Update: Trip 2 is done!!

Dear Friends,

I write to you as one tired lady;)  This last trip was emotionally and physically exhausting.  Kaila and Emma were both severely ill before we headed off to Russia (Kaila had Scarlet Fever about a month ago and Emma came down in some sort of infected tick bite/ impetigo/ who-knows-illness about a week before we left).  We know we were leaving our precious girls in capable hands in Kentucky with my parents, but it makes it harder to leave.  About two days into the trip, I got sick and was sick most of the trip.

BUT, the most important part: Nikolai is... AWESOME.  He is such an incredibly precious, beautiful, fearless, trusting, awesome child.  We got to spend about 2 days with him while we prepared for court.  Court went surprisingly smooth and we are officially his parents!  His name is now officially: Nikolai Thomas Cusick and we will be bringing him home on September 1, 2012.  

I don't really know if he remember us per say (one month is a long time for a one year old), but he did bond to us VERY quickly this time.  I had written a quick email to some family while we were in Russia and I am going to share it with you all.  I must say it is a little bit emotional, but adoption is hard.... and we appreciate all your prayers & support.

"We are sitting in the Moscow airport waiting for our flight.  The trainride last night was fairly long and uncomfortable, but overall I am feelinga little better.We are both tired, emotional, and hungry!  I feel like we haven't reallyeaten any "food" in days... Russian food is very disagreeable (I sometimes think they like to drink more than they eat;) and you can only eat nuts, dried fruit, andpower bars for so long;)  So as soon as we got settled in the airport I went to Burger King and we have NEVER enjoyed a whopper and fries more thantoday!!!!!!!  Yum!!! Court went very well.  Court consisted of us, our translator, the judge, and 3 other women, one inmilitary uniform representing something military, one from child protectiveservices, and no idea what the other lady represented.  All threeq uestioned us about adoption, the judge was mostly nosy about Tom'sgovernment pension plan and questioned us about our pets and what we woulddo if Nikolai has pet allergies... mostly just so he could talk about thefact that he has a lab too.  The judge actually made several jokes with us. It felt like they genuinely care about the welfare of the children andwant to make sure we are aware of what a momentous undertaking adoption isand to make sure we are completely informed all of the medical information.  After court and lunch then went to orphanage to spend theafternoon with Nikolai.  He was SUPER excited when he saw us and waved hislittle  arms until we picked him up.  He does seem to recognize us and love us.  We took him for his first car ride to get his passport picture.  The ride was terrifying (the driving here is worse than the D.R.... if that iseven possible)... but he thought it was GREAT fun and spent most of thetime trying to climb over the seats and pull leanne's hair.The child know NO fear and is completely trusting and extremely happy(something we never anticipated in an orphan and something we have not seenin any of the other orphans... most of them are timid, silent, and slow.  He smiles and giggles all the time and he is one of the most active children we have ever seen (and I thought we would be getting a quiet, laid back kid...).  He pretty much never stops moving.  He is not completely walking by him self but crawls at a super fast pace.  He is VERY curious about everything and it honestly seems like he is trying to make up for the last year by exploring everything at once.  He seems very intelligent and does say several words.  He grabbed ahold of my water bottle, tilted to his mouth and said "ba ba ba".  He did say some other words/ sounds... but we have no idea what he is saying;)  He will learn English quickly.  We are just thrilled that he will not be overwhelmed by our family... I honestly think he loves noise and stimulation (the good Lord knew;)  Several hours before we knew we were to leave, for the first time duringour visit this time he cried... I had set him down to play and all thes udden big tears and little sobs came.  I picked him up and he stopped and was happy again.  I set him down again and the tears started coming.... so Tom picked him up and he was all smiles again.  We tested it enough torealize that little man has figured out what love is and what it is like tobe held by his mother and father and he has decided he likes it very much. Unfortunately, this made our parting grief-evoking.  To be honest, I wasalready teary-eyed from our sweet bonding moments and by feeling soo in love with our little son... that when they told us it was time to take him back to the nursery, the tears came quickly for me.  Tom prayed over him one last time and we walked into his nursery.  He was clinging to my shirt and I set him down in the little play area with several other babies.  Hei mmediately pulled himself up on the gate and began shaking it and waving his arms.  He started balling and his little red face with big tears spilling down it will be forever frozen in my memory.  We are changed ands haped by the things we experience and I have to say that that memory will never leave me.This trip has been hard.  Emotionally exhausting, physically miserable, and we both are ready to just come home and be with our girls."

