***** NEWS FLASH *****, You don't want to miss this.....

Tom, Mary, and the Kids have some very big news, actually he's little, but very newsworthy!

We are bringing home a BOY too!  Here is Vitaly....

He and Alina are in the same group and have lived together as brother and sister for years. He is 4 years old (same as Holly) and his birthday is in February (same as Sophie). :)

Vitaly is such an active little guy. He loves to run, climb and push/ride anything with wheels. I saw him sitting in a doll stroller the other day using his feet to move the stroller, just like the Flintstones. :)

No, we did not plan on coming over for two children. We were told by our homestudy agency that they have a policy of not approving the adoption of unrelated children at the same time. So our mindset really was just to get our Alina. (And maybe come back for another one later) Now let me tell you how this all has transpired. It has been such an amazing week, let me start with last Tuesday.
Tuesday, 31 May....Tom & I begin talking about seeing if there was anything we could do to add another child to the process, only being approved for one, we weren't sure if this was possible. Also figured how much extra it would cost and decided that we just didn't have the money. Went on Reeces Rainbow . com (adoption ministry for special needs children) to read his biography and noticed that his grant money was the difference of what we would need! We took this as confirmation from God. *Mountain #1 moved!

Wed, 1 June.....Asked our facilitators IF it would be possible to add another child. Told them about Jonah (his Reeces Rainbow name) They said we would need to have our homestudy updated to show approval for 2 children with his special need listed and that we would need a new approval from US immigration. All before the end of the next week! After being in the adoption world now, I know that is likely not to happen. However.....we then emailed our stateside helper (Hiya Nancy!!) to see how to proceed. She jumpstarted everything and emailed our US Immigration officer and our homestudy agency.  That same day we got an email back from our social worker that said no, not just no, but NO! Once again stating their policy about unrelated children and a couple other concerns. Tom and I sent her an email back and addressed every concern. We stated that Alina and "Jonah" have lived together for the past four years literally as brother and sister. This would also probably help them with adjustment once we are home. (which was another concern)
We then prayed for God to help them see that this is a good thing and went to bed. (it was night time here then) Jonah was headed down the same road Alina would have taken if God had not directed us to come for her. She was headed to a mental institution if no one came to adopt her. Jonah has Apert's Syndrome and would have been sent to a remote mental institution for boys around his 5th birthday if not adopted first.

Thurs, 2 June....We woke up and quickly turned on the computer to check our email. There was an email from our social worker stating that she had met with others from the agency and they had decided TO APPROVE YOU TO ADOPT TWO UNRELATED CHILDREN!!  *Mountain #2 moved!!! Praise the Lord! There was much rejoicing in our little apartment!  So from there, our angel, Nancy coordinated with our homestudy agency for the changes that needed to be made. She also was in contact with our US Immigration officer to find out what she needed for approval. Nancy Rocks!!!

Fri. 3 June....Homestudy agency finishes updates and fed exes paperwork to Immigration.  Thank you Adoptions Together!!!! Thank you for seeing the urgency of the situation. Ten people will be eternally grateful to you!! Our dear friend, Kathleen, went to the city and picked up our copy of the new homestudy and got it county certified. Thanks Kathleen and Craig!!!  She will be getting it apostilled in the capital and fed exing it to us on Tuesday morning. Thank you for serving us in this way.

We need our Immigration officer to find our new updated homestudy that should have reached their offices today, and quickly approve us for two children with their needs. Then we need her to cable the embassy here and get official letter stating that we have approval so that we can get a new referral with the government here in order to start the process to adopt Vitaly. We need that and our new homestudy here by the end of this week.
Prayers are greatly appreciated!!  At first we weren't going to tell anyone just in case it didn't work out. Then we realized that we were not being faithful to our Heavenly Father. He has done so much for us already and we still wanted to see how things would work out first. Forgive us Father please. If You so desire to close this door, then so be it. You are still God on sunny days and rainy ones. Thank you for this journey you have put us on. Thank you for the wide open doors! Thank you for all of our children!

Speaking of children....ours blessed us when we told them that we wanted to bring home a little brother. They all cheered and were very excited. Holly says that now she has a twin brother (because they're both 4 yrs old) at least until October. :) Funny thing is that Holly has been talking about adopting a brother for awhile now, maybe she knew already! Thank you kids! You all truly make Mom and Dad proud because of your BIG HEARTS!  Speaking of hearts......A REALLY BIG THANK YOU to Mary and Jim for not only taking our children so we could come and get Alina, but for not skipping a beat when we told them about Vitaly and the need to stay here a little longer. You and your boys are examples of sacrificial love. Thank you for seeing God's hand in this. You are very special to us!

I've left out some other exciting little things that have come up, but this post is long enough for now. :)
So I'll end with a couple more pictures of our little guy and a request for prayers for the proceedings!
Thank you everyone......Tom and Mary

Hello Handsome!!

The Father to the fatherless is looking out for you.