There is light at the end of the tunnel

Just wanted to let you all know that there is, in fact, light at the end of this tunnel and that God is good. We're in the process of making some big changes, but we can't exactly share details yet. I promise to let you know just as soon as everything is official. Much love to all of you, thank you so much for your prayers and support--you cannot imagine how important they have been. My best wishes for a great weekend for all of you!

Much love!

Stress does some weird things....

Ok, so here's the crazy part of the week--last Tuesday I went to the doctor with this wonky rash on the right side of my chest and arm...guess what? I had shingles! The Doctor asked if I had been under any stress, since that can trigger them. I said, "you have no idea...."

Luckily, we caught it quickly and the antiviral stuff has worked (although made my stomach funky). I have learned that I probably need to deal better with my stress level, and that I probably also needed the weekend of sleeping a bunch.

No specific news right now, but we will keep you posted and let you know as soon as we know something...
Much love!

Please keep us in your prayers...

Hi Everybody.

Just wanted to let you know that there have been some setbacks here with the adoption. We're in the process of re-evaluating what we are going to do, but we would ask for your prayers as we make some serious decisions about where we go from here. We're not giving up, but we are changing directions. Please know that we appreciate all of your support, and that you are so very important to us.

God's blessings and peace

Ok, this is just silly!

Apparently, Russian banking giant "Sberbank" is doing a new promotional drive for the bank in hopes to inspire confidence and "cutsify" the bank. They're using little creatures they call, get this, "Sberbies"---or maybe they could spell it "Sburbees"? Most people who saw these on the website just thought they were kinda creepy. I have to agree....What do you guys think?

Review of the summer---Mission Trip to Moscow 2008

Members of the Russian and the American leadership team for the camp at Lesnoi Gorodok, just outside Moscow...I miss all these people so much!
Americans in Russia--we dressed up for "International Night" at the camp--Kevin and Jen are into the spirit, here!

Some of the camp kids singing at the dedication of the Vnukovo United Methodist Church


Last night at the camp worship--a picture of the stage--these were tealights that they lit as part of the worship service

The new Vnukovo sanctuary--isn't it beautiful? And we got to be part of the dedication!

Mike, our fearless leader, accepting bread and salt at "International Night" from Anastasia, one of the Russian leaders at the camp.

In the Kremlin on a Sunday---Irina hangs out with the Americans!

Ok, this was in the Kremlin, and they couldn't resist channeling John, Paul, Ringo and George...we really want t-shirts with this picture on them!

The Kremlin from the river as the sun is setting---wow!

After our trip to the souvenir market--it was a "hat" kind of day!


Hi Everybody! So sorry that it has been so long since I have posted anything. It has been a wild and crazy summer.

Just a few days after we got back from camp, I was headed out the door for Russia! Unfortunately, this wasn't for the adoption, but it was for an amazing mission trip with the people from LaCroix United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

We were in Moscow for more than two weeks--the first week was spent working on the Vnukovo United Methodist Church's new sanctuary and existing building, and then the second week we did the second installment of the youth and young adult church camp at Lesnoi Gorodok. Finally, the last full day we were there, the new sancutary at Vnukovo was dedicated in an amazing ceremony with music and food and prayers and fun.

What can I say? Amazing group of people on the American team, amazing friends old and new in Russia, and God just moving and working and pulling all of this together. If anyone has questions, we also spent a couple of days just seeing Moscow: Red Square and that area, the ballet, a boat trip down the Moscow River, walking down Arbat Street, the souvenir market at Izmailovsky (we stayed at the hotel near the market, so it was literally right outside the door!), exploring the metro, eating at McDonalds, ordering pizza for delivery online from Pizza Hut (go figure!), and wandering through GUM and the Kremlin. We also flew in and out of Domodedovo (a new experience, and a great improvement over SVO, but it was still pretty crowded when we were there--but, no luggage lost, and nobody held up in customs) on the new American flight out of Chicago. Again, an improvement over the trip two years ago, but it is still such a LONG flight to Moscow (that's really the only BAD part of the trip!)

