I felt I had to share some very distressing news that I heard just this morning. At least 10 regions in Russia have “shut down” international adoptions at this time. No one knows if this is a temporary situation or something that will be resolved soon. This situation is due to the fact of another adopted Russian child has reportedly died at the hands of the adoptive parents. I have placed a link below to the article about the death of this child. I have emailed our agency to find out if our region, Krasnoyarsk, is one that is affected by this “shut down.” I will update as we learn more information. We are very upset and saddened by this and all we have to cling to is that God knows best and sees the whole picture. His ways are not our ways and we must trust Him in this. We ask that you pray for our family and Nick and for all the other waiting parents and their precious children waiting to come home.
http://adoption.about.com/b/2008/03/17/another-russian-adoptee-has-died-adoptive-mother-father-in-jail.htm

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I want to let everyone know I am gonna be grandma again!!  My son, Chris and daughter in law, Jennifer are expecting a baby October 21!  I am so excited I don’t know what to do!  What an awesome blessing!  They both will be the best parents a child could ask for.  I can hardly wait to get my hands on my SIXTH grand baby!  I know he/she will be the most beautiful baby in the world and will be loved beyond measure.  Thank you, Jesus for entrusting this precious gift to Chris and Jennifer and to our families.

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It is Friday night and God has blessed us with another wonderful day!  Trevor and I got Elijah out of school early today and went to Longview for lunch and to do a little clothes shopping for the kids.  These two babies are growing so that seems we can’t keep them in clothes!  Or shoes!  We went by Brother’s gym today.  That is what Elijah calls it cause that is his brother Chris’ gym.  Elijah loves to go there and punch the punching bags and turns flips on the mat.  We didn’t get to stay long because we had to get our shopping done and get back home in time to pick up Gracie from Granny’s house.  We really had a nice day together and now the kids are watching Little Einsteins and will be going to bed in a few minutes.  They have a big day tomorrow at our church…it is our annual community Easter egg hunt.  Always an awesome time!  I look forward to it as much as the kids do, I think!

Have a blessed and safe weekend and remember to give thanks to our Lord and Savior for giving his life to save us.

In His Love

Wendi

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I thought perhaps some of you would be interested in knowing where our Nick lives right now.  He is in an orphanage in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.  It is actually in Siberia.  He has been institutionalized since the age of two years.  I have posted the link below which will tell you about this region where he is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnoyarsk

Blessings,

Wendi

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“Special needs,” the doctor said and all of the specialists nodded their heads.”Special needs,” written in whispers of ink over my child’s life.

My son is more than precious to me. His smile warms my very soul.

He sees purely, feels deeply, loves sincerely.

His hug holds more healing than all the doctors in the world.

His “I love mommy” carries more weight than all the applause of mankind.

My life is less than his. He has more to give, more to offer, more to share.

His “special needs” sing a duet with special strengths.

His love is not choked by the fear of rejection.

His opinions are not bribed by flattery or praise.

His giving is not oppressed by worry for tomorrow.

I too have “special needs.” I need to be more like my special son.

“A special gift,” the Creator said and the heavenly host all nodded their heads.

from alicia’s devotional book Pure Joy

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We have received some of the paperwork from our new agency. They have decided we should go ahead and redo EVERYTHING!! So, here we go again! I must admit it gets easier each time we work on our dossier! We are nearly pros now! Hopefully, we will have it all completed and sent to Austin for apostilles this week.  As I stated a couple days ago, our social worker will be here tomorrow to update our home study.  Trevor and I are cleaning house and getting ready for her visit.  Always such a blessing to see her!

Not a lot of news to tell today!  I will update you all tomorrow evening after Susan’s visit.  As always… please keep praying!!

In His Love

Wendi

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I am just so excited this morning! And also a bit nervous! Our new agency is really working hard in helping us get everything expedited so we can get our son home! The paperwork is so overwhelming, to say the least. You would think I would be used to it by now, since we have completed two adoptions and already completed all the paperwork for our previous agency for Nick’s adoption. But a lot of things have expired since it was all submitted to Russia. So, we have to redo most of it. And also the region where Nick is has to have certain things that other regions do not require. It is a major undertaking! But Nick makes it ALL worthwhile.

Susan, our social worker, will be here this coming Tuesday to do another home study as ours expired in January! We always look forward to seeing her though. She has become a part of our family since we have had so much contact with her over these past five years. She has done all our home studies, updates, and all our post placement reports on Elijah. She probably knows as much and maybe more about us than our own families! The interviews are pretty detailed and intimate! Susan is very easy to talk to so that helps so much. We consider her a dear friend.

I could write for hours today but this isn’t getting the paperwork done! I will try and write each day now. Until yesterday I had not posted in several months. I just did not have the heart to do so. Each time I would try to write a post I would cry. I was discouraged, to say the least because it just seemed we were not getting anything accomplished toward bringing Nick home. But now I am feeling very confident that he will be here soon. Please keep us and Nick in your prayers. Also, please pray for our agency workers and for the Russian officials so that all goes smoothly.

God bless you all!

Wendi

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We are in the process of changing adoption agencies.  FTIA is a wonderful agency but still has not received their re-accreditation.  This is through no fault of their own.  We signed with them in January 2007 and our dossier has been in Russia since then.  The wait has been 14 months now!  So, we felt we needed to switch to an agency that has already been re-accredited.  Through much prayer and researching different agencies we were led to one in particular, which I will disclose at a later date.  We are very pleased with them and already they are putting things in place to get Nick home.  Our prayer is he will be home for his ninth birthday, which is in August.  Please pray in agreement with us that we can go for our visit trip very, very soon and that our court date will not be long after.  I will update more info later this week as we are awaiting some important info from the agency at this time.   As soon as we hear news I will pass along to all of you!  Keep praying!

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