Our new hope....

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

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!

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!

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

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???

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

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...

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!

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

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

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!

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...

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!

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

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!!!

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

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!

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???

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!

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