It's Official....We Have a Daughter!!!!

It's official..... We have a Daughter!!!!
We had our court hearing today at 10:30 am. It felt like a long process. We had a small glitch with one document that could have held up the decision until Wednesday, but with the help of our Facilitator, she corrected the error and we were officially told today at 1:00 pm that Alyssa Marie is our little girl!!!!!
The picture above is of us outside of the court building in Krasnoyarsk. It is really cold and snowy here, and we are more than ready to come back to warm Tennessee!!!
We had went and visited with Alyssa yesterday, and she has grown just a little bit. She was a little bit shy, but warmed right up to her daddy when he brought out a snack!!! We will be visiting the orphange tomorrow, and hope to share some more news with you. We will not be posting a picture of her until the 10 day wait is over, which will be on Saturday Nov. 22nd.
We would like to thank everyone for their many prayers. We could definitely feel them all the way around the world to us here in Krasnoyarsk.
Keep watching!!!!
Love Julie

Snowy Krasnoyarsk!!!!!!

We arrived in Krasnoyarsk to alot of falling snow!!!! It is very
cold and we are wondering how much snow we will get while we are here!!!
Our plane arrived on Sunday morning early, and we were very glad to get here.
We are still trying to get connected with wireless internet from our room,
so for now we are in the business center. It is now Monday morning at 11:00am.
We are getting ready to go and see Alyssa at 2:00pm. We will post again hopefully very soon!!! We will be sure to include pictures from Krasnoyarsk and all of the snow!!!!

Hi From Moscow!!!!

We are so exhausted from our long flight. We arrived in Moscow early Thursday morning.
We finally got a good nights sleep on Thursday night. We got up this morning and had our physicals. It took about 3-1/2 hours, but we are finally done with that important step.
Wade had the Dr's laughing!!! He forgot how long we have been married when he was talking to the pyschologist!!!! But we got all of our 8 Dr's stamps of approval!!!
We are getting ready to settle in for the night(Fri) We will be flying out tomorrow night(Sat)for Kras!!!! We will update you further when we arrive!!!! We are counting down the days until we see Alyssa!!!

Me and My Daddy's Stang......

We have been meaning to show a few pictures of Wade's pride and joy....
No.... not pictures of Alyssa yet...... pictures of his Ford Mustang, and also pictures of the fun ride for Alyssa!!!! Daddy has hooked her up with this hot machine from Walmart!!! He is still trying to figure out how to make a mini garage, but for now he parks it beside his in the garage.....
This little girl is going to be soooooooo lucky to have such a great and loving father...... That is why I love him sooooooo much, and that is why I married him. Thanks for stopping by. WE LEAVE IN 4 DAYS!!!!!!!

Julie

Pack Lightly..... Yeh Right!!!!!!

Did someone say that we needed to pack light??? For a month???? What, are you kidding me?? HA HA HA !!!!! This is harder than you think. We are allowed 44 lbs in our checked bag per person. We are still trying to figure out how that is going to happen..... We have almost everything packed except for a few gifts for our Russian friends, and also a few snacks for Alyssa for our visits with her, and for our trip home. We have packed very little clothing for ourselves, and we will probably be handwashing some items and letting them dry in the room. We are so very excited to get this trip underway, and we cannot wait to see Alyssa on Monday November 10th. We will be having our court date on Tues, Nov. 11th. Please keep an eye on our blog because we intend on putting an entry on here everyday or every other day. We will keep you informed the best that we can on this month long journey to bringing our little "Russian princess" home.

Julie

We Have A Court Date!!!!!

Look out Russia, here we come!!!!! We just received the wonderful news that we have gotten our court date!!! We will be leaving for Russia on November 5th. Our court date is Nov. 11th, and we return home on December 4th!!!! We are crying tears of joy tonight while we try to get our visa's rolling along with getting our airline tickets. My head is spinning trying to remember all of the things that we need to get done. We would really like to thank all of you for your prayers and blessings in this long journey to our little girl. We cannot wait to share her photo after we have legally become her parents. Please keep watching our blog. We will be posting as much as possible from Russia. You can leave us comments and we will try to respond by email or phone. We will be using Skype to talk and video back and forth to the U.S. We are so excited that our prayers have been answered. Please continue to pray for us for safe travels, and also for an uneventful court hearing..
We will post again soon...
Julie

Petition To Court!!!!

Praise the Lord, we have just received our petition to court!!!!
When I opened email this morning, there it was......the document that
we have been waiting for ever so anxiously!!!
Receiving this document means that we are very close to bringing
Alyssa home. Once this document gets back to Russia, we will hopefully
receive our court date very soon!!! We are looking so forward to seeing
her again!!! We really loved our first trip, and we look forward to seeing
our facilitators, drivers and everyone else that has helped to make this such
a wonderful experience. The Russian people were so kind and helpful to us.
It will truly be bitter sweet when we do have to come home from the last trip.
Everyone that has been working on our behalf really love these children.
We look forward to spending time in Moscow and our region, and look forward to learning alot more about Russia. The time that we spend in Russia will always be such a great part of our adoption story. Russia will always be part of our lives and a part of the heart of our family. We are going to be so proud to say that we feel in love with a little girl from the wonderful country of Russia. And we will feel so proud to say that she is our little "princess".
Please keep our family in your prayers to get a quick court date, and also pray for the many other families that are waiting also for petitions, court dates, referrals, and regions...
Blessings..
Julie