bummer!

It was about 3:00 our time when we received the call that the paperwork was ready but that the judge would not try our case tomorrow.  It looks like he is taking 4 days off for his birthday and will not be back until Tuesday.  Like my sweet friend Amy said...."this sucks!"  That's the only thing that comes to mind right now.  It's just too much for us at the moment....but we trust that God has a plan and has the best outcome for us.

We learned also today that our interpol clearance (clearance that we have not broken any laws in the entire world) just cleared yesterday.  God had a plan when he brought us a month later than our original date....because we would have had to wait 1 1/2 months for the clearance if we came on September 2nd.  OMG....we would have not made it that long!  God's timing!

We had an absolutely awesome day with Sasha.  I have the sweetest husband who played basketball for hours with all fhe boys.  The boys hung on him and loved the attention.  Jeff kept passing the ball to Sasha behind his back, over his head and under his legs.  Sasha would follow suit and pass it the way Jeff passed it to him.  It was precious. 

When the 6 on 6 was being played, kids on Sasha's team would yell out to him, "Lebedev."  That's his Ukrainian last name.  Anyway, Jeff and I started saying, " Pass it Nyman."  He would get a smile on his face...so precious!

We are having to wait for 5 more days and Jeff and I feel like we ran a marathon of 24 miles and someone just said, "Hey you gotta run 5 more miles."  ahhhhhhh!  We have no words and don't know what to say.  I think we are still in  shock.

God must want us to empty ourselves out.  We feel empty.....He wants to have us emptied so only He can fill us up.  We know He must have a lot of work to do on us.  He is pushing us to our limit, but will never give us more than we can handle.  We have so many questions and don't understand .....BUT GOD!  BUT GOD IS IN CONTROL!!!

We had a fun night actually.  We went to a restaurant and this russian couple and their friends had brought a record player from 1935.  They were celebrating a special holiday TODAY and they were dancing and asked us to join them.  Jeff and I were like dumb and dumber and didn't know how to respond. Thank goodness Ksenia was there.  We danced with them and had soooo much fun.  God knew we needed a fun night.  Then the beautiful Russian woman sat down with us and spoke truth to us.  She said, "Today is God's day and we are celebrating Mother Mary watching over all of God's children....we are praying for patience and love for you."  When we told her we were adopting a Ukrainan boy in the orphanage she said, "God will bring him to your wonderful family and will bless you!  She was amazing and we were quite inspired by this woman whom we had never met before.  She said God will bless you and you need to be strong.  God's timing is perfect and speaks to us in many ways!  It was a WOW moment Laurie!

My sweet bible study called tonight by Skype.  I love my friends and feel so blessed!  Thank you Brenda P, Jamie, Brenda J, Mary, Joy, Karen, Natalie, and anyone else who was in the background.  I am honored to be your friend and I hope I can be as good of friend to you as you have been to me.  I appreciate ya'll so much.  It was emotional talking to you but it was pure joy!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for thinking of us.  We love ya'll so much!

Anyway, please continue to pray for Sasha!  He is still getting persecuted and has much to deal with here.  Pray for protection for him.  We have heard so many bad things that are occuring at here....there is true evilness at that orphanage.....God wants us to get our son home!

Thanks for prayers...love to you all,
m and j