We also spent lots of time getting to know (again) the people and youth at the church, and the kids at the camp. The worship and teaching times at the camp were so Spirit-filled, we had such a great time, and even the food was better this time---sadly, though, I had no REAL pelmeni (just those at the hotel). I miss those kiddos already--thank goodness for facebook, and for the fact that it is keeping some of us in touch now that we're home!

I wish that I had time and space to tell you everything that happened--I will post just some of the pictures, so that you can get some sense of what an amazing experience these few weeks we were there. If anybody has any questions, I am more than happy to answer--

Church Camp was just amazing!

A huge big thank you to those of you who were praying for us--I am so very positive that those prayers were heard. We were 62 strong this last week at camp--50 kids and 12 adult staff--and we had just an amazing experience. The curriculum that Steve wrote was all about how we have been "Entrusted" by God to care for the world, for each other, for our families, our friends and churches, our selves, and also for the message of the gospel and it's spreading to the world. On Friday night, when they asked the kids to either rededicate their lives to Christ, or to give them to Him for the first time, not one kid held back--and it was a truly awesome experience. We also had a whole lot of fun--capture the flag in the dark, camping out, swimming, doing music and drama, the talent show (have I said already what an amazing group of kids we have???) and just enjoying being with each other.

Church Camp!

So, tomorrow we head out into the "Wilderness" for a week with junior and senior high youthies. It should be a blast and a blessing--we always manage to see God at work there--it's my mountaintop, and the best place I know to be to see God at work. Please keep all of these kiddos (and us too, please) in your prayers. Even though they come, from the most part, from loving families, almost all of them have some serious baggage that they need to leave in God's hands. I can tell you that it breaks my heart to hear many of their stories. I will try to post at least once while I'm there (yeah, who would have thought--camp with wireless internet service!) and keep you all posted on what's going on. In the meantime, I hope that all of you have a blessed week, and enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend. For those of you traveling (to Russia or wherever), traveling mercies to all of you. I hold all of you in my heart and prayers!

joy!
Carolynn

Some pictures of the family:

Hi everyone! I thought that I would share a couple of pictures of our family, so that you can see the whole bunch of us! The top two pictures are from Father's Day weekend--Sarah and Jeremiah drove down for the weekend so that they could be with their dad, and it was a great weekend. They drove in Friday night, and then they, Steve, and Asher the cat proceeded to fall asleep in front of "Return of the Jedi"! Unfortunately, the flash woke everyone up but Sarah! The next picture is of us, outside of the church on Sunday morning. We were all dressed up, and it had been awhile since we had our picture taken together, so....

Jeremiah graduated in May with a Masters Degree in Engineering, and is moving off to New York state next month to begin a new stage in his life--it will be hard to have him so far away, but we're really excited for him, too. Sarah is working on finishing up her degree in diatetics this year (Miz-zou!), and we're very proud of her, too. She went to the Regionals in track this year, and was ranked 80th in the nation in the hammer throw.

Finally, the other "children" in the house are our two cats, Asher and Dinah. For those of you who have cats, you will agree with us that you don't really "own" cats--you just act as staff for them!

Just some pictures....

This was on the Russia mission trip two summers ago (2006) on the overnight train from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It was a bit tight, but comfortable, and a fun experience!

My small group at the Russian youth camp two summers ago. Only 2 Americans here--the rest are Russians, almost all from the area around Moscow. Several of the kids (or should I say young adults) here were young people who had "aged out"of the orphanage system. They were all amazingly cool.

The American mission team to Russia from two summers ago. We're celebrating "International Night" at the youth camp that we helped organize outside Moscow. We taught the Russians the "Hokey Pokey." They taught us much cooler stuff!

The missions group on my first Russian mission trip, 2002. We're inside the Kremlin, in front of the world's largest bell! This was in October, for those of you curious about the weather in Russia. We had snow a couple of the days we were there!

Our Church Camp Staff in Missouri, July 2007. Can you tell that it had been a tough week???? Actually, it was a really great week, but you don't get much sleep. Perhaps this is practice for adoption?

