Just a quick update...We are on a quite necessary vacation this week (Shane has been working every weekend for the past couple of months) and wanted to let you know where we are in our journey.  We have submitted almost all of our paperwork for our homestudy and have the first home visit portion scheduled for this Friday when we are back home.  After the home study is completed, we have another packet of paperwork that has to be put together (our dossier), which gets sent off and considered to make us an approved adoptive family (or something like that) for an international adoption.    Everything seems to be coming together very quickly.  Shane's knowledge and connections within the "adoption world" have allowed us to get to most of the required paperwork with ease, and people have been very accomodating in working to get things processed quickly, although it is still time-consuming.

We feel the Lord's continued prodding to move forward with this process, even though the time is short and the scheduling seems almost impossible.  Yesterday in 'Jesus Calling' by Sarah Young she writes: "Walk by faith, not by sight.  As you take steps of faith, depending on Me, I will show you how much I can do for you.  If you live your life too safely, you will never know the thrill of seeing Me work through you.  When I gave you My Spirit, I empowered you to live beyond your natural ability and strength.  That's why it is so wrong to measure your energy level against the challenges ahead of you.  The issue is not your strength but Mine, which is limitless.  By walking close to Me, you can accomplish My purposes in My strength."

Things like this keep jumping out at us...tonight my "fortune" at Pei Wei was "someone new is coming into your life to the benefit of you both."  Not that we believe in fortunes...but that was kind of a sweet message...I kept it.  I can't wait to meet this "someone new"...

It is kind-of funny that, as we've been on this vacation trip, we keep thinking of what it would/will be like to have Yuri on vacation with us . . . all the things that go with family vacations -- the travel, the fun things, the arguments, sightseeing, amusement parks, eating in restaurants, . . . things he's never really done, and certainly not as a part of a family.  Hopefully, he will get to catch up doing these things once he is with us.

We pray for him and think about him all the time. . .