to pick out words we knew.

Our flight to Vladivostok took off on time (10AM) and we were off for the last leg of our journey to Vlad. We flew over the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea). I guess for some reason the pilot didn?t want to take a route over North Korea. Hmm. Probably a good thing too! They served a meal on the flight, but both of us were too excited to eat. We were almost there. Who needs food anyway when you had bimbap a number of hours ago? One of the best things about Korean Air?beer (not $4, not $3, $0). We thought 10AM a bit early for a beer, even though that?s 7PM CST back home. However, the nice Russian man next to us did indulge. My indulgence in Russian beer was to come later. Once we were flying over land, we noticed a lot of white color below us on the ground (i.e. snow). The captain announced the current temperature in Vlad: 3 degrees. The plane landed soon after and we found ourselves on a bus to the terminal.

We finally made it to Russian soil. We left the bus for passport control, customs and immigration. I watched as they let Clarion in the country, so I figured I was home free. Yep, they let me in too. It was actually very painless. Do you want to know what feels great after a long, long day (or more) of air travel? Seeing your luggage waiting for you at the baggage claim. Russian airport personnel even check your claim tickets, which never happens anymore in the US. I?m glad they do it hear. Our long Johns and special K bars made it to Russia. Woo hoo!

Lana and Irina (our CHI contacts in Vlad) were waiting for us when we came out with our bags. They are so nice! We loaded our bags into Irina?s Honda CRV and we were off to the Vlad Inn, but not without a few people cutting us off in the parking lot. The ladies filled us in on the state of the Vlad roads and gave us the low down on Vlad drivers. On our way to the Vlad Inn we saw a lot of rural countryside and a little bit of Vlad, but not the actual city yet. We saw houses, some big, but most small. We passed a Russian Orthodox church with the traditional dome you would expect to see. About twenty minutes later we were at the Vlad Inn. Time to chill. Irina and Lana said goodbye and told us they?ll be back Monday morning at 8:30AM. That gives us a day and a half to ourselves to get caught up on sleep and get situated.

We got to our room, got cleaned up and went to explore our temporary home for the next few days. We didn?t venture too far yet, just around the hotel grounds. I posed by the Vlad Inn sign and stepped in about a foot of snow. We ate dinner at the Vlad Inn (where most of our meals will be on this trip). Chicken quesadillas, chicken fingers and fries brought a little taste of home. For Clarion, another Coke was a welcome treat. For me, nothing would do but a cold Russian beer (ok, maybe two). I did share the second with Clarion. We went back to our room to watch a movie, but fell asleep within ten minutes. It was about 6PM Vlad time.

We both got plenty of sleep and are about to enjoy Sunday brunch at the Vlad Inn, apparently a favorite for many of the locals. Tomorrow is the big day! We?ll spend the rest of the day discussing what is to come, reviewing Russian words and phrases, going over questions to ask at the orphanage, etc. For now, it is time to sign off. Sorry for the length, but we thought you?d enjoy the whole enchilada. Imagine how long the next post will be after we?ve met our sons! We miss you all and we continue to be grateful for your prayers. Please post comments on the blog. We love to hear from you!!! Dasfidanya!

Travel call and Visas!!!

2008-01-22T20:23:00.000-06:00

Woo hoo!!! We got our visas today and had a travel call with our case worker about all the little details once we get to Vladivostok. 8 more days to go!!!

Our Itinerary

2008-01-14T21:44:00.001-06:00

We have our itinerary and have sent off for our visas! We will be leaving January 31 and getting back on February 8. We will fly from St. Louis to LA to Seoul, Korea to Vladivostok, Russia. Can you say jet lag?? Keep checking the blog for updates when we are in Russia!

love,

Clarion and Joel

Yes, we're going! We really think it's for real this time!

2008-01-10T19:06:00.000-06:00

Today we received our official travel dates! Yes, you've heard that before! BUT, we're really going this time. We're filling out visa paperwork and everything. The dates we have been assigned are January 31 - February 9. We're not sure yet if we have to fly through Moscow or if we can take our preferred route through Seoul, South Korea. We'll let you know as soon as we know more. No other information yet. Thanks again for all of your encouragement, love, support and prayers! We cherish you all!

Love,

Clarion & Joel

Christmas in St. Louis???

2007-12-04T06:39:00.000-06:00

As you can see, my last post indicated that we would most likely be spending Christmas in Russia. Well, that may not be the case now. We spoke with Marti at CHI yesterday. Since we've heard nothing since receiving the news about meeting our boys on December 25, it is likely that our trip to Russia will not happen over Christmas break. Nothing is set in stone. It could still happen, but with only three weeks until the 25th, it doesn't look promising. If we don't make the trip over Christmas, it will probably be within a couple of weeks after Christmas. It's still a lot to get used to, all of the waiting and asking ourselves "when??? when??? when???". We continue to have faith that the Lord will work everything out in His time. We've been assured by our friends at CHI that the referral is still ours and that we will make this first trip soon. The delays are most likely due to holiday plans and minor interferences, etc., nothing huge. Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. We know you are all waiting patiently along with us. What a blessing you all are to us! Hopefully more news soon! Don't forget to keep our two boys in your prayers as well.

