Adoption Update Response

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the prayers, encouragement, emails, and phone calls we have received from you guys. You guys are awesome!

The good news is that we received our visas today and should be heading to Russia as planned. The bad news is that we just got word from our adoption coordinator that the Duma in Russia (kind of like our Senate) is meeting on Sept. 5 to discuss enacting a moratorium on adoptions in Russia. What does this mean for us??

Since Russia is a two trip adoption country, a moratorium would obviously keep us from going on our second trip to bring the children home. At this point, no one knows if a moratorium would be for 2 months or 6 months or how long it would be and how it would affect families already in the adoption process (ie not those families still waiting for referrals).

At this point, our coordinator has told us to definitely expect a longer wait between trips 1 and 2. The wait is normally about 3 months but a moratorium would obviously make this a much lengthier process. So, all that said, please keep us in your prayers.

As mentioned earlier, please pray for discernment while we are there. In addition, please pray that God would protect our hearts, that he would help us to trust Him completely despite the negatives, and finally please pray that a moratorium would not be put into effect as there are many families in our same position.

Thanks so much for being so supportive!

Love ya,

Beth and John