Evening Bible Study

I think my most favorite time of the day is our family bible reading and prayer time. For one, we get to discuss Christ with our children and two.........well, their prayers are simply amazing.

CG: Her favorite prayers end with "in my heart, the whole world, and everything" She also makes a wish list in her prayers (we are working on this one)

Luke: He is so thoughtful, always praying for every single member of the family, sometimes 3 and 4 times. His heart is so genuine..

Brooks: He thanks God for things like books, being able to learn, our home, the trees that make oxygen. He is truly thankful.

It is so neat to see how their prayers progress from year to year. They are each representing the person they will be in the future I am sure. How cool is it that God gives us these tiny little people and says "Here, watch them for a while for me!". I am afraid at times a truly do fall down on my job but I too am learning in this process. I love all 3......make that 4 children that I have been blessed with.

Again, we are waiting

"Wait", the song from the band Caleb is blaring in my head and has been since we landed back in the states. Curt and I gave ourselves a 2 week window to get the MASSIVE amount of paperwork together for dossier #2. We only went 3 days over.....I am pretty proud of us for that. Our coordinator said she was impressed as well, I guess what we had to do seemed pretty impossible! Our documents are on the way to Russia, should be arriving either tomorrow or Tuesday. When it arrives it has to be translated and is then presented to the judge AND then we receive our court date! I am actually already packing....silly I know, but I figure I am just going to prepare to fly. Who knows, God could want us there next month, and we will be ready! We have purchased A's backpack and luggage and it will be delivered this week. Her clothes are folded and laying in the chair, so I am itching to have a child to dress in all these beautiful outfits!!!

We are also preparing the children for the big events that are getting ready to occur. We know that A's transition probably won't be too graceful....I am prepared for tears, a LOT of tears. I have been talking with the boys especially about how they can help when A comes home and what they can do to make her feel more at HOME. CG and I have had numerous discussions about how mama's lap has plenty of room for one more girl. CG agrees and says, "I not jealous". We will see I guess!! We have been blessed with children who are their own person, and haven't been jealous of each.....we are praying that this continues. We are still looking to raise a little more $$ to help pay for our hotel stay in Moscow....it is very expensive there, $200 a night. If you would like to help pay for a night, click the donate button on the side of the blog. Continue to pray for our sanity as we wait these next few weeks!!!! We love you all!

Guess who's 7?

Lucas Tate Hanna, born August 20th 2004.....another Boy I thought. Don't you dare think that this little man is just any ordinary boy. Luke is full of spunk, which sometimes lands him in a heap of trouble, but mostly just makes everyone laugh. He never misses a joke either, nope, not our "Goot". The last couple years have been a struggle with his health. He is so big and strong, but for some reason his immune system was very weak. We fought to keep his lungs healthy and with God's grace and healing touch, Luke is more healthy than ever. He adores his FOOD, more than anyone else I know and it shows. Luke out weighs his older brother by 10+ pounds. He has the most mischievous grins and those eyes tell it all. If I could bottle up his energy and sell it, I would be a billionaire. To my most favorite 2nd boy, I love you with all of my heart. You are so sweet and you have such a BIG heart full of love and compassion. Our life would never be complete with out you and your spiked hair. I love you to the moon and back Lukie!

L- laughter and silliness, Luke makes us young!

U- unbelievable way with children. Luke is loved by most all kids younger than him and he adores it!

K- kind of looks like his daddy.....who am I kidding, he is EXACTLY like his daddy (some girl is going to be in trouble)

E- everything I wanted and more!!!

"Do you understand the words that are coming outta' my mouth?"

I have felt like SCREAMING this phrase at certain PEOPLE for the last 3 weeks. Seriously, these last few pieces of paperwork should NOT be this difficult to gather. I have called, emailed, called again, typed letters and documents, only to have to type and print them over again. We are down to our FINAL....yes FINAL piece of paperwork so say a prayer that it will be checked and approved!!! Come on, life is really not this difficult!

On a much happier note......both boys started another school year. 1st an 3rd graders....can you believe it? They both had fantastic days. Brooks was more excited that Luke I think, mainly because he rides the shuttle bus between schools now. CG and I went for a girls hour (literally an hour) to get our hair cut by the AMAZING Michal...love her!! We decided to cut a good bit off of my hair to get a new look and also to make it healthier.....I love it! Google the new Jennifer Aniston cut and viola', there is my hair........look at only the hair though, I look NOTHING like Jenn!!! So, that's about it for now! Check back in this weekend, I will have birthday pictures of my soon to be 7 year old Luke Hanna. I love that kid!