Love,

Clarion & Joel

Christmas in Russia!

2007-11-08T08:50:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday, Marti, our CHI case worker, came over to do our home study update. Everything went very well. She told us that she is in contact with CHI staff in Vladivostok and will hopefully have more information about our boys very soon. The next day she called to inform us that the first available date that we can meet our boys is none other than December 25, 2007. So...Christmas in Russia! Actually, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7, but I'm sure there will be plenty of Christmas cheer there on December 25. Hopefully we'll have more good news to share soon. Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement!

Joel & Clarion

Finally, the referral comes...

2007-10-03T06:59:00.000-05:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Yes, it's been almost a year since we've posted anything on our international adoption blog. Our last post was October 16, 2006. The news at the time was...we got two puppies. In the past year there hasn't been much to report. The dogs have gotten bigger. Joel has gotten bigger (in all the wrong places, but he IS working on it). We turned in our dossier on our third wedding anniversary, December 27, 2006. That was our final paperwork submission in order to be eligible to receive a referral for the adoption of two children from Russia. Since then...waiting...more waiting...and even more waiting. Russia has been working through a long-term accreditation process with all of the international adoption agencies they work with. Hence, the extra long wait times. Hence, no posts on our blog.

Well, the time has come! Yesterday we received word from our agency that there are two little boys (natural siblings) ages two and three in Vladivostok, Russia who need a mom and a dad. Lord willing, by April 2008 we will be their mom and dad. We don't know too much in the way of details, but here is some tentative information. We will travel to Vladivostok, Russia sometime in December to meet our sons-to-be for the first time. We don't know yet how long we will stay there. On average, I think it's about a week for the first trip. At the end of the first trip is when you officially accept your referral. In other words you let Russia know that you want to adopt these children. Typically there is a waiting period of a couple of months while paperwork is drawn up and a court date is set. We've been told in our case to expect a return trip to Vladivostok in April 2008. Why four months? We don't know. More details should be coming in the days ahead, hopefully!

While it will be tough to wait out the time between the two trips, we'll have plenty to do at home. Since it will have been over a year since we turned in our dossier, a number of our documents will need to be redone. Russia gives a life of twelve months to most documents. Getting the paperwork done is always tedious and somewhat stressful, but knowing what lies ahead, two beautiful boys, I don't think we will care about what we have to do. We'll just do it! Plus this tentative timetable works out very well for Joel's work schedule. He travels a lot for the Seminary in the fall (usually done by November) then again in the spring (usualy done sometime in April). This way he can very easily work around his Sem travels. Clarion has been teaching part-time this year at three schools, all who are aware that she will need to bug out a couple times during the year for our adoption travel.

As we get more information, we will share it with you, probably here on the blog. The blog is bound to get more interesting, finally. In the meantime, here is some info about Vladivostok. It is a city in far eastern Russia, just off the Sea of Japan. Yes, Japan. Vladivostok is closer to North and South Korea and Japan than it is to Moscow. (We will still have to travel to Moscow on our second trip. What a trip that will be!) For detailed information about Vladivostok, check out the article at Wikepedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladivostok. Surprisingly, the weather averages for Vladivostok don't look too bad for December and April (see the chart at the Wikepedia article). December will be cold for sure, but not Siberia cold! April looks like it could be quite pleasant.

Check back once in a while for updates. We'll send e-mails out when we update the blog. As always, feel free to pass on a link to our blog to other friends and whoever else. We greatly treasure your prayers in our behalf, especially these next six months. Most importantly, we request your prayers for our two little guys in Vladivostok, that the Lord would keep them safe and well-cared for until we bring them home! To God be the glory! The Lord be with you!

In Christ,

Joel and Clarion

Dodger & Dandy

2006-10-16T08:10:00.000-05:00

Hey Everybody! Well, we're almost done with paperwork. We went to downtown St. Louis a couple of weeks ago to be fingerprinted. We're waiting for clearance from Citizenship & Immigration Services. To ease the time during the waiting, I got two adorable little beagle puppies for Clarion for her birthday. We're having a lot of fun with them. They're really learning quickly. We hope to have them fairly well trained before the time comes to go to Russia to pick up and bring home our children. Here's a picture of Dodger (male) and Dandy (female). Keep in touch!

Love,

Joel & Clarion

Favorable Home Study

2006-09-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

Dear Family and Friends,

I haven't posted anything on the blog since May. Please forgive me! We had a busy summer with moving and travels. Clarion and I moved onto the Concordia Seminary campus in July. The move slowed down our adoption paperwork a bit, but things are definitely in full swing at this point.

About three weeks ago our Home Study was conducted. Our case worker from Children's Hope came over and spent about three hours with us. Clarion and I each answered questions about our marriage and about parenting and numerous others. Then she did a walk-through of our house with us, pointing out things we can do for safety measures, etc. It all went very well.

