Prayer Guide

Prayer Requests:

We are extremely thankful for all who are praying!!  Here's our schedule and some ways you can be praying for us while we are gone.

Monday, January 23rd
Travel Day.  Pray that we will be able to rest on the plane and God would protect us as we travel.  Please also pray that there would be no delays during our layovers.  Seems silly, I know, but it sure would make our life easier!

Tuesday, January 24th
We arrive in Russia around 8PM.  Pray that our bags will make it the same time we do!  (again, it's the little things!!) and that we would be able to rest well that night.

Wednesday, January 25th
Day of rest.  Pray that we will have a peace that passes understanding as we mentally prep ourselves for court.  Also, please pray that the LORD would soften the judge's heart.

Thursday, January 26th
Court!  We will be at the courthouse at 10 AM local time or 12 midnight CST on Thursday morning.  If you are awake, we would deeply appreciate the prayers.  Please pray that we say nothing more and nothing less than what we are supposed to say.  Pray that God would give us gracious words that would reveal His character and ours.  Pray that the judge's heart would be softened and that she would find favor with us.  Pray that we would be sensitive the the Holy Spirit and that we would hear the answers that we are supposed to give.  And also, please pray for the translator that she would have wisdom and peace.  We will also ask, at the end of court, in the best interest of Roman for the judge to waive the 30 day waiting period.  You all know we desperately want Roman to be home and we really do believe that it is in his best interest so that he can start getting the speech therapy and health care he needs.   It would truly be a miracle if she allowed it and we know that only God could make this happen!!

Friday, January 27th
Either the 2nd day of court or another rest day
If it's another court date, we will need all the requests from above plus an extra helping of peace!
If court has already issued a verdict, please pray that we will  give God the Glory no matter what happened in court.   We are trusting the Lord for the best, but His timing hasn't been our timing so far!  We'd be delighted if we could put this season of the adoption behind us, but we are trusting His will will be done.

Saturday, January 28th

Either we will be starting our travel home, or, hopefully, we will be starting the necessary steps to get Roman's new birth certificate, passport, visa etc.  So, pray for either safe travels, or pray for smooth paperwork processes. 

Thank you all so much for your prayers already!  We truly believe that this battle will be won on our knees.  God is good and no matter what, we know that He causes all things to work together for His good to those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose!

To Him who is able to keep us from falling and present us before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy.  Jude 1.24

In closing, I am so incredibly humbled by the opportunity that this delay has afforded us.  It has given us the privilege of knowing even more deeply how wonderful the community of people is in which God has placed us.  We have been exceedingly blessed by so many friends and family this last week.  Some of you have blessed us indescribably.  Roman will know who each of you are.  We are also so thankful for the "come to Jesus meetin'" as Brock calls it, that we had last Friday night.  We got to experience an even bigger glimpse of who our God is and how much He loves us.  And that would not have been possible if we hadn't been in such desperate need.  We have the opportunity to walk back into that courtroom and be bold about our faith.  That might not have happened in the state of mind we were in last week.  We don't have to wonder for the rest of our life if we missed an opportunity to share Christ and His grace to our new precious Russian friends.  We thought that this delay was terrible news but we are more and more confident every single day that passes that this too was part of a perfectly orchestrated plan. 

Keep posted...udpates to follow!