Today has been a bit of a tough day! Elijah went to school as usual this morning and seemed to be fine. At about 11:00 this morning his teacher called and was very concerned about him. He had started to cry and was asking about Nick. He would say, “I want Nick”…”where is Nick?” She said this went on for about 30 minutes. Trevor and I both went up to the school to see if he would talk to us about anything. When we got there he had calmed down and never mentioned Nick to us. He did want to go home with us but we talked with him and loved on him a lot and he realized he had to stay at school and Momma would be back to get him in a couple hours. This situation was so very strange. We do not talk about Nick in any detail to Elijah. He does know who Nick is when he sees his picture and when asked where Nick is Elijah will say, “In Russia.” We have told Elijah that we are going to try and bring Nick home so they can play together. We keep all of our talk very simple about Nick and in fact we do not bring the matter up around Elijah often. Perhaps it is all starting to “register” with Elijah. Because of Elijah’s language delays it is difficult to ask him questions as to “why” he was crying about Nick. We can only assume what might have triggered his feelings. After I picked Elijah up from school he wanted to come straight home. I was going to Sonic to get him a snack and he started to cry and say he wanted to go home. This was very unusual! The rest of the evening he was very fussy and wanted me to hold him or at least be in the same room with him. He seemed to be afraid for me to leave him. When Trevor came home from work he and Elijah played for a long time while I fixed dinner. Elijah enjoyed that a lot! I think he needed his daddy. We put him to bed at 7:30 and usually he will go right to sleep. Tonight he stayed awake for at least an hour or so. Didn’t cry…just was restless. He is sleeping very soundly now. I pray he has a much better day tomorrow. Bless his little heart. He is our precious little boy and has endured so much in his four years. He could have had a memory of Nick today that sparked his emotional outburst at school. Who knows? Only God does and we know He will take care of Elijah and give him peace and a much better day tomorrow.

Blessings,

Wendi

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We filed our I600A with the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) about three weeks ago.  The I600A is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.   We had to send in this application with proof of our citizenship as well as our marriage certificate and divorce decrees from any previous marriages of either of us.  Our social worker had already submitted our completed homestudy to USCIS for us.  There was a fee of $545.00 for this application along with $70.00 for each of us to cover the fingerprinting fees.  We will be traveling to Dallas, within the next week or so, to be fingerprinted for our FBI clearances. Once our fingerprints are cleared we will then be issued our I171H, which is Advance Approval for international Adoption.  We are so glad to be so close in completing this part of the process.  I must admit we are really looking forward to going to Dallas.  We will be taking Elijah and Grace, of course and will be able to spend some time with Trevor’s parents.  Trevor and I might even be able to go out on a “date” if Grammie and Grand-dude will watch the babies for us!  We are really hoping to get our notice to be fingerprinted from USCIS this week so that we can plan our trip for the coming weekend.  Just sort of need a weekend getaway!

Will keep you all updated as we move along!

Blessings to all,

Wendi

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We received a call from Samm at our adoption agency this past week.  He said the Ministry of Education in Russia had inquired of the Russian coordinator if we knew Nick has diabetes.  Samm already knew that we know about Nick’s illnesses but he had to make it official and call and ask us if we knew!  Samm knows there is nothing that would cause us to change our minds about Nick.  Samm told us that our dossier has been registered in Russia and he also said it is a possibility we could receive an invitation from Russia within the next couple of weeks to travel on our first trip.  That was awesome news!  Of course, Samm asked us not to hold him to that because there is no way he can be sure of that.  It is up to the Russian authorities as to when they issue the invitation.  We are getting really excited thinking that we could very well be in Russia within a month.  Usually after the invitation is recieved it is one to two weeks before you can travel.  It is just surreal knowing that soon we can meet Nick and hold him in our arms.  Please continue to pray for us.  We know everything is in God’s time and He will make the way for us to travel when the time comes.  We will keep you posted as to any updates from our agency.

Blessings to all,

Wendi

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