This weekend we received the final Home Study Report. I am happy to announce that it was "favorable." The agency has approved us for adoption. It's great news. This is now a big part of the process that is now complete.

This morning I sent a final, notarized copy of the Homestudy to US Citizenship & Immigration Services. Upon receipt of it, they should notify us to schedule a time for each of us to be fingerprinted. That is part of the process of being approved by CIS. The fingerprints have to be run through the FBI and come back with a report listing no record for either of us. This can take up to 90 days, so all of our paperwork won't be complete until that comes back.

We have a few more documents to finish and some to clean up a bit, then we should be pretty much done with our dossier. We should be able to get this done before (or by the time) our CIS approval comes in. Then it's time to wait for a referral. We've already been waiting several months as we've worked through the paperwork process. Once our dossier is done, the real waiting begins!

Thank you for your continued prayers. I'll try to do more frequent updates to the blog so that you're all well informed. The Lord be with you!

Joel & Clarion

This is only the beginning!

2006-05-07T20:32:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody! Sorry it has been a few weeks since we posted an update. Basically we've spent the last few weeks filling out various forms. This is only the beginning of the paperwork. We've filled out forms for Russian visas as well as some for different types of background checks. We're also preparing to send CHI names and addresses of people to contact for letters of recommendation in our behalf. Today Clarion and I each wrote a 2-4 page autobiography including details about our parents, siblings, upbringing, marriage and much, much more. It was interesting for each of us to reflect back on our lives and see what makes each of us who we are and then to describe how those things will influence the way we raise our children. This is all part of our homestudy.

It's all going well so far! We'll let you know when we have any significant news to pass along.

God bless!

Joel & Clarion

We have been accepted by CHI

2006-04-16T09:04:00.000-05:00

On Friday, April 14 we received a packet from Children's Hope International (CHI). Their review committee has approved our application. Final approval for adoption is based on a favorable Home Study as well as approval by Immigration and Naturalization Services for adoption abroad.

Included in the packet was the "Adoption Guide for Russia's Children," outlining all the details and steps we will need to follow in the months ahead. We begin by filling out some forms to get the immigration process going. Even though the identity of the children we will adopt is not yet known, a lot of immigration paperwork is done in advance to speed up the process once we do know who our children are. We will also fill out some forms to get the home study going. We will be writing an autobiography with details about each of our backgrounds, our marriage, finances, motivation to adopt, and support of family and friends. Once CHI receives these things, they will assign us one of their social workers who will conduct the home study. We have met several of these ladies and had some great talks with them before. Hopefully they don't find us too crazy! Ha!

Thank you for your prayers and support! We have been touched by the many wonderful e-mails we have received from all of you already! More news as it comes!

Letter to Family & Friends: The Adoption Journey Begins

2006-04-15T18:56:00.000-05:00

Dear Family & Friends,

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior! Clarion and I are pleased to let you know that after months of prayer and discussion about adoption, we have submitted an application to adopt two children from Russia. We are working with an agency called "Children's Hope International" here in St. Louis. They also have offices in several other cities across the US, but St. Louis is the main office. We have been in contact with the staff there for several months and have been very impressed with them from the start. Last year they handled around 250 adoptions from Russia and a couple hundred more from several other countries. We are eager to become parents and finally decided that the time is right! We have applied for two natural siblings no older than age four. We have asked for a boy/boy or boy/girl pair. We even indicated that we are open to adopt twins.

The first step in the process is to send in your initial application. That is as far as we are in the process as of yesterday. We should hear back from CHI within two weeks. They will send us a packet with all of the information, the full details of the Russian adoption program. The two or three months following that are spent completing our dossier. The dossier includes tons of information on us, including a home study done by a social worker as well as financial documents and much much more. Following the completion of our dossier, we spend the next few months waiting for a referral. CHI has staff members in Russia that work with orphanages across the country to find children to match with adoptive parents. That part of the process usually takes at least four months if not six or more. Once you receive a referral, you let them know if you accept it or not. The referral could have quite a bit of info on the children or very little. Unfortunately, I think it's usually limited info. Once you accept a referral, you make your first of two trips to Russia. On the first trip you meet the children and spend a few days with them. Following that you indicate your desire to adopt them. Then comes the hard part--you have to go back home with out them for six weeks or so while the actual adoption process begins. Then you make your second trip to Russia to pick them up. You usually spend about ten days there on the second trip, which is a requirement of the Russian government. You have to appear before a Russian court before the adoption is approved and finalized by their government. Thankfully, CHI will have a staff member with us the whole time we're there to translate and basically assist us to get around.

That's it in a nutshell. Please keep us in your prayers throughout the next year as we work through this process. We hope and pray that all will go smoothly. We are very excited about this opportunity to become parents, especially to provide a loving home for two children who would otherwise probably never be adopted. We'll keep you all posted as we learn more and find out information along the way.

The Lord be with you as you celebrate His glorious resurrection!

In Christ,

Joel & Clarion