Russia Trip 1 Overview

Wow.  What a whirlwind.  I can NOT believe it has almost been a month since my last post.... life has certainly been exciting;)

We scrambled to get all the documents and other "pieces" in place for our trip 1.  We paid a small fortune for last minute airfare (which we are thankful we already have our trip 2 dates and have booked airfare already and paid less than half!).  Everything DID indeed fall in place and we journeyed over to Russia on June 17th (Father's Day).  We had a long layover in Amsterdam which we thoroughly enjoyed.  Amsterdam is actually a beautiful city full of canals an over 1,215 bridges  We caught the overnight train to Kirov and met up with two other families and the adoption team.  We traveled with a wonderful Christian lady, LeAnne, from Athens, GA (who has previously adopted a Russian boy through FAC 2.5 years ago.  Her Russian son is 5 years old now and a wonderfully adjusted genius of a child!) and a super fun couple from Germany: Kai and Melanie.  Our adoption team consisted of our coordinator: Andrei, Translator: Leanne and Olga, and driver: Sacha.  The train was absolutely, positively one of my favorites parts of our travels!   We had our own private sleep car with two bunks over two couches, a TV, a radio, a small table, and the best part: a large window where we watched the Siberian lowland fly by. Because we were soo far north and in June, the sun started to set around 9:30 and we enjoyed 1.5 hr sunset  over the green landscape dotted with bright purple alpine flowers and quaint wooden villages.  The sun rose again around 2:00am.... great for sightseeing, not so great for sleeping (thank goodness for Tylenol PM- we did get some sleep).  We arrived in Kirov, dragged our heavy suitcases through the train station and up several flights of stair to the waiting van.  We then traveled to the Hotel in Kirov to freshen up before heading to the orphanage.  The hotel was surprisingly VERY nice!  All three of us families had trouble with the brand new hot water heaters... but thanks to Andrei... we did get one "hot" shower in;)  After a nervous hour waiting at the hotel, we reloaded into the van and drove to the orphanage.  In my mind I was picturing the very poor and destitute orphanages I have been in before.  What a surprise when we drive up to a wooded gate, an adorable young boy ran to the gate to open up into a long driveway completely surrounded by beautiful gardens.  Apparently the doctor/ director that runs the orphanage loves flowers and gardening and has done a lot of the landscaping with the help of some of the older orphans.  There were the largest peonies I have ever seen!  The entire orphanage smelled of flowers. The inside was spick and span clean and very organized.  We were shown into a room where we waited for the children to be brought in.  LeAnne's little guy was brought in first.  "Elijah" is about 2.5 years old and a beautifully healthy, shy child.  I can't help but go off on a sidetrail for a moment here.  Kai and Melanie (the German couple) had gone to a different orphanage in May to meet with 2 other children.  Both of the children that they met with were developmentally and physically unwell.  Kai loves soccer and kept commenting (while almost in tears telling their heartbreaking story of having to decline those two referrals) how the children would not interact or be active at all.  They are unable to have children and were obviously very apprehensive about meeting another child.  The staff brought in their 3 year old little man.  What struck me first was that he looks exactly like Kai.  They then were trying to interact with him and gave him a soccer ball.  The little guy, "Yoshon" took one look at the ball and kicked it straight back into surprised Kai.  Kai immediately threw his arms up in the arm and exclaimed: "You are mine!!!".  Love at first sight.  Little "Yoshon" immediately bonded to Kai and Melanie and they to him.  Thankfully we were distracted with the other children while waiting for our little guy to be brought in.  We heard approaching footsteps to which Tom took the camera and urged me to go and meet our 10 month old little man while he filmed it (also because we had been warned that the orphans are very scared of men... to which Elijah had earlier balled at the sigh of Tom).  His caretaker carried in 10 month old "Gleb Aleksandervik Krylov" in with the silliest little hat I have ever seen.  As anxiety and emotions were about to produce a flood of tears in me, I reached my arms out wondering what he would do.  He looked at me (admittedly a little crossed eyed;), in that silly green hat, and gave me that biggest smile and waved his little arms for me to pick him up.  No words can decide that moment- much like holding Kaila or Emma for the first time.  A beautiful, God-given, sacred moment. 

