End of the week - Emotional Roller Coaster Ride Continues!

Tanya went to the courthouse on Friday to put our petition into the computer lottery system.  She has been telling us all along that the judge we are assigned is very important as their are 2 "bad judges" and 2 "good judges".  

We were taking our time getting ready on Friday morning when Tanya called and said she needed to speak with us urgently and we had to go back to the notary.  When I asked what was wrong, she said in her Russian accent, "not good for you - need to explain in person."  It turns out that we were assigned not only the bad judge but the worst of the four.  He is extremely detailed and painfully thorough from what she knows.  It took the last couple that he handled 2 1/2 months to get a court date.  As perspective, the couple here with us now, Kevin and Stephanie, received the good judge and was assigned a court date on this Thursday.

Tanya pulled our paperwork off his desk (she knows the system).  She explained to us that we will have to resubmit on Monday and pray that we get assigned the correct judge.  If not, we will resubmit every day until the selection is correct.  However, we are praying that God's plan is to get us assigned correctly on Monday and receive a Friday 9/15 court date.  This is the best case scenario and will allow us to fly home on Sunday 9/18.  As I have been posting, being away from the kids has been grueling.  This extra day delay is extremely frustrating and yet another challenge.  The news was especially hard on Kelly and made for a rough day.  We know that through God, all things are possible so we have faith that getting the right judge in the lottery will happen Monday!

We spent time at the orphanage after school and enjoyed playing cards with Maria and the other kids.  I brought the computer over and had the translator program running so we were able to better communicate with the kids.  They enjoyed typing words into it as well and hearing them said back in Russian.

We spoke to the kids at home for a long time on Skype.  They had a good Friday at school.  Jake and Nicholas, unfortunately, didn't make the finals in the cooking contest this year...they are our top chefs though and I cannot wait to taste Jake's chili and Nicholas' Shrek ice cream when I get home!  Mark finally got Skype on his new iTouch so we have a direct line to him now.  Nicholas and Brooke enjoy the text function a little too much on Skype - we have had to limit use during our conversations!

We love you kids!

Traveling in line as a group to go eat dinner.

Thank you to all who have been sending us notes via email, facebook and comments on this blog.  We are grateful for great family and freinds!  Keep the messages coming as we don't get to talk to many people over here...our Russian is not getting any better either!