If God be for us, who can be against us?

There are so many people who have told me that they are awaiting updates.  I usually have to feel like I'm in "the mood" to write and that isn't the case today, but my heart IS overflowing with everything that has happened in the last few days and I know that I have the joyful obligation to share what the LORD has done through your prayers!  Yesterday morning, I woke up with unrelenting certainity that we will be parents very soon and it was wonderful.  All of the groaning and uncertainity was lifted and replaced by a perfect and indescribable peace.  God has moved mountains in the last week. 

A week ago today, was a stormy day.  And in this past week, a whirlwind of activity has propelled us closer to Roman.  I just want today's blog to be a list of praises for all that God has done in the last seven days.  Brock is on his way to St. Louis right now to go to the Secretary of State's office for, Lord willing, the very last time before we hold Roman again.  He will then go to DHL and expedite everything to Russia.  It should arrive on Monday and then we wait for our court date.

Last Wednesday, Dr. Dahlbeck told us that the earliest appointment he could squeeze us in would be toward the end of October.  When Brock called the next morning, it just so happened that someone had cancelled their 1:00 appointment. I kinda think an angel held that spot until we could get to it!  I believe from the core of my being that God knew the moment that person reserved that time, it was never meant for him or her.  I believe God knew we needed it and knew what day we would need it and knew what time that patient would call to cancel so that it was cancelled just before Brock called.  No one else got to have that time slot.  For me, it will always be another miracle in an already incredible journey. Dr. Dahlbeck said he would also work through lunch so that he could devote the required one hour to each of us.  Monday afternoon he had our reports ready and he donated his time writing them!  What should have been a $500 bill was only $200!  Praise the LORD!  If God be for us, who can be against us?

When Brock called GMAC Mortgage on Wednesday, he was told that the letter they had initially sent out was the letter approved by the legal department and they had no idea how long it would take to have a new letter drafted, approved and sent.  If you don't remember, the ONLY problem with the letter was that it didn't have the job title of the person who signed the letter.  The person with whom Brock spoke made it sound like they didn't know what they could legally include that would authenticate that employee.  Friday afternoon, GMAC contacted Brock and said they pushed it through and they were OVERNIGHTING the letter to us.  It was in our hands on Monday.  Why in the big, huge conglomerate of GMAC should Brock and Lara Ashley Williams matter?  I believe God allowed the right information to get into the hands of the right person who had compassion on us and our son and was moved to act quickly!  Praise the LORD!  If God be for us, who can be against us?

The GMAC letter had to be apostilled in Iowa.  The letter has to be sent to the Secretary of State's office where the notary is authenticated and a seal then makes the document legal as an international document.  Brock just happens to have a friend who has a step-mother who happens to live in Des Moines who happened to be off on Tuesday who happened to be happy to let us overnight our letter to her.  She walked it in the the Secretary of State's office, overnighted it back and Brock is picking it up at the Fed-Ex hub today because on Monday, the Fed Ex employee happened to mention that we could get it more quickly if we picked it up instead of waiting for it to be deliever. By the way, if you don't know,  Cape Girardeau happens to be on the way to St. Louis so he can ship it with all the other paper work we have.  I just "happen" to think that God sent the right people at the right time with the right schedule.  Praise the LORD!  If God be for us, who can be against us?

In other praiseworthy news:  We were told if we didn't make the October 5th deadline, (three months from the first medicals we had) we would have to fly back to Russia, redo our $1600 medicals and then fly back home and await another court date.  Guess what happened next?  Our judge had us fill out a contract saying that we would redo our medicals in the SAME TRIP AS OUR COURT DATE if we couldn't make it by October 5th.  Praise God, that saved us the cost of another round trip flight.  AND!  The results of our bloodwork in Russia are vaild for six months, so we don't have to redo that.  Not a big deal except that it takes the price of a medical from $1600 to $300!!

So, here is where we stand right now.  The papers that the judge needed are being expedited to St. Petersburg today and should arrive on Monday.  There, the translators will attach the translations (which, by the grace of God they allowed us to email over first so they could start working on them) and then mail that to Murmansk where our translator will take it to the judge.  If they overnight it (we haven't been told clearly if they will or not) the judge will have it in her hands on Tuesday and she can set a court date after she approves it.  It takes four days to get a visa and we have to have a court date to get a visa for this trip.  And then we go.  Brock had figured out last night that we have all the money we should need for the visas, the flight, the medicals and the court and orphange costs.  We still need to raise the last bit for our accomadations, but why would God drop us in the details now?

Keep praying for us.  Pray that the all in the information Dr. Dahlbeck included would be sufficient for the judge and our deed and letter from GMAC would convince her we do own our home.  Pray that nothing gets lost in the mail (and that's another miracle that nothing has so far!)  We have felt the power of your prayers already!  We are so close!  Before we know it, our biggest stressors will be potty-training and pacifiers.  We won't have to think of apostilles and expediting except to remember that God moved mightily in the midst of eveything.  We won't have to worry about paperwork and processes and courtdates and visas deadlines and timelines...

Until we are ready to adopt the little girl who keeps appearing in my dreams.