He immediately took to Tom (maybe even moreso to Tom than me!).  He looks as if he could be our biological child.  Dark hazel-green eyes with light brown hair.  He is incredibly healthy and SUPER ACTIVE (he is a fast crawler and can even walk with assistance).  He chatters and the caretakers document that he already has 2 words.  An overview of our time:  We played with him, took him down and met with the director/doctor, played with him some more, went to lunch, played some more, and then went to the hotel.  Day 2 was a repeat of day 1... except that we had officially filed the paperwork to adopt him as "Nikolai Thomas Cusick".  The flood of tears really came then.  The adoption paperwork with his new name definitely had some tear stains;)  The second day he truly felt like "ours" and leaving him was heartbreaking.  HOWEVER,  I felt some peace knowing that he is being SOO SOO SOO well cared for at this beautiful orphanage.  The adoption team and several of the other families all talk about how this is the best orphanage in Russia.
I have soo much more to write about leaving the little man and his silent sobbing... but I will leave that for another day.  I also meant to insert a lot more pictures, but the formatting is messing up... so please see the "Russia" slideshow on the homepage for all the pics!!  And I will try to add in some links to some PRECIOUS videos (including me meeting him for the first time!)
Video links (you should be able to just click on them and a new window will open with Youtube)
fav smiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v48edNb7Ho&feature=youtu.be
laughing, smiling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tho6cXznF50&feature=related
first meet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQNUigCZ6Y&feature=related
We left Kirov, took the awesome train back to Moscow.  Ate a traditional Russian dinner in the diner car and watched the 1.5 hr sunset over the landscape while we celebrated with LeAnne.  We left Moscow that next afternoon and had another long layover- this time in Vienna.  Again, a blessed wonderful time of rest.  Vienna is a beautiful city of music and really good food!
So in all: WE ARE BLESSED.  We were actually rested and strong when we arrived back to our girls, which was good as Kaila became seriously ill with strep throat which led to the most severe case of Scarlet Fever we have ever seen with impetigo and a diaper rash.  Very, very sick.  We are 9 days out  now and she is just now feeling better.

Our little man!!!!!!!!

We received our referral on Monday June 4, 2012!!!!!
Gleb Aleksandervik Krylov was born on July 29, 2011.
We received 2 full pages of medical history on him and some on his mother.  We are very thankful that mom was not a registered alcoholic, drug user or HIV (all three are very common on Russian referrals- vodka is cheaper than water in Russia).
We conferred with our International Adoption Specialist, Dr. Staat in the Cincinnati Children's hospital, and we had a conference call with her on Wednesday June 6, 2012.  She says that his referral contains some of the most information that she has seen in years.  She was extremely positive about all of his medical information.
SO.... HERE WE COME RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry that we haven't updated more recently but we are in midst of this process and it is C-R-A-Z-Y!!!  We have visas to get (which is WAY complicated and expensive... we have to include information on all of our job and educational institutions in the last 10 years, as well as the full names of both of our parents....  might as well ask for blood sample;), CRAZY complicated airline tickets (which are supposed to be refundable and changeable-- we also have military, adoption, and "points" options to research).
So, all in all... BE PRAYING FOR US!  Be praying for traveling safety and childcare.  We are trying to arrange family/friends to care for Kai and Em while we are away (probably about 9 days).

Our proposed schedule looks something like this:
--Fly out of Meridian on Friday June 15th (granted our visas get here!!!  Monday and Tuesday are Russian vacation days;(
--We have to arrive into Moscow (the airport is about 1.5 hrs outside the city) and get to the trainstation by 8pm.  We take a 14 hour train ride (on the Tran-siberian railway!!!!) into Kirov.  We are excited as it is summer and the sun will not set until about 11-12pm and then it will be "twilight" until 4-5am when the sun will rise again!
We spend several days with our little man in the orphanage in Kirov.  We then ride the train back, do a bunch of paperwork in Moscow (assuming that we accept his referral for sure) and then fly back of Moscow.  We have to lay over somewhere and we think we are going to prolong our layover by at least a night to relax and try to unwind after our exhausting and emotional trip.

