From Russia with Love

I call this photo of the girls (Karissa)(Annie)(Mary) "Hear no evil, See no evil, and Speak no evil"
Karissa is actually covering her ears because Annie is mad and screaming into her hands, Mary has her hands on her mouth because she is saying for Annie to hush and how unbelievable that Annie is screaming so loud....LOL!!!!!

That's right....we want one more;-)

I wanted young babies with Kisty, Weldon, Casey, Christian, Karissa, and Annie. However, when it came to Mary and John, we wanted an older child. But, we are delighted with them one and all. Praise be to the Lord for giving us babies and for saving my desired gift as our final adoption. There will be no more unless we by some miracle strike it rich;-). We felt God was leading us in the desire of an older child because He has a special one in His mind and plan for us. He has been faithful in giving us perfect babies. I could not explain why an older child after having such sweet babies, I just believed God wants us to do this older child adoption. I kept getting confused when He would show me these babies and I would know they were my children. I am thankfully blessed as God knows when to bless me even if I might not know to expect it. We feel drawn to find our older girl.

I will admit one thing.......It's those DIAPERS, that after potty training eight children, I am ready to get away from......ha ha!!!

Today is exciting!!! I have given you the background information needed. so that you may know who we are and how we have been blessed, to have eight children and one on her way. I will attempt to post every day and include pictures of the children. When progress moves forward, to our travels to Russia, I will post it. I will also be posting while I am Russia so you can closely follow our trip. So check back often for Katie Aunna updates!!!

Events last week really got us closer to finishing our dossier. Our home study agent came out to the house and had the forms completed for her part of the dossier ready to be signed and notarized. Much to our delight we received the document which allows us to get our little girl a visa and come to America. We also had our adoptive psychiatric evaluation done and it went very well. We are now waiting on his report.

This dossier is very tough and has a lot of paperwork to it. But, if all goes well (please pray for us) we will have gathered all the needed documents by next week. Then the dossier (two originals for Russia and one original for us) can be notarized and FedEx shipped to Santa Fe for those beautiful apostilles. I will take pictures of my dossiers when we finish. Then they are shipped out to our agency, sent to Russia, translated into Russian, and presented to the appropriate officials.

Then the wait begins for a travel date for the first trip. While in Russia on our first trip we will do what is called the 8 doctor medical form. It is unbelievable what kind of doctors they want you to see.

They are:

1. Theraputist or Physician

2.Infectologist

3.Specialist in skin and venereal diseases

4.Tuberculosis specialist

5.Nuerologist

6.Oncologist

7.Psychiatrist

8.Narcologist

9.Bloodwork and chest x-rays

So we may have lots of fun with this...ha ha. I will fill you in with the details when we have this exam. But, for now I am still in the paperwork part. I want to tell you that our little girl is beautiful with blond hair and blue eyes. Her name will be Katie Aunna Gartner and she is six years old. I am thrilled that we have finally found our older child adoption. I am a little nervous about it though.

The thoughts run through my mind like....will she think her new mama is pretty? Will I be able to appropriately be able to communicate with her in Russian? I know some Russian, but, I could not call myself fluent by any means. I worry about her history and how might it affect her adjustment with us.

But, we are going to not just accept a blessing from God and not give Him praise and glory. We are going to surrender to Him so he can show us what to do in Katie's best interest. She is one of my precious pearls and a diamond to the Lord. I will care for my daughter tenderly and with patience during her adjustment. I LOVE HER!!!!! We will post some more thoughts tomorrow.