We are home

We finally arrived home last night.  We were so happy to see everybody who came to the airport.  This photo is with four of my children and Mark's girlfriend Deana.  The trip was long and the day was exhausting.  Misha was sick to his stomach by the time we were half way to Houston, so he wasn't eating or drinking anything from that point on.  He was feeling better today though.  I think Misha really liked his room and was excited about everything at the house (especially the X-Box he played with Josh a lot today).  He said he slept well in his bed last night.  


We were very sleepy when we arrived at the airport and are both still very tired today.  It is 7:00 pm here right now and Misha has just gone to bed.  I can't go to bed because I have to go pick Vernon up at the airport at 11:30 pm tonight.  He will get to meet Misha tomorrow morning.  Anthony will come home for a couple of days on Monday after he takes his final exam.  Maybe one day soon we will be able to get the entire family together for a family photo.


Thanks for following along with us on this journey.

Going Home!!

Misha and I will be flying home tomorrow.  We are both so excited!!!  Misha is very unhappy at having to get out of bed at 2:45 am in the morning.  I am not particularly fond of getting up at that hour either, but it is worth it to go home.  So, at 5:45 pm tonight central time we will be getting up to begin our journey to travel home.  Our expected travel time is about 23 hours, plus we have to be at the airport a while before our flight.  We will definitely be ready to be home when we get there.


It is absolutely amazing how God has shown His Glory through this process.  Those of you local to me will get to hear more of the story than has been posted on the blog, more details about how the hand of God was so visible throughout the entire process of being here and adopting Misha into our family.  God loves orphans and He loves families.  It is God's will that families welcome orphans into their home and provide them with a loving environment and a stronger future than they have in an orphan system.  Not everybody can or should adopt, but everybody can help children in need.  You don't even have to go to another country if God is calling you to help children in your own local area.  There are orphans in every country on this planet who need loving families to provide for them and teach them all the things that parents normally teach their children.  They need the love of Jesus to help them learn to be a Godly man or woman, and to help them deal with their past hurts that still cause them to suffer each day.  I am so blessed to be chosen by God to serve him by opening my heart and my home to a child with no parents.  If you have any questions about this process that I can answer for you I will be more than happy to do so.  


Thank you for the support and encouragement you have given me through this entire process.  See you soon!!!

We have a VISA!!!!

The documents we needed arrived this afternoon.  Vanya picked them up and brought them to me then we went to the embassy.  The consular was very happy to see that we had gotten all of the documents today, but not nearly as happy as I was to hear her say that we had everything we needed for the Visa.  It only took a few minutes for me to sign in a couple of places and then we waited for the Visa to be printed.  It is a great feeling to finally have it all done.


My travel agent was able to schedule us some reasonable tickets for Tuesday.  The weekend tickets were simply too expensive.  The increase in price to switch to the weekend would have been between $3,000 and $5,000.  I just can't justify adding that much expense to the tickets just to come home on the weekend instead of Tuesday.  


Misha was very excited to have the Visa in his passport today.  I was so excited that everything was in order that I almost cried tears of joy so Misha thought I was upset because we weren't getting the Visa.  I had to explain to him that yes, we were getting the Visa today and we will be going home on Tuesday.  He was very relieved.


Thank you for all of your prayers.  I know that your prayers were heard and were answered.  Even in the delays God comforts and blesses those who turn to him.   He has blessed me more than I could ever deserve.  I will be looking forward to seeing the blessings he gave me in friends and family when I get home Tuesday night.  See you soon.

Prayers answered

I spoke with UPS here in Kiev a few minutes ago.  They said the package will arrive tomorrow and we can call to schedule a pick up of the package after 1 pm.  If we can go pick it up just after that we could go to the embassy to get the visa tomorrow afternoon.  I will keep Friday open here just to be on the safe side.  If tickets are available we may be able to fly home over the weekend.  Please keep praying.

No Visa

We went to the embassy yesterday and they said they needed more documents originally signed by Vernon and notarized.  They told me to have them shipped overnight and they should be here before my interview appointment today.  However, you cannot ship documents here overnight and there is no possible way to get documents here in the time frame in which they wanted them.  Vernon completed the documents and scanned them in but that is not acceptable to the embassy.  Therefore, we have been unsuccessful at obtaining a visa from the American Embassy for Misha to travel to the US.  We are going to have to wait until those documents arrive here at the apartment and then go to the embassy to try again to get the visa.  At this point, I have no idea for certain when we will be coming home.  It will definitely not be tomorrow.


Please pray that the documents will arrive very soon and we can get this all completed and get home.  Vernon and I have decided to ask my travel agent to book our tickets to fly home next Thursday, the 28th, in hopes that we will not run out of time again and have to extend the tickets while waiting for the documents to arrive.  I know God has plans and that His timing is perfect.  I am not certain of what purpose these delays serve, but I pray that God's will is fulfilled.


Be blessed.

We are in Kiev

Leaving Mariupol on Friday we ran into some bad storms in the Donetsk area.  It took us a while to get out of the station there and we made several stops along the way.  It is a 17-hour train ride from Mariupol to Kiev.  We are glad to have that part of the trip behind us and have settled in here in Kiev.  The apartment we are staying in is fantastic!!!  There is a good grocery store within walking distance.  Tonight we had pizza from a place around the corner that was really good.  All-in-all things are going very well now.  


Vanya has not yet been able to get the passport.  He is supposed to get it tomorrow and travel here to Kiev so we can finish our process on Tuesday and Wednesday.  He has to ride on the same train we rode on to get here.  We will then be ready to fly home on Thursday.  I really can't wait to get home.  I miss my family so much and I can't wait to get home to see them.


I hope everybody is having a great Father's Day.  I have been blessed with the man God gave me to share my life and my children with.  He is a great husband and a great father.  I only wish I were there to tell him that in person on Father's Day.  Oh well.... We will have to celebrate all of our holidays we have missed when everybody gets home.


Be blessed.

We have a place to stay in Kiev!!!

Just a short addition to my previous post, I just got off the phone with a guy who has a place we can stay in Kiev!!!  We will be going to Kiev tomorrow if Vanya can get tickets for us.