So.... gotta go.  We have TONS of stuff to do.... so will talk to you later!!!!!!!!

ps: WE ARE C-R-A-Z-Y excited!!!!! God is sooo good;) 

May Update

Can you believe that May is nearly over?!  Time is absolutely flying by.  My mom always tells me that time flies by even faster as we get older; its not that I don't believe her... its just that I can't imagine time passing more rapidly than it has been recently!
Things here in Mississippi are good.  Girls are good, Aunt Jen Cusick moved down here this week (she took a job out on base), and things just continue to move along.  I resigned my nursing job to focus on our precious family. 
We received our notice to be fingerprinted for USCIS (which is the petition to bring home an orphan into the US )- we have to go to Jackson next week to be fingerprinted (again;)  That means the petition is in the works and that is good news (the petition has to be officially approved before our 2nd trip and Court date in Moscow).
We have taken out a loan to help cover the immediate costs and large sums of cash we will have to travel with to Russia.  We are thankful that the Lord opened up a SUPER low interest loan option for us.  We researched personal loans, adoption loans, and hundreds of grants... but we really don't qualify for any of them. SOO, we will be working our tails off in the mean time to pay for this process.  It's not our money anyways... the Lord has provided abundantly for us and we are just giving a (bunch) of it back in order to bring our baby home from Russia.... and friends, is there ANYTHING else more worthy of spending our hard-earned money on?!  Yes, this process is ridiculously expensive and yes we feel like Russia has made the process both difficult and crazy-expensive.  But we are supposed to rend unto Ceasar what is Cesar's.... and is there is anything better than to give to ransom a soul from darkness? 
This baby is born.  This baby is waiting for us.  And we are ready.
SO, Sweet Jesus... we plead YOUR FATHER'S heart to hear our prayers and to send us our baby soon.  We are ready.  His room is ready.  We pray for him all day and night long. 
So, friends, pray with us.  Pray the Lord will (continue) to pave the way for us to bring our son home.  And... pray for patience and peace in the meantime;)  We are learning ALOT in this process.
And in closing... I will share a story from sweet Emma.  She was playing in the play area at Chikfila and there was an older girl playing with her.  Girl to Emma: "Hi, whats your name?".  Em: "I be Emma".  Girl: "Oh... well, see that boy out there?  Thats my brother and he is CRAZY.  Do you have a brother too?"  Em: "YES!!!!  He be Nik-o-why.  He not crazy.  He gonna LOVE the Emma".
He isn't gonna love the Emma.... he already loves the Emma-- because we pray AND WE BELIEVE that in his little heart, he knows that he is LOVED AND CHERISHED AND PRAYED FOR by his family.
Lord, we wait... on You (and on Russia;)  Send us that referral... send us his picture and lets get this traveling going so we can bring this precious soul home!

Things are moving ALONG!!!
We sent our finished dossier packet off to Frank Adoption Center this last Tuesday April 24!!!  Attached is a picture of the notes the girls wrote for the adoption agency staff.  After they review all the info and make sure it is complete, we are then officially on the "wait list" for a referral.  Currently there is NO wait as there are more little boys available than there are families.  So basically, as soon as we are ready we will be able to start looking at referrals.
So, what will take for us to be ready?  Availability to travel (Tom can't leave work until early June), money (We are still trying to figure out where the money is going to come as we need to have the funds available to write two LARGE cashier's checks- like $25k to the Russian government on our second trip when we go to court to officially adopt him), and be emotionally ready (I feel like we are THERE;).
The money is going to come- we have FAITH!!!  We are in process of looking at a very low interest rate loan.

