Hosting 2 More Exchange Students!

We just can't express how much we enjoy hosting students!

We enjoyed hosting exchange students so much last year that we are hosting 2 this year. They are both boys: Arthur is 17 years old and from France; Irakly is 15 years old and from Russia. They arrived last weekend after the brief "kidney stone" delay.

Since I am still having frequent pain episodes, I am moving in "slow mo" these days. The doctor wants to wait another 4-5 weeks to see if I pass the stone. Ugh! Arthur and Irakly are a great distraction. We are enjoying their visit tremendously.

Their schedule is fairly hectic. We are up before 6:00 am for breakfast and to get them to their bus stop before 7:00 am. We usually pick them up around 6:00 pm. They enjoy hanging out in the pool and playing RISK with Don, Nick, and Nick's friend, Danny. They have had a game going

for several days now.

RISK, what a game!
I even join in occasionally.
Actually, I do enjoy playing RISK but I would never want them to know. There is something exhilarating about conquering the world!

We also took them to Shark Valley in the Everglades. They were fascinated by the alligators.

We are watching daily to see what, if anything, is happening with adoption. We are praying to see movement soon. In the meantime, we are enjoying time with our students, learning some French and Russian, and praying for the families in the adoption process.

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:25

In His name,

Elizabeth

News from Russia!

Praising God tonight!

Tonight I discovered I had a message on my cell phone from our adoption coordinator. Our agency has been reaccredited! Praise the Lord! I tried to take a photo of my cell phone screen displaying the phone number but it did not turn out but I did save the message to listen to when I feel down.


...He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. Exodus 15:2


With joy in my heart,
Elizabeth

Happy Birthday, NOT!!

Well, last night was an unusual experience. What started out to be what I thought was "a little gastric upset" ended up buying me a visit to our local emergency room for a kidney stone. What unbelievable pain! Sadly, it was Don's birthday. I felt so bad that he had to spend this time in the emergency room with me writhing in pain. He is such a patient and kind person, he would never feel slighted. He held my hand and told me he loved me over and over. He's a keeper!


We saw the urologist earlier today. He is confident that I will pass the stone in a week or so. Hmm, I wonder. I know God doesn't give us more than we can handle but how can I deal with the pain for another week??? With much prayer!


We are hosting exchange students again this summer. I am convinced this is the only way to pass the time waiting on the accreditation of our adoption agency! Our students were to arrive today, but we had to find someone to take them for us for a few days. We are very disappointed but felt this would be best right now. We will meet them on Saturday and bring them back to our home. Again, I am praying that the pain is manageable and we can have a great visit.


For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 2 Corinthians 1:5


Blessings,
Elizabeth

Updating Our Blog

Well, we have not posted since January 3, 2007. So much has happened in our lives but we are still in the waiting room.

I thought I should add to our timeline and give a bit of an update on what has transpired since Summer 2006:

• September 2006
  began collecting documents to update our homestudy
  traveled to Tampa for our fingerprints (second set)
• November 2006
  had difficulties with our physician's office personnel getting medicals completed properly
  all documents sent to homestudy agency in Florida
  unfortunately, our DCF approval is delayed at the State level
• December 2006
  updated documents for Dossier and sent to our agency
  DCF approval finally received by the homestudy agency
  scheduled homestudy update visit for after Christmas
  traveled to Ohio to visit family for Christmas
• January 2007
  home visit by social worker for homestudy update
  homestudy update sent to USCIS
  updated apostilled documents sent to our agency
• Spring 2007
  continuing our wait for reaccreditation of our agency in Russia
• June 2007
  our dossier and USCS I-600 application need to be updated but we were
  feeling discouraged and decided to put redoing paperwork on hold until July 15
  hoping some movement will occur in the reaccreditation process in Russia

That's the short version!

We just received the following message from our agency on July 10, 2007 and feel very encouraged by it:

On July 6, 2007 the first group of 12 agencies was accredited in Russia, 7 of which were US adoption agencies. America World's partner agency is in the second group of agencies at the Ministry of Education. The first group of agencies took approximately 3 weeks at the Ministry of Education prior to being granted reaccreditation. AWAA's partner agency's last documents were submitted to the Ministry of Education on July 3. If the same timeframe holds true for the second group of agencies as the first, it is possible that reaccreditation could be given in approximately two weeks. Please recall that once reaccreditation is granted, it may take a few weeks to receive the appropriate paperwork and accredit all staff in the regions which is necessary before we are fully functional again. The facilitator staff in the regions has started informing the regional governments regarding expected reaccreditation in order to be prepared to work as soon as possible. We will continue to keep you updated as information becomes available.

We are praying that progress will be steady and we will be bringing home our little girl soon.

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matthew 21:22

Praising the Lord,
Elizabeth