Settling in - The New Normal

Okay, here we are a little over one month since returning home. We received an update from other friends who came back a week after us and were motivated to update you. We are doing pretty well. We have had some wonderful times and some challenging times. The boys are doing better every day. English is going well for Alex. We will be homeschooling him for the fall, to work a lot on English and all the transitions of being in a new family. The other boys will be going to school next week and are looking forward to it, although a little nervous as they both start new schools this year. We have been able to enjoy the last weeks of summer. We've gone to a couple baseball games, a family reunion and camped for a week nearby (so Chuck could commute to work). We've been to dentist, doctor, soccer camp, piano lessons, school open houses, etc. and, although will miss the "lazy days of summer", are all ready for a bit of routine in our lives. Thanks for your continued prayers for us. Lamentations 3:22-24 "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Love from us all.

We're HOME!

It's Saturday morning. We're home and relaxing together. We boarded our plane in Moscow on Thursday afternoon and all the travels went smoothly. Everybody stayed healthy--what a blessing! We were picked up at the airport in Detroit at 9:30pm on Thursday by Linda's parents and spent the night with them. Linda's parents' neighbor had a welcome banner on the garage when we drove in. We were able to introduce Alex to some of his cousins on Friday before traveling home. We got HOME Friday evening and were greeted by some friends and family, complete with welcome banners and ice cream sundaes. Alex was a bit overwhelmed by all the new people to meet all day saying "big family" and "a lot of friends" about the groups of people he met. He immediately unpacked his things and checked out everything in his (and Brandon's) room before joining the festivities. He watched quietly as the kids played for while before joining in. He started a water fight and all kids were soaked by the end. They all had a great time. We were all exhausted and slept very well. Thank you so much for praying for us on this journey. We were able to feel your prayers and saw God's hand in each and every day. Please continue to pray for us as we begin a new phase of this journey. We have many decisions to make and adjustments to go through. One day at a time. We feel so blessed to have Alex in our family. He's working very hard on his English, and seems content to be here and be with us. Thank you all for your love and support. We look forward to connecting with you all again, and introducing you to our precious son, Alex.

Hour by hour

Here it is, Wednesday morning. We will be on a plane tomorrow at this time. After our touring
Red Square and the Kremlin yesterday for a few hours, and a stop at the consulate to pick up Alex's passport and visa, today we are content to just stay home and relax. It was amazing to see the architecture of the buildings in Red Square. We had Nina, a wonderful lady who used to work for our agency and is now retired, who went along with us and another family, the Webers, from Wisconsin. She is very knowledgable and gave us a lot of information. She is a dear, sweet, lady and we are so glad we have been able to get to know her. We will head out to a little local restaurant for lunch, just to break up the day. We can walk there and the sunshine and fresh air will be good for everybody. We're trying to use up the last few food items we have tonight. I've been packing little by little yesterday and today. Everybody's emotions seem to be at a relatively calm level right now. Anticipating being home comes with bittersweet feelings. We are so ready to be home and excited to see our dear family and friends, however, I think we all feel a certain level of anxiety about what the new "normal" will be for us. While four of us move to a comfort level with our surroundings, Alex looks forward to a very big unknown, but he is excited and ready to be done with the "limbo" state in which we now live.

While this trip and the whole adoption experience is the most challenging experience of our lives, we are able to see God's hand, and have seen prayer move to a whole new level in our personal and family life. We continue to pray for Alex to find faith in Christ, and that he will understand how deep and high and wide is the love of Christ for him.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, for safe travel, ease of processing through customs and immigration, good relationships between the boys, and the many adjustments of the first days at home. We are so grateful for all the support so many of you have given us along the way, but by far your prayers are our greatest need.

The Home Stretch

Well, I've attempted to post here a few times and it just didn't work. Not sure how to really catch you all up. We have had some challenging days. It has been a long stay now, and we are all homesick. Everyone is tired and, while there is still much to see here, not much interest in culture at this point. The lack of internet for a few days really limits our ability to "converse" with Alex. He is a trooper, and tries hard, but after a while gets frustrated. We, too, get frustrated at times, with one thing or another. We've learned to be much more flexible about meals and appointments. Virtually everything here takes twice as long as you think or have been told it will. The driving is a bit crazy. We were able to ride the metro (underground train) on Sunday to the zoo with Marina, who is a dear sweet lady who works for our agency and handles virtually everything related to our time here. It was a hot day and we enjoyed the walk and fresh air and seeing all the animals.

