We had our home study on Friday of this past week -- almost a day after getting back from our vacation...which was WONDERFUL (and MUCH appreciated!)  The social worker was here for almost 3 1/2 hours finding out everything someone who isn't an immediate member of your family shouldn't know.  8-)  We had to reveal EVERYTHING about ourselves to this person who is basically the one who decides whether we're acceptable to welcome a new child(ren) into our family or not.  We feel pretty good about "passing" and are looking forward to getting our report ASAP so we can combine it with all the other required papers that have to be sent in the form of the dossier to get it to the right people to get the ball rolling.  Please pray for our social worker to have a calm week so that she can get what needs to be done completed.  Pray for our passports to come this week (early in the week is best!) and pray for Shane's job to settle down a bit.  He's seriously buried at work. 

We are also hoping that we (or someone!) will be able to somehow let "Yuri" know that he has a family coming after him so that he will have that area of stress in HIS life relieved and know that he'll be taken care of as quickly as we can get over there!  I just can hardly bear the thought of him sitting there worrying about what he's going to do after his 16th birthday and how he's going to make it on his own.  I want him to be able to rest easily knowing that the Lord is preparing the way for him to be protected from that dreadful life on the streets at too early an age.  Please pray with us about a way for us to get word to him that he can rest easy.

We truly are needing the impossible to happen here...trusting that if the Lord wants him here, after we've done everything we can do, He will move in the government over there to make it happen.  Please also pray for soft hearts of the people in charge that they will see "Yuri" as a person and not just a statistic.  He needs this chance at life. 

Shane saw a bit of a *M*A*S*H* episode earlier today that reminded him that the actor who played Radar had the same hand difference that "Yuri" has...I can't wait to show it to "Yuri" so that he can know that even if he wants to be a famous actor, THAT'S not out of the question!!!  He has NO IDEA of the possibilities that lay ahead for him over here...but we sure plan to enlighten him when he gets here!!!  8-)