January 10 2005 - finally, dossier is translated and in NY

No idea why the translation of our dossier into Russian took so long...God's timing. But we have received confirmation that our dossier is now in processing at the Kazakhstan embassy in New York. The outlook for that process is 4-6 weeks, so we'll plan on at least 8 weeks. That puts us at the end of March-ish. What happens after that is our adoption agent, Karla, finds us kids, and then we get our 'referral'...maybe. There is a possibility that we will not actually get the "picture and paragraph" until we get to Kazakhstan. We would be much more comfortable knowing about our kids before we go, but that may not be what God has in mind for us. We'll see. Either way, we should head to Kazakhstan about 3 weeks after we are officially approved (see above, 4-6-8 weeks from now).

So, we're in the 7th inning. The 8th will be total chaos, since that's when we'll be doing the final 2-3 weeks of planning - getting visas, buying clothing, cribs/beds, etc. - for a very long trip to the other side of the world! God's timing, God's provision, God's grace...God's plan. We're just along for the ride.