Last Day in Nizhny

8:15am Friday, August 1:
Today is our last day here in Nizhny and it will be a long one. We will leave in a few hours for our last visit with "Little Man", go to sign a few papers, do a bit of sightseeing/ shopping, hang out in our hotel lobby for a couple of hours and then take an overnight train back to Moscow tonight. We will arrive in Moscow very early on Saturday AM (your Friday night back in the states), sightsee for a bit, get a few hours of sleep and then leave at 3:30am for our 7am flight back to Frankfurt and then LAX. And if we survive all of this, we should be in good shape!

We had a tough day yesterday--mostly just having the fatigue and long car rides in hot/ exhaust filled cars catching up with us. Our visit with "Little Man" was good, but stressful as we considered all of the challenges that we/ he may face. It is such a scary thing--so much uncertainty and literally nothing within our control.

We got to see his nighttime sleeping room, orphanage bathroom, and play quarters yesterday. The sleeping room held 18 tiny cribs pushed next to each other in rows. His play room was larger than we expected, with 6 or so kids playing with a caregiver while "Little Man" and others were off napping in the day sleeping room. I am thankful for these memories.

After many tears last night and some good rest, we are feeling better today and are eager to visit him one last time.

Please pray for us. Pray for clarity and wisdom for both Phil and me--we are asking God to close doors that need to be closed and give us the faith to walk through those He has and continues to open. Pray that we would be made aware of anything we need to know about "Little Man" and his health. Pray for our peace and attitudes as we finish up our time here in Nizhny. Pray for our flight/ travel plans as our airline, Lufhansa, has gone on strike--not necessarily affecting us, but it may. Please pray for "Little Man"--for his protection and continued healing.

We are eager to be home. We miss our kiddos and friends. We look forward to seeing Moscow and then beginning our journey back to LA. And we think that our friends the Mocabees are absolute studs for surviving 1 month here...amazing you 2...and with 3 kiddos in tow!

What a Day!

Update from our first full day in Nizhny, Wednesday July 30 (which was actually yesterday for us as we are writing this in the AM on July 31)

We woke to the most beautiful view from our hotel window...it is simply breathtaking here. Our hotel looks out onto the Volga River and is in a safe, nice part of town. We've been enjoying long walks (where we are heading in just a moment actually!) so that is a major blessing.

Following breakfast at our hotel buffet, we headed out to the Ministry of Education where we received the official invitation to visit the little one and learned his birthday (April 1, 2007) and his last name. We then took an hour ride through lovely countryside to his orphanage.

What we found when we got there was a pleasant surprise. It was clean and well-kept, many children were outside being taken for walks around the grounds in strollers. We looked at each little face wondering if "Little Man" was one of them...

After 45 minutes with the orphanage Dr. and Director, getting the social and health history, we each could feel our hearts about to beat out of our chests as "Little Man" was brought in...

He was very apprehensive at first (a great sign in the adoption world!) not showing any facial expression AT ALL! His little face held fixed eyes as he tried to figure out why these strangers were here to see him. After 15 minutes or so he warmed up nicely. He gave us a sheepish grin as we played--melted our hearts I'll tell you! We were so blessed to spend an hour and a half with him. He crawled around, played with the stacking cups we brought, devoured the cheerios we introduced him to, loved the rattle and other light up/ noisy toys we brought, and was a happy, even giggly at times, child. He took steps to us and honestly just played so happily. He is small for sure—16 months old tomorrow but much more the size of a 12 month old at a max. We did find out that he was born at probably 29 weeks, very premature, but he has caught up quite nicely…he’s a little fighter we think.

Here is a photo of us with “Little Man”. We aren’t allowed to post any “recognizable photos” of him so you’ll just have to take our word for it…he’s scrumptious!


We came back to our hotel, took a nice nap to the rain outside and woke up to this:

Needless to say, we are THRILLED! We had a wonderful visit and were so impressed by the kindness and care that the orphanage workers had. They seem happy for us, happy for him. We go back in a few hours to spend additional time with him and have another visit Friday as well.


