We are in Indiana finishing up the adoption of our son, Andre. We are both happy parents and splitting the duties during the night shift. God has given me energy to be able to take the early morning time. I am usually up after 2 am to about 8 am. Then I go to bed, and Kristi takes over.

We are both doing well, and our host family here in Indiana is wonderful. We should be in Indiana until late February or early March. My guess is March. In any case, we will then return to Chandler, Arizona.

Even though, we have a little one, I am busy none the less keeping busy with ministry. I am developing a website/blog to support new missionaries on the field. One aspect of the website is a section for disability resources. It will allow someone in the field to research and use tools at a moments notice. Because we are confined mostly in the house here, I able to concentrate a lot of time on it.

New Place to Call Home - Again.

I had heard it said that a missionary's life consists of getting used to moving.  Not always within the same city like us, but back and forth from the states and sometimes to different towns and cities.  We have had our share of mobility in our two and half years of living here.

However, we are so happy with this present move we made.  We left behind the apartment in the block building and are now in a large 3 bedroom apartment in a house.  The neighborhood is nice and quiet with a observatory across the street.  This makes parking our van so much easier!!!  I can not even explain the increase of cars we have seen here even in the last two years.  These Romanian cities were not designed to accommodate this and in the areas of block apartments it is the worst! 

Steve has been busy with distributing wheelchairs and equipment and other ministry things with moving furniture in between.  Hence, there has been no down time for us until this past weekend.  We celebrated my (Kristi's) birthday and our new place with having friends over.  

Adoption News - is that we have not heard anything new.  We are still in the waiting mode for a birthmother to pick us.  This has changed our travel plans and we will not be in the states for the holidays.  Unless, we get a call that requests us to come immediately to pick up a surprise Christmas gift.  Thanks for your continued prayer for us and our future family.

For the time being we expect to celebrate Thanksgiving with other missionaries and Americans here in Timisoara.  

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

The Roller Coaster Ride of Adoption

Life is in constant change and motion.  We are in the midst of packing our belongings and moving to a different apartment.  This next one will be in a house.  Yeah!  It will have more room for a baby.

Also we are trying to get ready to fly to the states for adopting a baby in December.  BUT, halt on this one.  The birthmom who had chosen us to adopt her baby changed her mind and is now going to parent her baby.  It is a disappointment, but not a death or a miscarriage.  We will continue to pray for this young mother and this baby boy.  We still have a hope for a baby and our application and information is being shared with other expecting mothers thinking of adoption plans. 

The other positives is that she changed her mind in advance before we purchased plane tickets or flew to the states.  Those who follow our blog and are praying for our adoption we wanted you to know.  We appreciate your prayers.  Thank You!

Adoption Update

While we were preparing for the team from Highlands our lawyers office called our Romanian cell phone.  The phone call was to inform us that a birthmom was interested in talking to us. Within the next half hour we were on the phone talking to her for almost 2 hours.

The following day we heard again from the lawyers that she has chosen us as adoptive parents for her baby.  She is due to deliver a baby boy in early December.  We are in the middle of summer ministry and will be updating you more to our travel plans when the due date comes closer.

Thanks for your prayers and please continue to pray for the baby and birthmom.

Babies! Babies!

Emma and Baby Filip

Yesterday, I went to visit a former language instructor named Emma. She and her husband had a beautiful baby boy last January. It was the first time I saw their son, Filip Alexandru. He is a good little boy and SO adorable. It was nice to catch up with Emma, and also see what wonderful parents they are.

Last week, Steve and I visited another young family from our church who have a one year old son, Andrei. He has blond hair and clear blue eyes, and was a happy, ACTIVE little guy. We know a few other church members who have recently had children with one other couple currently expecting. It is a good place to be, when we as a couple are expecting without the pregnancy.

In our last newsletter, we announced our plans of adoption, but this is the first blog about it. We are in the waiting stage. We have completed all the steps of our home study, and are just waiting for the finalized social workers written report Then our lawyers, who are located in Indiana, will be showing our letter to expecting moms for them to make their decision of choosing us as the couple

they would like to raise their baby.

I don't have morning sickness, the cravings, and all the other pregnancy symptoms, but I think about this little one growing and wonder at what stage God has him or her. We are not just waiting on paperwork, but God's timing. Our future child could already be 5 plus months along in the pregnancy, or not yet conceived. So, in the mean time we wait while going forward with the daily blessing of opportunities God has given us to do in work where we are.

Kristi

(If you are an expecting mom surfing the web and considering placing your baby in an adoption plan, and would like to read our birthmom letter. Please contact our lawyers, who are in the state of Indiana. You can see their website and get their phone number by clicking here.)

Love and Kisses

A family wedding brought us back to the States for a visit. The above picture is Steve with his brother Dave. It is nice to be with family again. Jetlag slowed us down some, yet we were able to stay awake for all the wedding events. Aleen (Steve’s niece) was a beautiful bride and the wedding was fabulous.

It is amazing how quickly one forgets driving directions and standard routines, such as the questions at the supermarket check out. “Do you want paper or plastic?” “Do you need ice or stamps today?” “Ok, just slide your card through.” Hummm, what was our pin code again? We survived; however, our brains had much slower processing speed.

Arizona weather is wonderful, and we are looking forward to our visit next week to California. We will visit Joni and Friends International Disability Center as well as participate in a conference.

Right now we are staying with Kristi’s brother and able to see our dog Lucy who lives with him.