No pictures, just another answered prayer

Today, God reveled Himself again in answering the prayers of so many. At 4pm today, we walked out to the registrar’s office in the kid’s birth city with the new birth certificates and other related paperwork! Praise God! It's a real blessing for me to be so close to His work here.

A quick recap - we left for the kid’s hometown this morning at about 8:20 and arrived at the registrar’s office around 10:50. Anna gets out of the car without saying anything in English and walks into a building. I put on my headphones and bury my head in a book my gently recommended I read "The five Love Languages of Children" that I started on the way. I figured that if Anna needed me, or needed to say something to me, she would have told me. I'm used to it by now - it's all part of the adventure.

At about 11:00, she comes out and starts talking to Kostya. I just keep reading and listening to my music. I did look up over the top of my glasses once and she saw me. She said "Don't worry; we will have the documents soon." I said "Another answered prayer, Anna. Another answered prayer!" I asked when she thought we would have them and if there was a change we could get to the passport office today. Her response was great; "we'll see".

The next thing I know Kostya is out of the car and he says, "We’ll be back". "No problem" I said and went back to reading and listening. About 1:00, they came back and Anna says let's go. We went inside the building and into an office where there is a lady working at a desk. Anna motions for me to sit down, so I do. After about 10 minutes that lady looks up and says something to Anna. Anna says something back and time goes by. After about 1/2 hour, she gets up and leaves. Anna tells me she is working on getting all the documents and we will just wait.

For the next 2 hours Anna and I make small talk while the lady comes and goes. Sometimes asking Anna some clarifying questions about the children's new names, our address, etc.

At 3:30, she walks from around her desk with three documents in her left hand and her right hand extended to shack mine. We shack hands and she says something I can't understand, but she is smiling so I figure it's good. Anna explains that she is telling me that I am a nice person and have a loving heart to come and adopt these three children. She knows their mother and father and she is happy that the children will have a home to live in. I tell Anna to please tell her thank you and that she is nice one for talking time out of her busy day to complete this work.

After another 30 minutes, she handed Anna six more document and we said good-bye. Anna said that she said "God be with you in your journey". How cool is that! (Did notice a picture of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God hanging on the wall behind her desk and even wondered what her relationship with Christ and the Father was like?)

On the way to the car, Anna tells me we are really blessed because there were only three blank birth certificates in the office. Had she not had the three we needed or made a mistake on any one of them, we would have been returning tomorrow. "Blessed" - you bet!

Its 4:00 and we have 1.5 hour drive back to Khelm so I ask Anna what next so I know how to pray on the way. She said she would call the orphanage director and see if she can set something up with the passport office. So for 1 hour and 20 minutes I read, listened to music and prayed. As we entered town, Anna makes a call. We keep driving and I keep riding hoping we are going somewhere we need to go beside back to our apartment. We are heading down the street to our apartment, but make a turn. OK God - you have a plan. We go around the block a few times obviously looking for some address. We pull into a parking lot and Anna says "You come with me." OK I say and ask if I need anything; passport, money, anything. She says "sure". I gather what I need and follow her in a building. It really is an adventure! She tells me that we are at an office where they can assign the children new I.D. numbers that they will need for their passports. She tells me to wait in the lobby and she goes in a door. A few minutes later, she comes out and tells me that we can come back at 9:00am and pick them up. I praise the Lord for working out yet another detail and I didn't even know about new I.D. numbers.

We went to the car and back to the apartment.

So here's the plan for tomorrow - we go pick up the I.D. numbers at 9am, then to the notary office for something, then to pick up the orphanage director, then to the passport office.

There are two types of passports - one is an "old" version and if they have three of them they could possibly be completed by Wednesday night. The other is the "new" version and it will take 3-4 days to complete them.

If they have the "old" forms, we could be home on Friday. If they have the "new" forms, it will most likely be Tuesday before we come home.

Here are the prayer requests. Please continue to pray BOLDLY.
1. That we get the I.D. numbers at 9am without delay.
2. The notary is in and can sign what needs to be signed.
3. The passport office has three "old" forms that we can have and get processed by Wednesday night.

Thank you all for your BOLD prayers. Please rejoice with me in all that God is doing to answer our prayers. He is King and worthy of our praise.

Blessings <><,

David