We received our fingerprint letter today from Immigration.  We will be going to Dallas this Friday and will come back on Monday.  We are so glad to be getting our prints done.  We have to have our immigration clearance (I-171H) before we can travel to Russia on our second trip.  Hopefully, it will not take more than a few weeks to get our I-171H.

We are also going to be meeting our social worker in Dallas so she can prepare Elijah’s final post placement for Russia.  Russia requires post placement reports of all children adopted from there.  They are done in a certain time frame.  This last one is due April 15.  We have had each one completed and sent to Russia as they require.  This one will be the final one.  There has been a total of four and this will make the fifth.  We are so happy!

Just wanted to tell everyone what we are up to.  Pray for our safe trip to and from Dallas.

Blessings to all,

Wendi

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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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Who will cry for the orphan boy who is lonely all his years
Who will cry for the orphan girl whose eyes have run out of tears

Who will give an orphan child the things they really need
Like home and love and family, yes who will hear and heed

Who will love an orphan child, the Bible says we should
Who will give an orphan child a loving home for good

Who will love an orphan child, the Bible says we must
Who will give an orphan child a sense of belonging and trust

We live in a culture that has it all, but tells us we need more
Will orphans without home or love ever see our door

What use is faith that fails to love the orphans as we should
God gave us wealth so we could give an orphan a home for good

What use is faith that says to a child who desperately needs a home
“Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” but then leaves her all alone

How can I tell an orphan child of a God who loves them so
They’ll never understand God’s love if my love they don’t know

How can I tell them Jesus died to take away their sin
They won’t care that Jesus died when they are dying within

God said we’re all orphans here, and sent Jesus to pave the way
And if we accept His gift of love, we’re a Child of God today

Adoption is God’s proof of love according to His Word
Adoption is the word of love the orphan has never heard

Adoption is God’s gift of love, the love that we all need
Adoption is the orphans cry, but who will hear and heed

Who will cry for the orphan child, it’s something they cannot do
But, who will cry for the orphan child? If they can’t, Will you?

Families who visit orphanages often report being shocked to discover that most orphan children never cry because their crying is ignored. Figuratively speaking, their eyes have run out of tears.

Copyright 2005 by Gerald D. Clark Home For Good Foundation www.hfgf.org

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I just added a new way to get updated on what is happening here at the Morton Family Website. Just subscribe to our RSS feed with the form located at the top of the sidebar on the website and every time we post, it will be sent to your email address.

Let me know if you have any problems.

Thanks and God Bless,

Trevor

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The Color of Jesus

By Jill Marshall-Work

She was given a picture of Jesus to color
in her Sunday School classroom that day.
If she would have asked me the color of His face,
I wouldn’t have known what to say.
Warm brown like her brother’s? Or peach like her parents’ ?
Or tan like her own golden hue?
But she didn’t ask me the color of His face–
she colored it blue.

Would his hair be in black flecked with gray like her Daddy’s?
Or would it be copper like mine?
Or silver like Grandma’s? Or maize like her cousins,
with a layer of gold for some shine?
Or gray like her Grandad? Or dark like her own,
a cascade of silky black ink?
But she didn’t ask me the color of His hair–
she colored it pink.

One ear was turquoise, the other was green.
His beard was the purplest purple that I’ve ever seen.
She made His lips yellow, His neck was in brown.
Then she looked at His eyes and she stopped with a frown.

Had she noticed His eyes were as round as a marble,
with her Daddy’s and mine the same way?
The eyes in her picture were not like the eyes
that she saw in the mirror each day.
But you’d think that by now I would realize
how the world would be seen
through my daughter’s sweet, 4-year-old, almond-shaped eyes.
For her whole box of crayons was used to portray
the rainbow of love that she found in the eyes of her Jesus
in the picture she colored that day.

She was given a picture of Jesus to color
in her Sunday School class, but you see–
The Sunday School lesson in love that was learned
was taught by my four-year-old daughter to me.

Copyright words and music 2001 Jill Marshall-Work

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I wanted to share this audio with those of you who would like to know what the Bible says about adoption. Very wonderful message!

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/EventMessages/ByDate/1991_A

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The following is an excerpt from an email we received today from our adoption agency. At least we now know that our Dossier has been translated into Russian and is with the Ministry of Education in the region where Nick is. Now, we just wait! Our coordiantor told us today, “We are at the Russians mercy.” But we know Who is in control of everything! It is all in God’s time…not anyone else’s!
“I wanted to give you a quick update on what I’ve found out. I have confirmed with Serguei that your Dossier was finished with translation and has been forwarded to the Ministry of Education in Krasnoyarsk. We are currently waiting on movement from the officials in the region! I do not have any estimates on time frames or when to expect the next step, I do know that the Russian Duma is slated to hold a hearing that will impact adoption later this week. It is likely that the officials in Krasnoyarsk will not proceed with the adoption until after the hearing and it is also possible that they will refuse to move forward until we have received our re-accreditation status. This is by no means certain and is only my personal estimation so that you have an idea of what could happen and what to expect.”

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