Not The News We Were Hoping For…

Well, this isn’t the type of blog that I thought I would be writing today. This past week has been a very frustrating one, to say the least. In last week’s blog, I wrote a line in my facebook status that read – “Where is the visa invitation? What if it never comes?” Well, it never came.

It’s truly difficult to try to explain the complicated nature of the world of visas and international travel, especially when it comes to adoptions. In fact, I don’t even understand it fully myself and I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around it for the last week. What we do know is that in order to adopt from Russia, you need a special invitation, which we never received.

How does that affect us? Well, Steve and I are still both going to leave for Russia on February 6th. We still have our court hearing on February 11th. That’s the good news. The bad news is that on February 12th, Steve is going to travel back to the U.S. by himself, in order to obtain the documents we need to bring our little man home.

Assuming our invitation comes, Steve will then turn around and come back to Russia a few days later with the new documents we need. Again, this is very much simplifying the actual scenario, but to not bore you or overwhelm you with details, we are keeping this explanation as simple as possible.

We have researched a thousand other options that didn’t require Steve to have to return to the U.S. But after a lot of work and energy, we have come to accept this new plan as our only option. In the end, there was nothing we could have done to prevent this and nothing we can do to change it. It just is.

It’s been very difficult for Steve and I to come to terms with this. For one thing, this “bump” in the journey is costing us about an extra $2000 that we did not originally budget for. But, even more than the finances, our dreams of what this month was going to look like have been significantly changed.

Although we are still absolutely grateful and excited that we will be bringing our little man home at the beginning of March, our hearts ache over the fact that while I am visiting our little guy in the orphanage during the 10 days of waiting after court, Steve will be on an airplane, coming back home, waiting on paperwork, only to get back on the airplane and come back to Russia.

We are still trying to understand why it had to be this way. My prayer for all of last week was “God, you can move mountains, I believe You can also move paperwork.” And I still believe that. But sometimes His plans don’t always look like the way I picture them. “His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts.”

So, we are approaching this Saturday with mixed emotions. On one hand, we are so excited. This is the day we have been anticipating for 2 years – the day when we are finally reunited with our son. The day that I will be able to look into my little man’s eyes and say, “I’m not going to have to leave you anymore.”

On the other hand, Steve is going to have to leave him one more time. And that breaks our hearts. We know the end is in sight, but through this ordeal, we have been reminded that there are no guarantees on this journey. There are still many details and significant steps left in the process, including our medical exam, pleading our case before a judge, waiting 10 days, and completing paperwork in Moscow.

Although what happened this week is considered a “fluke”, we have been reminded of how out of control we truly are in this process. So we ask you to join us on our knees, as we cry out to God to protect us, to protect the rest of this process and to protect our little man.

We truly covet your prayers and your encouragement. We are tired, weary, and completely at the end of ourselves. We are asking God to revive our hearts and souls, to give us the perseverance to keep holding on, and to give us the strength to face any more obstacles that may come our way. Ultimately, our hope is that God would receive all glory on that joyous day when we walk out of the orphanage with our son in our arms.

This is our story. This is our song. This is our journey of following God’s leading in our lives to a big, yellow building in a small village in Russia. A yellow building that holds countless children who live their lives each day not knowing the love of a mommy or daddy. A yellow building that holds the one we call our son.

Thank you for your prayers. We need them now more than ever. We hope to keep you updated through TWITTER and our blog.

Updates (Here is our tentative schedule):

• Feb. 6th: leave for Russia
• Feb. 7th: arrive in St. Petersburg
• Feb. 8th: medical exams in St. Petersburg
• Feb. 9th: travel to our region
• Feb. 10th: see our little man for the first time
• Feb. 11th: court
• Feb. 12th: Steve will travel back to the US. I will stay in Russia
• Feb. 13-21st: I will visit our little man on the weekdays. Steve will hopefully be retreving the documents needed to bring our little man home
• Feb. 21st: Steve will come back to Russia
• Feb. 22nd: Our little man will say goodbye to his friends and caretakers and hello to a whole new world
• Feb. 23-25: We will stay in our region, finishing up paperwork
• Feb. 25th (evening): travel to Moscow
• Feb. 26-March 3: paperwork at the US Embassy
• March 4th: The Garcia FAMILY comes home

This is the general breakdown. As you pray, ask for protection and no more snags in the process. We are praying for confidence, strength and wisdom.

Hope to update again next Monday…from Russia. Love, Kate & Steve