Pictures in Latvia

Approved by Orphan Court

Hallelujah!! Praise be to God!!

Today we went to orphan court and we were approved by orphan court to adopt and also to bring Jana home. It was very quick and easy - less than one hour :)

Now we will go to visa appointment on Thursday and pick up the visa on Friday and head home Saturday. Then we send all documents to USCIS immigration to approve and then that approval gets sent back to Latvia and Riga court is scheduled. This visit is short and then after required waiting period we will return for medical exam, passport and visa appointments.

We are so thankful to God for making all this possible. God is amazing and we stand in awe at his presence and power!

Court Tomorrow

Well I have to say that Brad and I are the least adventureous people on earth. We have been told about several great places to see but I have not gotten up the nerve to try to figure public transportation out. With his eye and then the rain we have spent most of our days watching Discovery and of course home schooling Jana. Brad has learned some really cool things from discovery. There are a lot of shows about cars and blowing things up - a boys favorite types of TV :). We watch Charles Stanley again on Sunday and now I have discovered how to watch our favorite show online - NCIS.

Tomorrow we go to court and we are very excited to have this completed. Then we will go on Thursday for Jana's visa and home on Saturday. We should know tomorrow about Izabella's status and whether they will allow her to be adopted also. We pray for God's wisdom in this matter.

Friday we get to see our friend Sandra and actually adventure out a bit.

THank you all for your prayers.

Latvia Pictures

Friday in Latvia

We have been inside all day today due to rain and Brad not feeling well. His eyelid broke out about 4 days ago. We sent his picture to a nurse friend who said go to the doctor ASAP so we did and he has herpes zoster on his eye and it appears to be breaking out on his hand as well. Please keep him in your prayers. He is in some pain and generally not feeling well.

Jana and I have been busy on school work trying to learn Math and Physical Science. She does not like Physics which she tells me many times.But we will succeed in learning this physics :)

We hope to see some more sights when Brad gets to feeling better. And we are looking forward to seeing our friend Sandra next Friday. We have court on Tuesday.

I just heard great news that my friend Patty has been taken off the ventilator. She still is very sick but praise God she is improving. Please continue to pray for her.

Thank you all for your continued prayers for us and our boys at home.
God bless you all

Wednesday in Latvia

Today started with thunderstorms and rain but soon the sun was shining and a cold front had pushed through. We went for a walk but it was a bit nippy and clounds were forming again. So we headed back to the apartment.

We did get to go through the open air market and I found a special pan for making pelmeni. I will have to go back later this week and get it. It was only $5.00.

Spending time with Jana has been wonderful. Brad has been busy learning lots of new stuff on the Discovery channel. Even though it is in Russian it is quite entertaining to him. He watches this while Jana and I work on math and science.

Latvia is such a beautiful place and so interesting with people from many different countries.60% of the people are Latvian, 30% Russian and the other 10 from different places. The cobblestone streets are interesting and the old architechture is beautiful to look at.

Jana has been busy chatting with friends on latvia equivilant to facebook. She has two girls who are friends being adopted also and coming home to Atlanta in September.

I have recevied posts from people I don't know but know Jana from previous trips who have been praying for her for so long and their prayers as well as ours are being answered. I stand in awe how God has been putting everything in place long before I even knew her name. God is an awesome God!!

Tuesday - August 24

Today was a good day and beautiful also. We met with the social worker from the orphan court for about 25 minutes. She asked questions about what we plan to do, where Jana will go to school, how are we bonding, do we want to be a family (duh), etc. She was very nice and spoke a little English also. She showed us on the map how to get to a book store.

We went for a walk around Riga. We found the bookstore easily and 2 more also. They had books in Latvian and English. I actually bought a Russian culinary book in English. We bought Jana a book in English to read and a book in Latvian.

Next stop was McDonald's -yep you read right Brad had to have his McDonald's fix. The cashier spoke English so that was easy.

After McDonald's we walked to the theater. They have many good American movies. We will probably go see one sometime this week.

We really like Riga a lot. Many people speak English and are friendly. There are many interesting shops. It is easy to find your way around. The streets have old cobblestones in many areas. We also walked through a beautiful park on our walk.

We spent part of the day doing math and science and Jana says :ugggg: as I type. But hopefully she will feel like she is not behind when she gets there. She already knows most of the math. She has never done the scientific method things we were studying but she picked up on it very quick.

