We're still in Russia

Hey, everyone!! We passed court last Monday, so we are officially Taylor's parents!! Now we are waiting out our 10 day waiting period. There's not much to do here in Kemerovo other than walk around and look at all the over priced things we could buy. We have been sleeping A LOT!! We wish we could go see Taylor, but it is a 3 hour drive on the worst road ever, and it would cost us $250 each trip. We also decided that even if it was free, it's probably better for him to not see us come and leave over and over, but rather come one last time and take him with us instead. He got so sad when we had to leave the last time, he got a huge pucker on his face and put his head down, it was soooo pitiful!! It made us really sad, because he didn't want us to leave him. He was also so excited to see us and he gave us each a big hug when we got there. We CAN'T WAIT to go back and get him, and come home!! After we go get him, we'll bring him back here to our hotel in Kemerovo and have to stay here for a few more days while we finish our paperwork, before we head to Moscow for 6 more nights. But we are excited to bring him back here because just down the street, both ways, there is a bunch of fun things for little kids to play on, so he will have a blast!!

It's great weather here, it's been about 60-70 degrees everyday with a few rain showers here and there throughout the day. It's really weird because everyday, it will all of sudden cloud up, rain a little, and then clear up and be sunny again, sometimes a couple times a day.

Not much happening right now, but we will hopefully have some pictures to put up of Taylor soon once we have him with us. Our plane landed Saturday morning at about 5:30 in the morning, we went to our hotel to drop our bags off and then straight to the orphanage on a 3 hr drive. So going on just the couple hours of sleep we had on the plane, we were literally half asleep and didn't think about taking pictures, we only took video when we went to visit him (but we forgot the cords to connect the video player to the computer).

We will keep you updated as much as possible as our time here goes on. See you all later!!

This is a BIG update

We have finally been scheduled a court date!!! We leave the USA on August 17th and we have our court date on August 22nd. We are so excited we can hardly wait to go get our son and bring him home!! Our prayer now is that our judge would waive the 10 day waiting period. We plan to request it, but they say this judge almost never waives it. But we know a God that can change the hearts of kings, so we know he can change the heart of a judge in Russia. There are so many reasons why we need the judge to waive the 10 day waiting period....for one, Taylor has waited in that orphanage long enough and he needs to be with his forever family so he can begin to thrive....two, Jesse needs to get back in case the crops are about ready to need harvesting....three, the cost of staying in a hotel for an extra 10 days wouldn't be cheap....and four, we can hardly stand the thought of being away from our little Reesey girl for ANY longer than we absolutely have to. The last trip was only a week long and we were aching to get back to our Reesey. At least we won't have to leave our Taylor man behind this time, and he will be with us for a big part of this trip.

So we need lots of prayer that we would have a safe trip, that we will pass court with absolutely no problems, and that the judge would waive the 10 day waiting period. And if anyone has any suggestions on what we can say to convince the judge that it is in the best interest of the child to waive the 10 days, please let us know!! All we can do is pray and ask God to help the judge see that waiving the 10 days is best, but even if she doesn't, we will know that whatever happens is God's will.

We are so excited and we will try to post new pictures of Taylor as soon as possible. I tried to upload one of the videos we took while we were there, but for some reason, I can't get it to finish uploading. Maybe I'll get it to work one of these days.

No Big Updates YET

Hey everyone, just thought I would let you all know what is going on at the moment with our adoption. There isn't much to tell yet, we haven't heard anything from Russia, but we have sent all of our paperwork and it is being translated right now. After they do that and give our papers to the judge, she will look at them and make any extra requests from us (we're praying that she doesn't) and then we will just wait for a court date. Our parent coordinator in Chicago seems to think it could be August or maybe even the beginning of September when our court date will be scheduled, but we're not going to worry about it, we've handed it over to God and only He is in control. It very well could be August or September, but I also won't forget the last time our parent coordinator kept telling us a later date every time we talked to her about our first trip and she was waaaay off, and we were kinda shocked to get our invitation to travel a lot sooner than what we were thinking, so we're praying that is what happens this time too. I've been praying that there would be another judge step in and take the current judge's place while she takes her vacation and then there wouldn't be any delays at all!! As soon as we hear any new news, we will keep you updated, as for now, here is some recent pictures of Reese...and some old....

