Be strong

When we are trying to follow the path God wants, the path will not always be easy!
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Ephesians 6:10-12 NIV

Faith, not sight

Do you know the legend of the Indian youth's rite of Passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm.. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

Moral of the story: Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there.

'For we walk by faith, not by sight".
I did not write the above wonderful story, however it is very fitting!
We all have difficult times! We have to continually remember God is always with us. Whether it be a hospital visit, a repair that costs double what you expected or a close family member facing surgery (we faced each of these difficulties the past week), God is there and will never forsake you! God always provides.
We did receive the letter from immigration this week, stating that they have our information and will contact us with a date for fingerprinting.
We now have one of the gold coins on ebay.
One man has contacted us several times about the mustang.
I think God is getting ready to move in a mighty way! His provision and timing is always best!! Let's all walk by faith and not sight.

A step closer to their smiling faces

Unbelievable! We have our court documents and our Life documents. We continue to fund raise, apply for grants and donations are being made to help us bring Alexei and Losha home. I can not wait for the day to see their smiling faces and we bring them back to the USA! We ask for prayers that some of the grants come through for us "and the boys"! We still do not know if Alexei knows that he is being adopted! So, we are anxious to get to Russia and we need the grants (soon) to pay the fee portion. In turn, the raised and donated funds can help with traveling fees. Most grants will not pay traveling costs.
We are only waiting on immigration to contact us for our last set of finger prints before we need to send in our last big fees and then our court date will be set (hopefully June)!!! We are told we will only have 1-2 weeks to make all travel arrangements (after finding out our specific court date). So, we will need to make sure all finances are in order for traveling expenses before sending our last fees. That's close! We're a step closer to seeing their smiling faces!!!

Fun

We had a lot of fun with today's fundraiser for the boys! We had a birthday party at our farm for another homeschool family! It was such a blessing to see the kids enjoying themselves! Looking at the animals, riding horses, petting the animals, roasting hotdogs, popping balloons and the cake (yum!)was all a part of todays activities.
God continues to bless with donations and ideas.
We will host a garage sale Saturday April 4th at the Osage County Fairgrounds, to continue raising funds to get our boys home! We can not wait to see them again!

What's in a name?

We wanted to talk with the boys to see what they wanted their names to be! We have no way to hear from them. So, we had to decide. We needed to put a name on the court documents. Since both have the first name of Alexei we decided they could still be nick named as- Alexei (or Alex) and Losha, if they don't like their new names.
So, we named Alexei M. Jacob Alexander and Losha we named Jeremiah Alexei. Wow, we still have all the kids names beginning with a "G" or "J" and Alexei and Losha now have good, strong Biblical names. I can't wait to see them and hear what they think! We are hoping to have all the funds raised and in order to go in June or July.

Gold

Wow! It's something like a wedding, adoption or having a baby that makes you take note of how much your extended family really cares! I know I've mentioned my cousin Kim, now I need to mention Kevin! My baby cousin Kevin (now married with his own children)has every right to hate all of his big cousins for the rest of his life! We teased him so bad growing up, and he still turned out to be a good guy! Well, he does tease his boys relentlessly! :)
Kevin showed me just how much he really cares this week (not just about me, but about 2 boys he's never even met)! He sent us two gold collector's coins from his collection and told us to sell them and put it all toward the adoption. What an amazing journey this is!

picking up the pace

Wow! have we had a lot happen the past few weeks!
My friends, please be careful with your bank accounts. We are cautious with our accounts and someone still ended up with my debit card number and had made several charges. The bank assured us that if we canceled my card the account would be safe. It was not! There was another charge on our account, someone was attempting to steal our identity. When we called the 800 #'s beside the charges on our account, the recording asked for the credit card # we had opened our membership with. We knew not to give any information out, we had not opened a membership! However, they didn't steal our identity or drain our account, the bank reimbursed the charges and we closed the account. I'm glad that headache is over!
Now, on to the new!!! We are picking up the pace on fundraising. We were faced with 2 unexpected costs of the adoption last week. God provided! However, we need to raise the funds for the next step and our traveling costs! We will be offering a lunch fundraiser for the remainder of the school year on Fridays in Tulsa. I'm extremely thankful several wonderful, caring friends have offered to help!
We have a quilt to raffle. We are offering personalized kitchen items.
We still need tons of frequent flier miles!
Now that we have completed the main paper work, we are applying for grants.
If you know of donors willing to give financially toward helping adoptive families on their mission to retrieve their children, Fellowship of Hope offers tax receipts. This ministry has helped us and two other families.
How can you not miss the beautiful faces in the above picture?! We hope to have them home by the end of June! Please pray for them!