Just Drips in Our Cup...

One thing.  Just one thing go right, please.  Or maybe God is saving the one thing going right for Roman coming home?   Can you not see that we are serious about pursuing this until the very end?  We will not and cannot give up.  Another hiccup...another hurdle.  And when I take the stress out of it, it is simply comical at this point.  I am not tempting the fates to, "Bring it" but I will say with the utmost confidence that my God is bigger and our story isn't over yet.

I'm reticent to explain too much here until we know more about what is happening behind the scenes, but I am creating a draft that explains it all in more detail that will be in the book!  haha!!  Suffice it to say for now that we desperately need your prayers with regard to timing and once again provisions.  We might have to make a trip to Texas before we leave on Tuesday and with our flights already booked, it could be an extremely expensive change of plans.   We also found out that our apartment away from home in Russia is not available so instead of an inexpensive, albiet humble shelter, we will have to stay in a hotel at almost four times the cost.  In addition, as we will not have access to a kitchen or a microwave, our food costs will go up dramatically since we will have to eat most meals in resturaunts.  Please don't misunderstand, I love Russian food, but the thought of every single meal being a battle in translation makes my brain hurt right now.  So, I guess I just won't think about it until it's time to think about it.  Thankfully and praise the LORD, I believe we have everything we need financially for all these latest hiccups.  It just goes to show that these hiccups didn't surprise Jesus.  As we have said before though, any money we have left over will be dontated to another family who is in the process of adopting.  It does make me a little sad to think that all these extra costs means less money to bless another family who is walking along this journey. 

In closing, a few logistics to clear up:

While it would be an absolute and utterly delightful miracle to bring Roman home after this trip, we aren't expecting it.  If the judge makes a positive decision, there will more than likely still be a 30 day waiting period for that decision to go into effect.  She does have the authority to waive the waiting period, but we aren't expecting that.  We would be ecstatic just to have a decision made and this season of uncertaintity completed.

Our court date is March 23 at 10 in the morning in Murmansk, Russia.  We would love to see Roman before we go to court, but that is it all contingient upon when we will be able to leave the States.  Roman lives in Kandalaksha which is about a three hour drive (unless Sergei is driving in which case it is only two and a half hours)   We might have an opportunity to go after court, so we will just have to wait and see.  We want more than anything to hold him again...
If you'd like to pray for us while we are in court, (and we would love it if you would!!) set your alarm for 1 AM on Friday morning and talk to Jesus for us. 

Also, if you want to add even more to your prayer list, we sure could use some sleep.  Evidently, my mind thinks that when my head hits the pillow that's the perfect opportunity to practice everything I should say when we're in court.  Then, I'm allowed to fall asleep for a brief intermission until I wake up thinking about everything and anything else that could go wrong.  I'm usually a glass half full kinda girl, but the absurdity of the last few months has me a little wary.  I'm also not usually a sleep aid kinda girl, but I'm about to the point of thinking Tylenol PM may become a good friend of mine for the next few nights. 

I also want to say thank you to ALL the people who have helped make things a little easier on us.  Last night at church, I saw a sweet friend who had helped with the "Lettuce Bring Roman Home" salad luncheon (which was an incredibly HUGE success!!  Thank you so much to the ladies at First General Baptist Church for all of their hard work, and to every sweet lady who made a salad and every single person who made their lunch money count that day!)  I told my friend that I was working on getting her bowls back to her and she told me that Ms. So-and-So (not her words!) had already brought them back.  It was such a small thing, but I had to swallow the lump in my throat.  Remember you guys as you go throughout your day, that even the smallest acts of kindness can make a world of difference to someone whose plate is running over.  It's sort of funny when your plate is full you have too much going on, but when your cup runneth over, your blessings are numerous!  My plate is definitely full right now, but my cup is running over even more.  So, a shout out to all the "drips" in our life that makes our cup run over!