We have been so busy trying to get things together for the adoption that we fell behind in blogging it! In this post we will catch up to our first trip.

December 22nd we got our referral for "M". She was six at the time. we kind of thought maybe we would have definitely feelings about it when we got it but we really didn't know what to think. There was a diagnosis that we were concerned about: a heart/muscle/bone growth issue. If it was serious we didn't know if we wanted to adopt her because of finances in trying to take care of a child with a serious medical condition and we didn't know how this would effect her life. We spent a lot of time in prayer. A friend shared a verse with me: "As cold water is to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country," Proverbs 25:25. What a sweet word for us! A few days later we decided to travel to meet M! We would be leaving January 18th just three weeks away! Steve called American Airlines to see if there was any way they could use our airline miles. She sounded doubtful, and then shocked when she realized she could get us to Russia and back using fewer airline miles than we had expected! Another door the Lord opened for us! The Lord also provided the perfect family to watch Alexander for us, so we did not worry about him. Melissa struggled for weeks with a paralyzing fear that didn't even make sense to her. The Lord delivered her from that the week before we left! We were also short in our funds and the Lord provided money for what we needed up to that point. What an amazing God we serve! What happened in the coming weeks, especially on our trip, is hard to put into words, but the next post is Melissa's journal from the first trip.