Hello From....The "R" Country!!!

WE ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can I just say that there have been days that we thought we would never be able to say that!  It was a long journey...door to door, over 30 hours.  It is currently 1pm in TN and 10pm here.  There is still daylight outside...so strange. We are really really tired and just thrilled to be here!  The travel went as well as possible. And so far, our translators/facilitators have been so kind and helpful.  We also sat with a gentleman on the plane (from R country:) that spoke English and it was truly a pleasure getting to know him.  He was very perplexed as to why we were doing what we were doing so it was the first of hopefully many opportunities to share the love of God!

First thing we want to say is a huge thank you.  You all prayed us here and you gave so tremendously!!!  There are so many many hands involved in the adoption of Ivan...a beautiful picture of the Gospel! 

I was reflecting on this passage today on the plane from I Tim. 6:17-19.  I am too tired to type it all out right now, but please check it out if you can.  The word generous is used in Paul's instruction and to the side in my Bible I had written, from a previous message given by one of our teaching pastors, that "generous living is  redemptive acts of kindness overflowing from a heart full of faith, hope, and love."  That is precisely what we have been surrounded by.  I just cannot tell you how what it means to us and how this journey has changed us.

To let you know, because you are all such a huge part of this, we did not raise everything we needed to pay our agency.  We did get great news that because we are a RR family, we get a $1K deduction of fees, which drops our final agency fees to $15,500.  We have raised a bit over $12K and will pay $10K of our fees tomorrow.  We need to keep some out for the cost of travel and fees in country.  When we return, we will evaluate what we have leftover from travel expenses and then pay more agency fees.  We are hoping to sell our CRV very quickly and that will help a great deal.  Anybody need a car?:)  We just wanted everyone to know where we were with all of that.  We are so grateful that our agency allowed us to pay part of our fees and still travel and for ALL of you!!!

We truly feel like this journey to our son is JUST beginning.  Those of you that have walked this path with us over the last 6 months may feel like it is near the end, but we have a long way to go.

Leaving our children yesterday (what day is it??) was so very hard...much harder than I had imagined.  I am not worried about them at all.  I guess just my attached mommy heart felt odd leaving my babies to go see our other.  It was gut-wrenching and heartbreaking and there is just no other way to put it.  I couldn't have prepared for it...I know that much.

Now about sweet little Ivan...

We are meeting our facilitator in the morning (Tues. @ 9am).  It will be Mon.Night/Tues. morning at 12am TN time.  We will be going to the Dept. of Education and then to a notary where we will take care of some paperwork and business and of course request to go meet Ivan.  I am assuming that could say no since we have to ask permission. PLEASE PRAY HARD that we get to see him tomorrow.  We are about 10-15 min from his baby house right now and that feels so surreal.  We trust that God's timing is perfect. Please pray that his little heart will be prepared to meet us and for smooth relations with everyone involved.  We will take pictures and video and post as soon as we are able so please check back often.

My Facebook is in R****an and so I cannot access that.  You can email or leave comments on the blog.  We will try to respond as we are able. 

More details to share about our travel so far later.  The city we are in seems to be very historic with many old beautiful buildings.  There is a really nice park right outside of our hotel.  The driving here is CRAZY!!!!  Oh.My.Word!  That's all I will say about that for now.  More on all that later.  We will have to let the pics speak for us as we are truly exhausted!  Love you all...keep praying!!!