Russian Language

For my birthday last year, Staci and Dwayne (my sis and bro-in-law) gave me a Russian Language book and CD set. I started working on it a little a while back and had no success. The Russian language is hard! The letters in the Russian alphabet look very little like our English letters. Now I took Spanish in high school and the Spanish alphabet still looks quite similiar to the English alphabet so it wasn't so bad (then again I was ten years younger and my brain was a little more resilient). To this day I still sing our alphabet rather than say it, and I still sing the Spanish alphabet if I ever need to recite it. So I decide last night that I'm going to make a tune and sing the Russian alphabet to help me learn it better. Do keep in mind that I am one of the most musically challenged people on this Earth. So Benji and I are sitting on the couch last night watching American Idol as I am trying my best to come up with some sort of tune to help me learn this darn Russian alphabet...he's laughing so hard at my music "inabilities" that he can't take me seriously. Let's just say that translators will be crucial for us as we are in Russia. After many attempts to even learn common phrases, the only one that I can seem to remember is "nyet" which mean "no" in Russian, but when written looks like "Her"...go figure! Well at least I know how to say no! Hopefully soon, I can report back with more Russian phrases, and who knows I may even record my Russian alphabet song. HA!

Yay!

We sent our paperwork to USCIS (United States Citizens and Immigration Services) on Janurary 12. Well, it has been sent back to us three times. Each time has been because it wasn't quite right (note there is nothing stating what all needs to be done or sent anywhere on any of the paperwork...you literally have to guess). The last time we sent it off, I was sure that it was accurate. Well effective April 1, they will only take money orders. Did it tell me that when they sent the paperwork back in March? Nope? So of course they sent everything back once again and had a letter stating that we needed to sent a money order that personal checks were no longer accepted. So, we made another attempt to get this paperwork correct, because it is quite crucial in an international adoption. Yesterday, there was an envelope in the mail from Homeland Security. This time instead of a letter telling me that they can't process the documents for whatever reason, it had a letter stating that everything was properly sent and that they are processing it now. So that's a big YAY for us!

A little progress

We recieved the rough draft of our homestudy this week. There were just a couple of small details that needed to be changed. So now agency # 1 is finalizing it and sending it to agency # 2 to retype it all so that it will be legit for Russia. The process is taking a good bit longer than I had hoped but we trust that the hold-ups in the process are God's way of getting the timimg perfect for the little one/s that he already has chosen for us. As frustrating as it has been, we just have to rely on the fact that God is already preparing the way for us.
We have recently found out that our church is doing a BBQ fundraiser for us next month. We are so touched by those who have taken this on to help us out financially. We have a great church, and we are really blessed with a great church family. So a huge thank you goes out to our church family as well as a few of our friends who have also helped out with selling tickets.
Benji and I are so amazed by everyone that God has placed in our lives to help us with this adoption. We both have great families who have supported us 100% and who have worked very hard to help us raise the money, we have a great church family who is taking on this BBQ fundraiser to help us, we have an extended church family who has already done one amazing yardsale fundraiser for us, and we have some of the best friends in the world that have given us support from day one and who have also been a part of each fundraiser. We thank God for each and every person that has played a role in this adoption. We love you and are so thankful for you!