Part of the reason I am recording this amazing journey is to help others in the adoption process.   I have extensively researched many different grants and loan options to help fund aoptions.  Unfortunately, we do not qualify for almost any of them (it looks like we make too much money on paper), but I want to write them down for other folks to look through.  I started by just searching the internet for different sources and here are the ones that I took some time to dig through:
-Show hope: Shaohannah's hope
http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Grant_Application_Landing&JServSessionIdr004=dtacd1a8l7.app214a
 -Life Song for Orphans

http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/downloads/GrantsLoansInfo.pdf

 -Parenthood for me
http://www.parenthoodforme.org/grants/faq/#Adoption
-NAFA (must make a donation before applying)

http://www.nafadopt.org/how-we-can-help/apply.php

-Resources 4 adoption (chart of 60 + loans and grants for $20)

http://www.resources4adoption.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=126&Itemid=145

 -Abba Fund:

http://www.abbafund.org/howwecanhelp.htm

-Gift of Adoption $40 app fee

http://www.giftofadoption.org/apply/whoShouldApply.html

-International Adoption Resources

http://internationaladoptionresources.org/pdfs/Financial-Grant-Application.pdf

-God’s Grace Adoption Ministry  (combined income needs to be less than $60k)

http://ggam.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/GGApplication.pdf

-His Kids Too!

http://www.hiskidstoo.org/adoption-info/adoption-financial-assistance-program

 Once a child referral is made, this organization gives money to help fund getting assistance for a international adoption specialist:

-The Sparrow Fund

http://www.sparrow-fund.org/serve.html

Complete after referral:

-Affording Adoption Foundation

http://www.affordingadoption.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/GRANT-APPLICATION-8.18.113.pdf

-Oxford Loan (Provides loans up to $5,000 per internationally adopted child; loans are interest-free for the first three years: has to be after the adoption has been approved in the country)

http://www.oxfordadoption.com/

-Sea of faces

http://www.seaoffaces.org/grants.htm

To complete after at least 1/3 of all adoption expenses have already been paid:

-A Child Waits:

http://www.achildwaits.org/Pre-Qualification%20Form.htm

More loan options:

-America's Christian Credit Union

http://www.americaschristiancu.com/personal/loans/adoption-loans.html

-Pathways for Little Feet (must be within 3-6 months of completing adoption process)

http://www.pathwaysforlittlefeet.org/about/becoming-a-pathways-family/apply-for-assistance/

A few other more creative ideas:

-Fundraising (support letters, bake sales, garage sales where people donate stuff to sell....)

-Church offerings

-Refinance car (some banks will allow you to refinance and take out more money depending on how much equity you have in your vehicle)

-Home Mortgage

-Personal Loans (most rates are 10-18%)

I recently received this Word from my sister:

"To the degree of faith you have, is the same in what amount He will move in power" -Rachel

(Read from Luke 43-48 and BELIEVE that the Lord will supply the money, the means, and everything else you need to complete this amazing calling and journey He has called us tooo!!)

Update on our chaos;)
So... time is FLYING by and I want to update everyone on what the adoption status is!
We are officially "approved" by our homestudy agency to adopt;)  The homestudy was a series of 4 visits, with 3 being home "inspections".  We had to make sure we had cabinet locks on everything, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide, blind tie-ups.... WAY overboard on the safety side.  BUT, we passed.  The part we were not prepared for and did not expect was the EXTENSIVE interviews about ourselves and each other.  We even had to describe each other.  Tom pretty much dropped the ball on that one;)  He told the social worker I was "zealous, emotional, and a good cook".  Hm... he got in big trouble from me about that- but I love him anyways;)  And hey, this whole process has been a growing experience and has certainly brought us closer together.
Once our home inspection was approved, we quickly sent off the all-important I-600A form to the US government.  This form is basically a petition for government approval to bring home an orphan.   Most estimates say it takes 2-3 months for the approval; we thought we would kinda sit around and wait for it to be approved before moving forward.
GOOD NEWS!  I emailed our adoption agency (Frank Adoption Center) with an update that we had sent out our I-600A and I found out that we can continue with the process and that we do not need this approval until our second trip (when we go to Russian court to officially adopt him!).  SO.... we are proceeding with the process and as soon as we (And our homestudy agency) get the rest of the Phase I document done, notarized, and apostatized (basically there is one apostille per state... someone who basically notarizes that the notary is official... a state approval of the documents so to say).  We have a TON of documents to send off to get this apostille.  Once we get all our CRAZY amount of documents back, we will send off the completed packet to FAC, they will look through it, if everything is in order... we could start looking at "referrals".

