Let the shopping begin

We spent about an hour in the courtroom this morning. Everything went just as we were told to expect. The only question that they asked that we hadn't prepared for was "if the girl is allergic to pets, what will you do?" I answered seek medical treatment, and let the dog live outside. Leigh coudn't believe that I didn't just say, "we will get rid of the darn cats." After a lenghty 3-5 minute deliberation, the Judge came back in and affirmed our petition to adopt Anna Beth. She was not able to wave the 10 days before the ruling would be final, but at least we know we can come get her next month, and that she will be ours.

We have a few more hours here in Arkhangelsk before we head to Moscow for the night. We have an early start for home with stops in Amsterdam and Atlanta. If all goes right, we will be home a little after 9 Sat night. Thanks for continuing to remember us in prayer, and we look forward to seeing many of you for Christmas. We won't have Anna Beth home for this Christmas, but we will have many of those to come. Looks like we should be home in time for Mardi Gras though, so I guess that isn't all bad.

Well, I guess to address the title. I have been a little concerned about all of the shopping that had been going on around our family. Seems all of these little things kept appearing. I had requested that we not get too much ahead of ourselves until Anna Beth was really ours. Well, she is pretty much ours now, so I have lost my argument and the furniture and other stuff can start coming home too.

Again thanks for all of the prayers as we have made this quick but stressful trip to take care of this very important step. We should find out next week when we can return for Anna Beth, so we will keep you posted. This year more than any, I have a new appreciation for what God did for us at Christmas. If you haven't met the Son that was Gods gift to you, I encourage you to seek Him out. It will change your life. Who knows, following Him may even lead you to a land far away to meet another of His kids that He wants you to raise. Merry Christmas

We made it back to Arkhanglesk

No pictures with the post, because we look rough. We made it over with out any real problems. I had a really bad sinus squeeze on the way to New York, so I doped up really well for the flight to Moscow. Neither of us had any trouble on the long flight. We had another lenghty layover in Moscow, so we stretched our legs and filled our bellies. Flight to Ark was pretty easy. We both fell asleep before take off, and woke up when they told us to prepare for landing. All of the luggage is here, and the hotel is just like it was in August, except cold.

Thanks for all the prayers, Leigh and I were able to walk off the plane fever free!!!

Did I mention it is cold here? But it is a dry cold! Dang straight, at -10, there can't be much moisture in the air. Oh well, we have coats etc. Tomorrow will be court prep in the AM, and I guess siteseeing/inventoring the baby store in the afternoon.

Thanks for all the prayers, we will see you tomorrow.

Court date!!

We got notice that our court date for Anna Beth's adoption hearing will be the 18th. We will leave on Tuesday, go straight thru to Arkhangelsk on Wednesday. We will meet for court prep on Thursday. Have the hearing Friday morning, and if everything goes as expected, we will start for home Friday night. We won't have the baby with us then, in fact we won't even get to see her this trip. We will come home for Christmas, while we wait on our 10 day waiting period to pass, and then go back after the first of the year to pick up Anna Beth. The Russian government will basically shut down for the first 10 days of 2010, so we will not go back until after at least the 10th. When we go back we will be there for 10 days to 2 weeks, which puts us bringing Anna Beth home around the 23rd or so of Jan. We will keep everybody posted.

Planning this trip during the holidays has been kinda interesting. We had a few more days notice than we expected, but that put us traveling during the holiday period. We were fortunate that we were able to use frequent flyer miles for this trip. We thought at one time that we would be able to fly first class, but because of the holiday, it took all of our miles just to get the tickets. If we had not been saving miles for the last several years, we would have been looking at $3000 per ticket. God is good and he took care of us again.

Thinks are coming along well on the new house, and we should have Anna Beth in her new room before summer. Actually, before her 3rd birthday at the end of May. It has been exciting to see what we designed coming together. Come by early one morning, and I will show you around.

Thanks again for all of your prayers, and we look forward to showing Anna Beth off next month.