We probably won't hear about Izabella until next week. Our lawyer is spending the next few days with the New Horizons for Children team as they interview new children for the program. We saw a cute boy who lives across from Jana but his foster mom does not want him to go to America and he doesn't want to go. He looks like he could be a sibling for another child that was already adopted.

Well it is after 7 here and we are winding down.

Thank you for your prayers for our friend Patty she is improving but she is still very sick so please continue to pray for God's healing touch on her body and peace for her family.

God bless you all

First Court Day

We went to court this morning and it was so easy. Our wonderful adoption social worker, Kelley, told us it would be realtively easy but I guess we couldn't beleive it until we went through it. They gave us permission to pick up Jana and keep her with us.

It was a hard day for Jana as well as a good day. We all left the foster family with tear stained faces. They love her very much and she has been with them for 5 years. It was a very emotional day.

We had dinner at a nice little restuarant on our way back to Riga. Tomorrow we will be visited by the orphan court as they check to see that Jana is okay.

Tomorrow Daina our lawyer has a meeting with the orphan director to check on Izabella's status so we will hopefully know more before we leave.

Thank you for all your prayers.

Sunday in Latvia

Well we didn't sleep too well last night. There were fireworks going off for a while - at least that is what we hope they were :) but today has been a great day already. We talked to Jana a few minutes ago which of course made our day :) We will get to see her tomorrow and bring her back to Riga with us. We also heard some good news and praise to God our friend Patty is improving. We thank God for answered prayers!

We watched Charles Stanley this morning on TV. Funny :) Almost feels like home. We really like Latvia and the people are very friendly.

Facebook although it can be a distraction it is a wonderful thing while we are here along with Skype. We were able to talk to our pastor and his wife this morning and we skyped dad. Hoping the kids will be up soon so we can talk to them also.

We are going to watch Johnny online at FBCW in abit and then head out to see a little of Riga. We slept in really late this morning. I think we are still on Georgia time.

Brad was fretting a little about court tomorrow wondering what they are going to ask us. Hopefully it will be nothing like Belgorod court. So far adopting from Latvia as been smooth and easy process and we pray and trust God will continue to pave the way.

Love to you all

We have arrived :)

We have arrived in Latvia and it is 3:30 Latvian time 8:30 Georgia time. We are happy to be off of the plane and in our apartment. We barely made our flight in Frankfurt. We had to catch a bus on the tarmac, then go through passport control, and then back through security to get to our next gate. It was crazy!

We are so glad to be here and we can't wait to see Jana. We will not get to see her until Monday after court.

The taxi driver was nice and got us here safely and with no worries :)

We were so glad to meet Inese. She is a wonderful lady who arranged our apartment for us. She has a huge heart for orphans.

It is rainining here and cool. It is so good to feel some cool air :)

Thank you all for your prayers and we will blog some more soon.
Paula and Brad

On our way

We are leaving today in just a few hours. I am trying to cram the last little bit in the suitcase :).
Today I stand in awe of the power of God for this miracle he has made happen and how his eye has been on my Jana. He promises orphans they will not be forgotten and he will set the lonely in families. Praise God!!

Please pray for our kids and parents while we are gone.

Next message will hopefully be from Latvia :)
Prayer needs:
Patty - very sick with unkown infection
Brad's dad
Paula's mom
Aiden and Addie - premies
Gayle -Anne

God bless you all

Counting Down the Days

We are counting down the days. Brad did some shopping for gifts yesterday and hit the bank today for clean bills - they are so hard to find. I can't believe we leave on Friday :) Tomorrow we move Allen in to his apartment and Thursday is our 21st wedding anniversary - wow how time flies - I have been married longer than I was not married :)

Please lift up these prayers:
Brad's dad - cancer
My mom Jan
Patty - sick with very bad infection
Aiden and Addison -twins born premature
My sister Gayle-Anne

Leaving on a Jet Plane :)

We are leaving this Friday for Latvia and we are so excited to see our daughter again. She is anxiously awaiting our arrival. We have decided to try to blog since that might be easier than trying to email you all from Latvia. Please continue your prayer for our family. Pray for the boys to be protected at home while we are away. Allen starts the new semester on the Monday we arrive in Latvia. Please also pray that we can find out more about Izabella's availability for adoption.

Philiipians 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.