Ususally there are WAY more families waiting to adopt than actual children ready to adopted, so wait times are usually in the 6-12 month range.  However, because of the economy, SOO many families are not adopting (YES, it really is crazy expensive), so our wait time estimate is basically none.  So the referral process will hopefully work sorta like this:  We decide on "parameters" or requirements of what we are looking for in our son (parameters can include: gender, age, ethnicity (European, Gypsy, Asian, or Eurasian)... you can be as specific as hair/eye color).  Once our paperwork and parameters are set, the agency will talk to the Russian orphanage and find an eligible child that meets those parameters (so obviously, the less specific the faster/easier it is to find a child).  The social worker then calls us with the basic info over the phone.  We will then say "yes" or "no" to whether or not we want to review that child's chart/pic (about a 1/3 of referral have videos).  If we choose "no", we wait for another referral.  "Yes" means that child's information is over-nighted to us to review.  We review the chart, send whatever medical records come with to an international adoption MD who reviews it looking for medical issues.  After looking at all the information, we can decide "no" or we can decide "yes" we want to fly to Russia and meet the child.  This is our first trip- basically us meeting him and he us.  Most people take further videos and pictures of the child to send back to the specialist to review for medical issues.  We do NOT have to decide the official yes or no in Russia whether or not we are going to adopt... but we will have to within a week or so of meeting the child.  If "no", we try for another referral but if a person refuses too many referral they are "blacklisted" so to speak in some regions/orphanages.  If "yes", this is our boy, we fly back to the US and start the official process.  Once we have a court date in Russia, we fly back to Russia, pick him up out of the orphanage and go to Moscow as he and us all have to have physicals and stand before court.  If we are granted adoption rights (sometimes after an hour long court session with grueling questions), we then only have to wait the 30 day mandatory "freeze" on the child--- he cannot leave Russia for 30 days (NO idea why they changed from a 10 day "freeze" to the 30 day in January 2012).  Most parents come back to the US to finish the process and wait the 30 days.  We have prayed about Celesta (and possibly the girls?) staying on a YWAM base in Russia to wait those 30 days.  PLEASE be praying for this decision specifically.  This is a BIG deal.
So, thats where we are at.  We are still getting ready.  We got his room all ready and decorated as we have to have pics of his room to include with the Phase I dossier packet.  I have attached a picture below.

As I was preparing his room and setting us his crib, Emma was "helping" me.  She asked "Why we doing this?".  I said: "We are getting ready for Nikolai because the people he is with want to make sure we are ready for him.  Emma, are you ready for him?"  Emma: "Yeesss.  Babee Nikowai is gonna be my brudda and he gonna be my best fwiend!"
NIKOLAI WE ARE READY FOR YOU AND WE ARE COMING FOR YOU!!!
Baby, Nikolai, please know that you family is coming for you.  We are praying for you and we are loving you.
Jesus, please protect  our darling son!

Anxious...

I find myself anxious tonight. 
It seems like this last week has brought lots of bad/ negative reports from loads of different adoptive parents we have talked to.
I have a prayer request... this goes beyond myself, beyond our fears, and touches the life of a young boy.  PLEASE pray for a very dear family as they have institutionalized one of their Russian-born sons for suicidal behaviors- and he is less than 10 years old.
Friends, I find myself nervous... anxious.  SOOO many things can go wrong with this adoption.  This child could "wreck" our family; this child could be a complete disaster; this child could have medical or psychological issues that may never resolve; this child may not even like us! 
Wow... where is all the negativity coming from?  Why now?  Why all the sudden?
Friends & family, PRAY FOR US.  And most importantly, PLEASE PRAY THE LORD PROTECTS OUR SWEET LITTLE BOY!!!! WE PROCLAIM SANCTUARY over him emotionally, spiritually, physically, and all other ways.

Please pray.

Exciting news to end with: We have already received several overly generous donations for Baby Nikolai!!! This brings tears to our eyes and strengthens our heart, courage, and resolve!  We tend to be rather self-reliant people and putting our emotions, feelings, and needs out "there" for all to see was a big leap of faith for us.

