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.