Big Odds, Bigger God

With much joy we announce our time has come to return to Russia to bring Samuel home! God continues to show us His Sovereignty and Might over all things. A recap of the events of this last week...

Last Friday we received news that our court date was set for Tuesday, Sept. 9th and we must leave Sept. 5th. WOW, we were in shock. Facilitators are not "supposed" to get court dates without USCIS approval. We were excited, but a little nervous, with still no response from the government office despite our attempts to request expedited services. This job was too big for us to handle. In case you don't remember this office is at least 5 months backlogged, and sadly many parents are waiting for the same important piece of paper. This news of a court date sent us on a frenzy of activity, getting airline tickets, visas, and of course trying once again to visit the immigration office. Ryan went back downtown for the fourth time to plead our case. This time with confirmation of our court date in hand, hoping it would serve to spark someone into action. To make a long story short, he had a "coincidental" meeting with the man in charge, whom we had been told was again NOT in the office. Big Odds, Bigger God! This man was kind and deemed our situation desperate. After hearing our story, he gave us the much anticipated fingerprint appt. and said he would do his best to get us approval in time for us to travel. The fingerprints typically take 10 days, which was frankly cutting it close. If it did not come on time we would have to postpone our trip.

We had been praying as a family that we would be able to be with Samuel on his 3rd birthday which is Sept. 24th. We found out later, our faciliator hurried to get us a date just before the judge plans to go on a month's vacation! If he had waited for immigration to come thru this would have meant not going back for Samuel until late October. Well, today we got approval! And in record time, only 5 working days! We are finding more evidence each day to trust in God's goodness. We hop on a plane at 6am Friday morning and make our way back to Baby Home #4 to see sweet Samuel again. We plan to post often while in Russia. Thank you for your faithful prayers.

We love you all,
Ryan & Allyson