GOD IS ANSWERING IN A TANGIBLE WAY.... and through you, friends & family, we are encouraged and strengthened.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS, THOUGHTS, POEMS, and BLESSINGS.

We treasure you

Celesta Lee Cusick

Tears of Joy!!

We have two beautiful biological daughters.  Kaila (4.5 years) and Emma (almost 3 years).  They have been an active (and very excited) part of this process.

After we (finally) decided on Russia.... we sat the girls down and told them that we felt the Lord was leading us to a RUSSIAN brother for them.  Kaila asked what we wanted to name him.  She pondered his name for a minute and then exclaimed, 

“I can’t wait to teach him about Jesus!  I would like to pray for him: 
‘Beautiful Jesus,

please be with Nikolai.  Let him know that he is loved and prayed for- right now.
And may his bones grow straight and may  his heart grow strong… for You!’”

Wow.  Wow. Wow, am I one proud (and balling) momma!  What a confirmation in our hearts that our son is to be Russian... and he is SOO loved!

Jesus, Sweet Jesus, we praise you for YOUR words through the mouth of babes... from the mouth of infant YOU HAVE ORDAINED Praise!!!

You are worthy.  You are wonderful.  You are beautiful.  And we are THANKFUL people.  Thank-you for patiently and persistently leading us to Russia!  And thank you that you are preparing our son- even now, in that "secret place"... that is NOT hidden from You!

Amen and Amen

" For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,  your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  -Psalm 139: 13-16

(I love this picture!)

Details: How did we choose an agency?

Wow. The amount of information on the internet is OVERWHELMING when it comes to agencies.  The options are endless.  The agencies seem endless.

(more details to come.... had to take a break for life, kids, school... ya know;)

Details: How did we decide on a country?

This is a bit of story, and one that will be different for every family.  Our journey was a bit of a surprise and more than anything a testament to God's faithfulness and patience with us!!  I love how the Lord takes all of our human misconceptions and just completely throws them into the wind.  I can see in my mind, the Father taking our teeny-tiny ideas and just throwing them to the side, saying, "Oh, you think that is good?!  What until you see what I have in store for you".

