WE'RE HERE!!

In case you haven't heard......WE MADE IT!!!We are in country, in a motel with a BED! I just kept saying on the plane ride and in the airports, "if I could just find a bed to stretch out on!" Man, we have never been so tired. Right now its 5:20 am Tuesday morning and we've been awake for awhile. I think we're alittle excited. No, that not right. We're ALOT excited!!! In 31/2 hrs. we will neet our little Gabe. Rick just said, 'can you believe it? we're really fixing to see him." Wow!! We were told he speaks pretty good Russian! Oh, I wish we could understand him and he understand us. But hugs are universal aren't they??!! I believe he will know by the looks on our face and our gestures, that we bring love just for him. Pray that he will be accepting of our love.

I have so much to tell! If we had been followin "the signs" for the past 30 hrs while traveling, we would not be here right now. But we DIDN'T follow the signs......We haven't followed the signs since we started this.  We have, and we will continue to, follow and  be obedient to the One who sent us on this journey. We are following Him. God has been our source of strength and only with Him will we be strong enough to face what lies ahead.

Without going into particulars, please pray that God will move in the hearts of the ones we have to go before. We faced the DOE yesterday and she was tough. She doesn't understand "why" we come to do this. When we left her office finally with the permit to visit Gabe, I told our interpreter that "she scared me!" and our lady said, "she scared me too!" and she's russian!!. Rick and I both were very intimidated and we were told to be better prepared for more questions while we're here. I would be lying if I tried to lead you to belive that we felt confident about all this. We know that the orphanage director wants Gave to have a family and a home, so thats good. We have great ladies helping us and guiding us while over here. Theres still much to be done before this baby is ours. Please pray for us, for Gabe, and for the officials who hold Gabes life in their hands.  My my.....what a ride!!