The Lord has given us peace, excitement, and so much joy! And we are both feeling healthy and quite rested...added blessings for this journey.

Here is how our day ended yesterday...What a Day!


Thank you for your continued prayers. We LOVE sharing in this with each of you.

We Are HERE!

After a long day and a half, we are here, sitting in our hotel in Nizhny Novgorod using our free wireless internet access...how crazy is that! Our travels included 16 hours of flights (3) and a 5 hour train ride from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod. We have had a good trip honestly. Our only casualty was 1 wheel on Phil's rolling suitcase, but we are managing just fine.

Our drivers and translators have been so kind, we are feeling amazingly OK despite sleep deprivation and being SO FAR FROM HOME!

In the morning we will head to the Ministry of Education to receive the official invitation and where-abouts of "Little Man". We will then go to his orphanage and meet with several staff there to gain information about him before we get a 20-30 minute visit. We are excited and nervous--tomorrow is a big day.

We plan to keep our blog updated and will write more tomorrow. Good night all.

We're Off!

We are packed, ready, tired, and so excited to leave in only a few hours. These last few days have been a whirlwind of events and emotions. In a short while we will be on a plane heading half-way across the world. Today has been so encouraging as our church sent us off in prayer, friends have stepped-in to help with kids and last minute details, B's soccer team won their tournament!, and we received a financial gift from someone we had never even met before. God has been near. There is a sense of calm somehow in the chaos of all that this trip entails--for that I am so thankful.

Please pray for our travels, especially as I, (Melanie), am not feeling very well.

We plan to update from Nizhny!!!

Surprise, Surprise!

We received the most wonderful surprise this morning...our VISAS! They came a day early and literally made our day. Now we are in full-swing packing and errands mode, counting down the hours until our departure.

Again, thank you for your prayers and encouragement. We just HAD to share our news with you.

The Bad, The Good, and the VERY Expensive

Today was busy. And tiring. And emotional.

I got an email mid-morning that said Nizhny Novgorod has re-issued the exact same letter to the Consulate, which they again, rejected and denied our adoption visas. The bad.

I then got word that Nizhny Novgorod had given us permission to travel on business visas, which they were previously unwilling to do. (this was not the way we thought the Lord would answer, but answer He did!) This was somewhat relieving news--it just meant that we had to have our passports returned to us, re-apply for business visas, and do this all within the next 48 hours so that they could be in our hands by Saturday, for our Monday early AM flight. The good.

In order to make this happen, everything had to be super expedited and that means super expensive! 4 times what we had planned to pay for our visas. The VERY, VERY, VERY expensive.

The mountain has not been totally conquered, but we now feel we are actually climbing it, with the peak in sight and our footholds secure. Please continue to pray because we must have our passports and visas by Saturday afternoon. We are being assured that this will happen, but still feel the need for much prayer on our behalf. God has been at work and we are certain He is still answering us.

The wrap-up: We will pack, get the kids (and super-cute puppy) all squared away with friends and family, and can't wait to celebrate on Saturday when our business visas arrive!!

Thank you for laboring in prayer for us. It means the world to us. We truly believe that God hears and answers us. It is humbling to know that so many people were praying and passing along our requests to others who joined us in prayer. We are immensely grateful.

We leave REALLY soon, I mean REALLY soon!!! It seems surreal; I am not sure when it will seem like reality, but it sure feels good!

Thankful,
Melanie for all

Visa Update

I wish I had more news to share, but did want to share what I have learned regarding the visas...OOOHHH the visas...

The long and short of it is that we will find out something Wednesday morning. Our agency representative in Nizhny will go to the Nizhny MOE on Wednesday (our Tuesday night) to speak on our behalf and see if they will issue a new letter of invitation that would then need to be faxed IMMEDIATELY to the Russian Consulate for our application for an adoption visa. Nizhny ONLY accepts adoption visas anymore and they are not easy to come by apparently.

We continue to wait and hope. We are filled with faith in a mighty God, asking Him to move on our behalf. A prayer partner who was not even aware of our visa crisis shared the following verse with us late last week: "The king's [ruler's] heart is in the hand of the LORD. Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes." (Proverbs 21:1) God knew what we needed to hear.