I have always known I wanted to adopt.  And when I thought about adoption it was always that comfortable, "easy" scenario of finding a beautiful Latin newborn and bring him/her home.  I grew up in the Dominican Republic and have (yes, still have) a heart for adopting a Dominican child.  Imagine my surprise when I start our adoption research there... to find that I am too young to adopt a Dominican child!  Both parents are required to be 30 year old (I am only 28 years old).  After talking to my parents and reflecting on the "connections" we still have in the Dominican, I found myself thinking we could probably find a way around that.  Meanwhile, there was this gentle whisper and continuous research leading to the enormous need for adoption in Russia.  My hasty response: "Nah, it is TOO expensive!".  So, I found myself contacting an agency that does adoptions in the Dominican and had them contact their Dominican lawyer.  Response: No way around the age requirements.  Sigh.
Next step?  Brazil.  Ooh... That would be "easy".  We have contacts there and I can (sorta) relate to the language.  After days of research and preliminary application: only older kids are available (like 6 years and older and most will special need).  The lady I was talking to about Brazil: "What about Russia?".  Hmm... this seems to be a recurring theme.  Nah... Russia is too expensive and the travel requirements are ridiculous (three trips to Moscow!)
So, next was Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Haiti, Panama, Mexico, even Costa Rica.  Weeks of research all basically a dead end.  Some countries' programs were closed to government instability, some were "restructuring", some had only older children available, and some the waits were absolutely insane (Colombia was 4-5 years!).  We were willing to wait, some, but as  military family, we are bit short on the wait time as we will most likely be moving before 1.5 years, DEFINITELY moving before 2-3 years.  So I searched on....
Ethiopia, Uganda, and few other African countries have a huge need.  Fairly easy travel requirement, fairly young kids, and fairly inexpensive.  So we prayed and prayed, but we both agree that the Lord is not calling us there.
Another interesting fact: If you want an infant (which I really always thought our adopted child would be an infant), international is not a good option.  There are almost NO programs where you come home with a child < 6 months.  So... I went GUNG-ho into Domestic adoption.
Domestic Adoption: spent weeks of time with applications and contacting various good/ Christian agencies.  Great options with agencies, very inexpensive, and very comfortable.  We would go through an application process, a homestudy, put together a family "profile" that would be shown to pregnant moms that fit our criteria for an infant, a birthmom would pick us, and we would go and pick up the infant.  Seems pretty simple.  I could have an infant and not much discomfort to us during the process.  Wait times were variable: anywhere from 3-4 years for a Caucasian infant, 1-3 years for a biracial (which we were inclined toward).  The hang-up?  There were anywhere from 3-6 families waiting for every child placed for adoption here in the US!  Wow, that is fantastic!!  That is wonderful news to hear American families are meeting this domestic need!  But we couldn't ignore this lingering feeling of "this is not where the need is".  
So... Russia?  I half-heartedly starting searching Russia.  Kinda "weird" but one of Tom's senior in-charge officers are a lovely couple who had recently adopted FOUR Russian children.  They absolutely opened their hearts to us and poured forth a wealth of information.  Hmm... still, Russia is SOO expensive- we do NOT have the money and Russia is such a foreign (uncomfortable?) country to Celesta.  Tom had spent a summer ministering to Russian orphans in a summer camp setting over in Russia back in high school.  He loved his time; he feels like it was a refining moment in his life. 
I searched more countries: China (Celesta is too young, they have the 30 year old requirement), India (new applicants need to be of Indian heritage), Ukraine, Tawain, South Korea... I researched every single country that allowed Americans to adopt their children.  And the result:no good leads.
Honduras was a maybe... they have a decent program with a longer travel requirement... I was considering Honduras some.  They speak Spanish... we had been in Latin America before.  Abi was thrilled as she gone into Honduras (to pee in their jungle?   Oh, Abi... gotta love my sister;)
Tom and Kim came down for a visit and we went for a few days to New Orleans.  We broke the news that we wanted to adopt to them.  Their reply was that they felt like they always knew we would.  They knew that the Russia summer was a game-changer in Tommy's life.  They are in full support of our decision!  Wow... Thank you, Jesus!  we were on the way back from New Orleans and Kaila was reading her little focus on the family magazine.  She handed me the magazine and asked, "Mommy, what is this talking about?"  Hm... it was a whole article about a little girl who has traveled to Russia.  And in the article it stated that prayers were needing that the nearly million orphans would find loving homes.
Wow.  Hm... looking at Russia closer.  Super expensive?  yes- anywhere from $45-60,000 + 3 trips to Moscow.  Hm.... more thoughts, and I starting contacting agencies specializing in Russian adoptions.
Weeks go by, I get an email from one of the Russian agencies, pleading for families to adopt.  They say they (for the first time since their conception in 1994) have more Russian boys available and ready for adoption than they have families for.  Hm.
So we sat down and talked.  We fasted.  We prayed.  And we sat down and talked again.  We BOTH feel the Lord's gentle (and SOO patient tug) toward Russia.
YES it is WAY expensive- but the Lord WILL lead the way!  So, for the first time in our marriage, we look at each other and look to God, saying: " We need money".  We are not capable of doing through our own power(s). 
And God's response: "I WILL take care of you- and your family.  I WILL lead the way.  Well done, my children.  Thank you for following my lead.  Fasten your seat belts, cause you are in for one exciting and wonderful adventure."

HERE WE COME RUSSIA!!!

Our prayer over our son: "Lord, grant him emotional, spiritual, and physical sanctuary.  Wrap him in YOUR arms of love and may he know that his family is PRAYING for him, LOVING him, and coming for him.  May the people caring for him feel a GREAT kindness, gentleness, and love toward him."

God is giving a Son....

And he is to be RUSSIAN born!!

We are excited, we are a little anxious, we are overwhelmed, 

and we are obediently following the Lord's lead on this.

Please be praying with us.

The truth about this blog: I have no idea what this blog will actually turn out to be.  

My reasoning behind starting is to detail our journey; whether these details are 

merely to keep loved ones appraised of what is going on, or someone may actually 

learn something about adoption and open the door in their own lives.  Who knows?!