Little Miss Diva wearing mommy's shoes

Mommy and Reese hiking with Papoo at Dolans Lake

A different day of hiking at Dolans Lake, the temperature dropped that day, but she still had a blast...

Our little Beauty

Old pictures...reminiscing of how little she used to be (that is Jesse holding her)

All swaddled and ready for sleepy time....wow it's been a long time since we swaddled her :(

Meeting Taylor for the first time!!

Hi everyone, our trip to Russia has been a real adventure! Meeting Taylor for the first time was even better than we could have expected. He is quite the little man and very smart too! Within just a short visit he already calls us Mama and Papa. He also has learned several words in English such as "please and thank you". We are amazed at his ability to learn new things and can't wait to come back and get him! Although it is very easy to get excited and start calling him our little boy right away, nothing is completely official until we pass court hopefully in a couple of months, so please pray that we will have a successful court date and that our court date will be very soon!

This is the big sign entering the town he is in, it says "Prokop'yevsk"


He loved all his toys that mommy and daddy brought for him.


Taylor LOVED his fan toy that grammy got for him


He loved his picture book of his new family, he had to make sure it was in a safe place at all times and he would go and check on it every so often.

No April Fools Joke

I know I updated everyone earlier in March that our estimated time for our first trip was going to be more like beginning of May.....well, we just got a call Monday saying that we got an invitation to travel for our first trip, we leave from St. Louis April 9th!!! When our parent coordinator called me on Monday, she wasn't completely sure that it was correct that we were the next family to travel, she was afraid there might have been a mistake, she thought there was another family that was supposed to travel before us. So we weren't totally for sure when we found out Monday, it wasn't until Tuesday that we found out that the coordinator in Russia had told our parent coordinator here in the US wrong when she told her we'd be going probably the end of April-beginning of May, and our dossier,was in fact, there before the other family, so we got really lucky!!! We feel so blessed, God is always looking out for us!! We, unfortunately will not get to bring him home with us this time, so please pray that we will get a court date very soon after this trip, so we can go back the second time and bring him home for good!! It could be anywhere from 1-3 months, but it looks like most families go back in about 3 months from their first trip, so we're praying that we can go back a lot soon than that, more like 1 month! God has answered our prayers so many times throughout this process, so we are not doubting what He can do!

quick update

We have been informed that it will be more around the end of April-beginning of May before we will go on our first trip, according to our parent coordinator. But there still isn't any for sure plans yet, that is just an estimate. We are continuing to trust in God that we will go when He wants us to go. Please continue to pray for us as we wait, we need God to give us lots of patience!!

Update on Adoption Process

Hey everyone....it's been sooo long since I posted on this blog, but we just want to give everyone a little update as far as our adoption. Most everyone knows already, that we have accepted a little 3 year old boy to go meet in Russia. Nothing is set in stone yet, we still can't be completely sure that he is the one we will bring home from Russia, but we can trust God that whatever happens is His will. Our dossier was delivered in Russia on Jan. 31 2011 and we are now just waiting for our invitation from the DOE to travel and meet him for the first time. We've been told that we will probably travel on our first trip around the end of March-beginning of April.....which is right at the beginning of planting season. We aren't worried about it because we know that God is in control and His timing is PERFECT!! We will go when we are meant to go, although we are so anxious and ready to go yesterday....our patience is definitely being tested.

Recently there was a terrorist bombing in one of the Moscow airports, at one of the international terminals and we could have easily been at that airport when it happened if we had been traveling when we wanted to. That's why we continue to trust God that everything will work out the way He wants it to. But right now, we just can't wait to get over there and meet that adorable little guy.
Please pray for us as we wait and as we travel. Pray that we will have a smooth transition when he comes home with us and that he isn't scared of all the new surroundings he will have. Also for our health, that neither the little boy or us get sick throughout this whole process and transition.

I will try to keep everyone posted as things progress, and especially while we are traveling, as long as we are able to find a convenient place to get internet.

But until then, here are some pictures of Reese from this winter....

Reese enjoying her milk in front of the TV


Daddy and Reese


Fell asleep on Mema


All bundled up for the snow