group projects stink

As a student I didn't like group projects. Not in elementary school. Not in high school. Not ever. I just prefer to work alone. I don't want to have to rest on the hope that others will do their job correctly and have that reflect on me. Well adoption seems like a huge group project. All of us 'Americans' are grouped as a team together, and I don't like it. See every Friday we get an email from our agency. It's called a Happy Friday email. It keeps all of us updated on all the different countries our agency is working with.

Well it isn't Happy Friday news for Russia. See one of the members of out 'team' abused their child. My heart breaks for this boy. No child deserves to be abused. My heart also breaks for Vlad (our referral) since the Russians found out about this they are slowing down the process and becoming more cautious, which is good. But it makes me want to yell..."I didn't do that part of the project. I worked hard and will continue to. I won't hurt anyone" But Russia is far away and they can't hear me. The teacher can only see us as a group, and I don't like it.

The bad apple

You can pray that things will move along quickly.

we call him vlad

I love to be surprised. I've always thought that the ultimate surprise would be having a baby. I can't read those ultrasounds, I always think...hmm alien? If I were pregnant I surely would not find out the sex of the child. However, we have decided to start our family through adoption. When you adopt it's not really that surprising. Pick a girl get a girl. Pick a boy get a boy. Pick either get a boy..most of the time.

So, we can't be surprised. We know it's a boy. Sure things could change, this could fall through, but for now...

However, if I can't be surprised you will have to be. Lots of friends have asked us his name. We won't tell you and we won't tell you the new name we picked out. You should be surprised! When we talk about him in public we call him Vlad, short for Vladimir, which is not his actual name or the name we are going to give him. Just a fun Russian name that we use to save a surprise for you.

All this to say, nothing new over the past weeks. Just waiting for hear from our agency when we should go meet him. We hope to hear soon so we can travel sometime in April. The sooner the better! While we wait we have been purchasing some donations for the orphanage. Mostly clothes for Vlad and his friends.

nothing new

Last week was uneventful. Nothing happened. Better to have nothing happen than something bad...right? We continue to collect documents necessary for our second dossier, we continue to wait to be told of our fist travel date, we continue to admire our potential son's photo, and we just keep praying. Praying he is safe, warm, full and having fun with his friends.