My summer is OVER!

Insert SAD face here!!!!! My summer is officially over! I guess I should be sad, but this summer has not been a restful one for any of us! Let's see, summer began alright, a trip to St. George Island with the Powell crew.....that was nice. Immediately following that was my birthday, the death of our favorite doggie in the whole wide world and then 2 days later we received our referral! After that, there was a whirlwind of paper work, fundraisers, packing, organizing....ect! So, while I am not looking forward to getting up at 5:30 am, I am excited that I have had an extremely memorable summer.....one that has changed us all for the better!!! I look on to the fall anxiously awaiting the call for our court date, knowing we will spend 3 weeks in Russia and then I will be on "maternity" leave after that. It is only going to get crazier from here and I am going to love and savor every minute of it. God certainly didn't make Curt and myself and think, "these two will lead a calm, quite life in the country of Abbeville county". Nope, that's not us at all. God formed us and knew that we would make many mistakes, but one thing is for certain, we would follow Him wholeheartedly when He commanded us to. The path we take seems scary, uncertain and unpredictable at times, but God is faithful to carry us every step of the way. Isn't He amazing? Praise Him!

I LOVE this couple!

We have actually only talked face to face one time, BUT I adore this couple! They totally get adoption and funny thing is we are both using the exact same homestudy agency, adoption agency, staying in the same apartment, adopting from the same region....and we only live 50 minutes apart!!! They are one step ahead of us, so their input has been very helpful. We met with them one week before our first trip so they told us all the good places to eat, where to get our money exchanged and many other things. They are in Russia right now and will be having their court hearing within the next few hours! They are adopting little girl and I have heard that she is adorable!!! So, please take a moment to pray for them, that the courts would rule in their favor!!! Also, visit THIS site to read their most recent blog post about their little girl and the CHICKEN POX. I laughed and cried for them, the pictures are too cute! Tara and Jonathan, we are all praying for you!!

Looking ahead

We are still recovering from jet lag. I feel the need to nap all day and stay up really late because part of me still wants to be on Russia time. So, here's what has been going on in our world since we returned from trip 1 to Krasnoyarsk. We have washed all the clothes, but not unpacked the suitcases completely.....I am thinking I am going to just BE prepared for travel in hopes to rush the process along. Curt is busy learning Russian and I am so very proud of him. He is counting in Russian, reading and speaking small phrases...way to go!!!:) He is also signing up for a 4 week course in December on the basics of speaking Russian(offered at lander). We are BUSY working on paperwork for court. We are giving ourselves 2 weeks to finalize everything and have it in the mail. The quicker it gets to Russia, the sooner we will have a court date! We are trying to prepare the kids for our next trip, which is a long one! We hope to have another fundraiser or two.....YARDSALE and 31 party!!! If you would like to donate, you can do so by clicking the link on the sidebar! Please continue to pray for us as we focus on trip 2....we are so ready to bring her home!!!

Walking with Papa

This child has our hearts!!!!

These are the hands I'm holding......

These little hands already have me wrapped! This little lady's personality is coming out and she is such a curious little booger!! She is going to have so much fun with her brothers and sister! My heart is jumping inside my chest!

Our First Visit

Baby House #5 is where we went for our visit with baby A! We both immediately recognized the outside of the orphanage from THIS video!!!! We had watched this series of videos prior to leaving and never imagined it would be the same house!

After about 2 hours of meetings with the MOE and the orphanage director we were taken into the meeting room. I was expecting them to bring A into us but she was already sitting down waiting on us! She was all dressed up in her very best dress of black velvet and red taffeta. Her dark hair was pulled up and tied with a HUGE bow.......it covered her little head, it was so sweet. She came over to us to say hello and she twirled so we could see her beautiful dress. She brought tears to our eyes, it was precious!

We learned earlier in the day that our sweet girl has only been an orphan for about 9 months but during that time she had been passed between homes. She has been through a lot during her short life and she is such a brave girl. We were warned that she was very shy and she didn't bond well with anyone. I sat on the couch while Curt was talking and began to pray for God to prepare her heart for us, that she would not be afraid. We were prepared for tears, prepared for the worst, but that never came! She grinned, babbled, held our hands, sat in our laps and I even got a hug when we said good-bye.

I am anxious to watch her transform from this fragile, shy child to a confident girl who runs, plays, laughs and twirls like a princess. It will happen and I am just so thankful that I get to be part of it all.

We see her again this afternoon, I am already anxious for her!