Today was a trip to the consulate and then another dear family invited us over for lunch. It was such an encouragement to us. They have had their struggles as well, and it's neat to see how God works in the lives of all the families here, and to hear the stories of how they were brought here.

Now that we're staying on our own (since Friday night), we've begun to cook and clean and do things more the way we would at home. One thing we have been impressed with, particulary in the homestay, was the simplicity with which many live here. They don't have 100 of everything. They have enough dishes for their family and they wash them after every meal. Everyone doesn't have a closet full of clothes, they just wash and wear them again.

Well, these are more ramblings now than anything. Thanks for all the emails. It's good to hear from home. Please continue to pray for us. The last couple days have been the most challenging of our adoption experience so far. If you've been awakened early in the morning hours, that's probably because I've cried out to God, asking him to awaken people to pray for us during some of the most challenging times when we need God's wisdom to handle the situations we are facing. Thank you for your faithful prayers, and for giving us scriptures to hold onto. We are so grateful. Psalm 20.

The Chase Five

We're Here

We arrived safely in Moscow this morning around 7:30 am. Everybody slept a little bit on the train, but I think it will be an early night tonight. It was hard to leave Peter and Luda's home, being that we came to love them and appreciate their kindness and hospitality. We also really enjoyed being in the smaller city. Moscow is big and somewhat intimidating. We'll get used to it I'm sure in a day or so. We are staying with friends here and it has been good to see them and get caught up. Alex just wants to come home. He does not care a whole lot about Moscow, and certainly not if he has to walk any distance to see it. I don't think he understands completely that we are now "on our own" in terms of meals, etc. We have just been spoiled with having our meals all prepared for us. We have different paperwork to complete in the next few days, so we will be getting out at least to do that. We are all ready to come home, and it becomes a bit more challenging every day to keep everybody happy. Please pray for good attitudes for everyone. We are all presently in good health, which we are very thankful for. Both our Michigan friends who are here in Russia have completed their court and things went well. All are fairly homesick, though, please pray for stamina for them as well as us. With love from the Chase 5.

Headed to Moscow!

Tomorrow night we head back to Moscow on the train. Today we are trying to get Alex's school records and get things packed up and organized. We are all anxious to move on, yet have come to love Luda, Peter and Svetta, our hosts. They have been a real blessing to us. In Moscow we will stay with our Michigan friends in an apartment. It will be good to be together for some days and will hopefully break up some of the waiting. We will have paperwork and things to do in Moscow, so the days will go more quickly, although the traffic does not. Alex's arm is annoying to him. It's made worse when we don't have something to do. Yesterday at the beach he was able to play, with the plastic bag on his arm. He took quite a bit of video of the city while we were there. Thanks for all the posts and emails. It has been encouraging to know that you are all still out there somewhere! After tomorrow (July 8) we may not have reliable internet access again--we'll see. Please know that we are excited to see all of you, but in an effort not to overwhelm Alex, it may take us a while to see all of you. We will also hit the ground with doctor, dentist and school appointments to take care of right away. Know that we love you all and will be anxious to share our new family with you in time.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We know that God is getting us through the frustrating and challenging moments. Know that you in our prayers and thoughts as well.

The Chase Five

July 5

We wanted to give a brief update today.

We have not been able to get on line for most of the trip and now we are trying to catch up.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us. We can tell God is still directing us through this journey.

Our court date was June 26th and it was only 2 1/2 hours long, a record we are being told.

Alex seems to be adjusting well to our family. There have been some issues along the way but we are working through them.

Today we were able to go to the beach on the Volga river and it was a very nice change since it has rained lots of days.

We will be leaving for Moscow on Tuesday night. We will be able to see our good friends before we go as they have their court date on Tuesday. We will also be connecting up with some other friends in Moscow.

Thanks again for all your continued prayers.

From the Five Chases