Next step with invitations

Will got a hold of Sasha in Ukraine without any trouble last night. Sasha said that actually, our invitations should be ready on Monday; he doesn't have them in his hand yet. He will email us on Monday to let us know, if they're there. Then, Will can schedule a DHL pickup for Tuesday. So, the prayer request is that they really will be ready on Monday!

Invitations

Our invitations are ready! Now we have to get them from Ukraine to here. Will's getting up at 1:00 in the morning to call and arrange that.

Hurrah!

Will's back. They're going to give Asya a number! It will take a little longer, because her birth certificate has to be checked and translated by Homeland Security. (Can't have any baby terrorists in America, you know.) But they are going to accept it. Thank you for praying!

Pray for mercy :-)

I couldn't get anywhere on the phone (although, I talked to some really smart computers!). So, Will's going to go to the Social Security office. It's really not that far away, which is funny, because we're so far out in the middle of nowhere. Please pray that they'll accept the documents we have. We should have two, and we do, but one is Russian. The American version of Asya's birth certificate is still sitting in Moscow. Pray that they'll take that and her passport as her two documents!

SS# update

We got an answer! I don't know if it's good news or not. Asya's application is officially lost. That means we can apply again, but I'm not sure we have everything we need to do that. Pray for me today as I try to get someone who knows something on the phone.

How's Jaan?

He seems to be doing better today. (After I wrote yesterday, he got worse, but never as bad as Raia.) Right now we're trying to hold him back from eating everything in sight. Pray for patience, as we try to be wise, and he whines for food!

(By the way, we're not starving him. He did have toast for breakfast. We just aren't giving him everything else that he was asking for.)

Visa update

This is what I posted on our blog:

Our friends Pavel and Tanya are in Ukraine, visiting relatives. Pavel has been working on getting us invitations. We sent all of our information to Sasha, a relative of his in the Baptist Union. Sasha just wrote, saying that he would pass it on to the missions department for them to apply for our invitations, and that it only takes 3-4 days for them to come through. So, if he turned them in right away, we could have invitations ready by early next week! Then, he will mail them to us, and we will apply for our visas. Please pray that all would go smoothly and quickly!

Happy news

Jaan must have the older sibling version of rotavirus. The other family who had this ended up with their toddler in the hospital; when his big sister got it, she just threw up once. Jaan's already doing much better, running around and eating crackers. Thank you, Lord!

Will's also up and moving around.

More sickness!?!?!

Jaan just started throwing up.

Raia had a little relapse yesterday, but I think it was just from eating solid food too soon. She's improving. (Her little, round belly is gone, though. I asked her where it went, and she said that she "coughed it.")

Will has been down with something. We're not even really sure what, but he has definitely not been feeling well.

Asya and I are still healthy!

She's well!

Thank you, Lord! We actually took Raia to church (in Charlotte, no less) yesterday. She was pitiful all day long. Her stomach was calm, but the fever was hanging on. The fever broke during the night, and she seems like her usual self today. She's still weak, but happy. We're supposed to keep her on a banana and toast diet for a little while longer, too.

Raia update

Her stomach finally settled late last night. We haven't tried any food yet this morning, but she's keeping down a little Gatorade. Just pray that it will stay down! I just heard that two other little boys are sick now, too. Please pray for Joseph and Daniel.

Raia. Sigh.

Last night she fell out of the living room window (which is high!). Today she's sick.

Edited to add: She probably has rotavirus, which can be pretty serious. Please pray that she'll be able to keep some liquids down!



(In the photo she's "showing off" her injuries from last night. Actually, she's covering some of them up.)

Asya's Social Security number

Please pray that we'll be able to get it for taxes! They seem to go very slowly overseas with Social Security numbers, and we applied for Asya's in Moscow. Pray that it would come through quickly and not be lost. Pray that I would be able to get in touch with someone who knows about it, and that they would be able to tell me what's going on. (I seem to remember something about you have to ask in person, not by phone or email. . . .)

Moving forward

We have a region of Ukraine chosen. Now we're working on visas. Please pray that they'll come through QUICKLY. Pavel, our friend and pastor from Kovrov, is visiting his relatives in Ukraine now, and he's working on getting invitations for us. Please pray that will go as quickly as possible!

Cross posting

This is something I had posted on our blog:
Prayers are being answered. Someone that we have really been wanting to get in touch with has gotten an internet connection. Pasha (in Kovrov) has been able to help a good bit, too; he and Will have been talking often via Skype, trying to figure out how to get visas for us.

Please keep praying! We still have a long way to go before we have definite plans settled.

Answers

Please pray for answers to the emails we've sent out. We've been writing and calling to try and decide where in Ukraine we'll be going, and now we're just waiting for answers. I would like to apply for our visas as soon as possible, but even that has to wait until we have some answers.

Pray for wisdom as we plan!

Will's cold and travel

Will and his parents are flying to Texas tomorrow. Will's cold hasn't been bad, but please do pray for him (and them) as they travel.

Also, I mentioned that our trip from Russia went well. I forgot to say that the drive from Florida to North Carolina also went smoothly. I wrote about that. . . .

Update

Sorry I've been so silent! There just hasn't been any time for me to write much.

Let's see. . . .
Our trip to Florida went well. It was long, but smooth. I had asked for prayer for Asya's ticket. We did get her on the plane with us; that cost a whole lot, but like Will said, it was worth it to be able to have her along.

And we're healthy! Praise the Lord for that, and please keep praying that we won't get sick. It's been so nice to be able to enjoy our time here without any sickness. (I started writing this yesterday. Today it looks like Will has a cold. )

I know people were praying about the car. Getting it on the road was an incredibly quick process. Thank you for praying! Please keep praying that we won't have any trouble with it. So far, it's running beautifully.

Our children have been doing well. Asya’s the easiest of all. As long as her milk supply is nearby—preferably holding her—she doesn’t care where in the world she is or what language is being spoken around her! Raia has struggled the most, but she seems to be doing okay now. She's even been babbling some; maybe she's getting ready to start speaking English? Jaan's doing wonderfully, but he seems to be more emotional than usual.

Travel

We have tickets. We’ll be leaving Russia on the 9th. Please pray for us as we travel!

Please also pray for one last detail: they don’t do e-tickets for infants, so we still have to get Asya’s ticket. There aren’t any travel agents in Kovrov who sell plane tickets; pray that Will will be able to get one in Vladimir.

Health

We’ve really been struggling with a long run of colds and coughs. Please pray that we can get well before we leave. Also, we tend to be sick a lot when traveling and staying with other people. Please pray that we can stay well this time!