We know that God can turn the hearts of those who need to approve our visa applications. We are asking Him to do that. We would treasure your continued prayers on this matter-especially on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Our plane tickets are for 1 week from today. PRAY. PRAY. PRAY.

Mountains

I mentioned in our last post that we had "purchased our plane tickets and finalized our travel plans"...as of today, this is not entirely true anymore.

We are having a visa crisis. Apparently, our adoption visas were denied as the Russian consulate did not find our letter of invitation sufficient to issue the visas as we need them to be. This is not good news. This is stressful, tiring, discouraging, and confusing news. It does not at this point mean that we can not go at the previously scheduled time, it just means that we have a few more "mountains" to traverse until that can happen. I will spare you the details of the "how" this can happen as the details are still fuzzy. For now, I just ask you to pray.

Pray that our visas come through by July 25 (at the LATEST) so that we can keep our travel plans as they currently stand. Pray that we will find favor with the Russian government. Pray for our peace in the midst of a very unexpected and daunting "mountain" in our way. Pray that God would make a way for us.

As I have thought about this situation today, I have fought discouragement and worry by remembering that God is the God of the impossible, the Mover of mountains.

We'll keep you posted.

17 Days

We just finalized our travel dates and plane tickets! (only after literal hours of phone calls, internet searches, and fruitless efforts to use our frequent flier miles...)

Here is the scoop:
We leave California on July 28, arrive in Moscow on the 29th. Hop on a train RIGHT AWAY to travel to Nizhny Novgorod. We meet with the Ministry of Education (MOE) on July 30 and have visits to the orphanage July 30, 31, and Aug. 1!!! We head back to Moscow on Aug. 1 and fly back to California on August 3. (Wow, it makes me tired just to TYPE all of that...not to mention what it will be like to LIVE it!)

We are excited OF COURSE, but honestly feeling so overwhelmed with childcare plans, packing lists, document updates, travel details, and just trying to do our current jobs and somehow be good parents in the meantime...for these next 17 days.

Did I mention that we leave in 17 days?!? We are holding on to Hope. "Let us hold unswervingly to the HOPE we profess, for he who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:23)

Keeping Watch

Well...we got THE CALL yesterday...Yep, the call we've been waiting for...A REFERRAL!! Just when it seemed it would never come; it did...God is so good!

We are thrilled to announce that we have accepted the referral for a 14 month old boy in Nizhny Novgorod. We know very little about him other than his birth month and given name, but we feel like we can't pass up the chance to go and meet this little boy: "Little Man", as we are calling him for now.

We are excited and anxious, (basically just overwhelmed!), but so thankful for God's hand at work in our lives. We are trusting that He is the Author of this whole story--start to finish, and we will walk ahead in obedience and see what He has in store.

Speaking of "seeing", the adoption world refers to a referral like ours with little or no information and no photograph as a "blind referral". I too have been referring to it as that over these last 36 hours. That is how I feel...blind. I am just DYING to see him, his details, history, his nose and his little eyes. But for now, I am blind. I had always imagined receiving a referral photo that I could gaze at and talk to. I was feeling really sad about this until the early hours of the morning this morning when I awoke with wide-eyes thinking, "Did we REALLY get a referral for a 14 month old little boy yesterday?!" I began praying for him, for the process, for us--and I was stopped mid-prayer with the truth that God is "El Roi", the God who sees! (Genesis 16) I literally said out-loud, "God, even-though I know very little about him, You see him, Lord...You always have!" I smiled as I thought about that--that though I feel so blind, God sees and knows him perfectly. What comfort that brings even now.

We should find out more in the next couple of days about our travel plans and time-frame, and we will be sure to share those things with you when we know. For now, we are asking that you pray. Please pray for the details as we make travel plans, etc. Please pray for our family as we seek to listen to the Lord and walk in full obedience to Him. Please pray for "Little Man"--that God would protect, heal, and bless him.

Thank you for being interested in our journey--your partnership in this process is treasured.

"The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good." Proverbs 15:3