Where we've been so far

We wanted to catch some of you up with how things have started in this adoption process, and some of the very clear signs that this is what God wants us to do. I know that for those of us in the process (and probably for those of you who have already completed the process), this whole “Russia adoption” thing is just unexplainably frightening because we have absolutely no control over it. Russia changes its requirements almost daily it seems (ok, I’m exaggerating, but it feels that way), new paperwork needs to be submitted, hoops need to be jumped through, and everyone’s experience is somewhat different. On top of that, you’re ½ way around the world from your child, the language is craaazee, the culture is different, and then there’s this whole history that we have of Cold War conflict. All of this adds up to an experience that is difficult in any country, but seemingly more of a struggle because it is Russia.


So why did we decide we wanted to put ourselves through this? Good question. Steve and I have felt a calling to add more children to our family for a very long time. Once I finished my graduate work in 2000, we got more serious about the situation. After a couple of years with no results, we consulted a fertility specialist. After a whole bunch of tests, he basically told us that there were no real physical problems, we were just biologically old and the odds weren’t as good as they could be at this point. At this point, we had a choice between investing a huge amount of money into in-vitro procedures or adoption. We decided, after much soul searching, to pursue adoption. Since I have felt a really strong tie to Russia since taking beginning Russian language as a freshman in college (this is a whole different story that I’ll share later), and since I had been on a couple of mission trips where I had worked with kids who had aged out of the orphanage system and had felt a very strong connection to them, along with having good friends in our church who had adopted a little boy from Russia, we decided that we would pursue a Russia adoption. That was in late November 2005.


We began the process toward adoption in early 2006, began to assemble our paperwork, and then found out that Steve was being moved because of his job. Our agency told us that it would be best for us to start over once we were settled in our new home. We moved in June 2006, and that’s when the whole system began to shut down. In retrospect, this was probably best for us, since at this point I was still grieving the whole infertility situation. Setting up a new house, getting settled in a new church, looking for a job—along with the fact that Russia adoptions were just not really moving—really was a wall for us. We didn’t really get restarted until Spring of 2007. At that point we decided to step out on faith that adoptions in Russia would re-open, and that we needed to be ready for that to happen. We again began to assemble our paperwork.


In July last year, we went to church camp. Steve has been leading this same camp for the past 22 years, and the kids who come (7th-12th graders) have become family to us—many of our counselors are former campers. On the second night of camp, we asked for prayers for healing—I shared with one of our senior girls who was worried because she had been accepted to Notre Dame, but had no idea how she would pay for school. I (Carolynn) shared with her about our adoption, and how I was frustrated that nothing had happened. We prayed together, cried together, and just held each other that evening. That next morning she got a call from her mother that she had received a full-ride ROTC scholarship. That afternoon when I checked the news I learned that Russia had begun to re-accredit adoption agencies. Isn’t that just like God??


We came home from camp, believing that God had shown us that He was in this adoption. We made contact with our social worker and completed our Home Study by October. We started assembling our dossier, I (Carolynn) started a new part-time job at MO State teaching World History, and finally, by mid December, when finals were over, we had time to journey to KC to apply for INS approval. We were there on what would have been Steve’s Mom’s birthday, December 13.


Our agency told us that we probably wouldn’t hear anything from INS (I know, now it has another name!) until mid-February. We received our approval in the mail on the day before Christmas—talk about a Merry Christmas present! I had told Steve earlier that the only thing I really wanted for Christmas was for our adoption to move forward! God sure answered that one!


Finally, all of our documents were apostilled and off to our agency in late January. They arrived in Russia around the first week of March, and we sent off some additional paperwork for the region we had been assigned to (Izhevsk) in April. Now we wait. Our agency can only register one family at a time in our region, and we’re waiting in line behind something like 8-9 other families at this point. So really, we technically haven’t been officially Paperwork Pregnant all that long—it has taken us a long time to get here, though!


We will save the rest for later, since this is already pretty long. We just wanted to let you know not only where we are (and have been) in the process, but how God has walked every step of the way with us. Our prayers for all of you, and blessings for a great rest of the week!