Happy Birthday!

Little Luke turned 3 today, and we got to celebrate with him, what a blessing! We brought him some gifts from home, and we bought some here in Chelyabinsk. In the first photo he is holding a musical book from his Aunt Sue and a Cheborashka (the brown animal with an orange face) from Mama and Papa.

In photo two he is about to blow out his birthday candles on a special 'cake' made by Kara, a banana bread that she bakes in soup cans, which Luke loves!

He couldn't wait to have cake, he held is up and said Mama....pajahlusta! (Mom...please!). I didn't even have a chance to cut it, he just dove right in--and shared with his parents, of course!

He also got a Cheborashka backpack to put his toys in, he a special backpack at home from Grandma Woods, but it didn't make the weight limit cuts so we bought him this one for the trip home. Papa put it on him after he opened it and he wore it for most of our visit!

All in all we had a great birthday visit with lots of smiles, belly laughs and food. When his caregiver came to get him she asked if he was ready to go back to his 'groupa' and he said 'Nyet' no....big sigh.

Happy Birthday to our precious little boy.

Wednesday's Visit with Luke

We wanted to share some more beautiful photos of our boy from our visit on Wednesday. Luke is proudly modeling a new hat knitted by his Mama for him. One of the orphanage workers came in and asked him what I presume was 'who gave you that hat' and his respose was Mama and then some Russian words followed. It warmed my heart!

Although he loved his new hat I think he still prefers to wear Papa's hat. He is quite the ham when there is a camera around, but he is more interested in food than anything else. Pears, apples, cookies, juice and water are in high demand when we visit him, and when those are gone he is searching our backpack to see what else he can find!

Wednesday night Mark and Kirell (our new friend and driver) went to dinner with Kirell's dad and I went to Kirell and Nadia's house for some true hospitality. She made me a wonderful meal of ham, cheese, bread, pemaneie (like dumplings), and caviar and then served me hot tea. She let me do all my laundry and was truly a wonderful hostess to me. Thank God for all those He has put in our path.

Tonight we went to Dwayne and Kara's for another amazing meal and Karin and I started our own little knitting club! Dont' worry Rachael yours is still my top choice back home :-)

We are going to visit Luke tomorrow for his 3RD BIRTHDAY!

We'll post b-day photos when we get home tomorrow night. Have a great day everyone.

1 Down, 4 to Go

We are praising God again today, the Platter family had a successful court date yesterday! God is giving us miracles one by one and we are so thankful. It looks like we are next, our appearance is Monday at 11am which will be 12am Monday for you guys in the states. Please pray for God to give us wisdom and the right words for the judge.

Diamond Hotel, Now Home Sweet Home

(On Arbat Street)

We are continually overwhelmed with the amazing Christian friends that God places in our lives. This beautiful prayer was forwarded to me by our dear friend Rosemary and it is so very appropriate to our circumstances.

Hear, My child, the word for today. There is no need that I cannot fill. There is no situation that I cannot redeem. Your faith is still dwarfed and stymied by your reasoning, and your deep fear is the product. Only by trusting Me beyond the limits of your reasoning can you begin to have freedom from the plaquing fears.
The future is Mine --your future and the future of your loved ones. My arm has not been cut off, and My resources are limited only by My nature and My will. I am aware of all your circumstances and the anxieties you entertain even in sleep about those you love. Be of good cheer. The end is not yet, and I am still at work. I have not forgotten My promises, and My plans for you are good, not evil. Stay on the path I have set before you, and trust Me for all that is to come.

We have successfully moved to our new hotel and it is really great. Dwayne and Kara took us and the Bergstroms to Baskin Robbins for ice cream tonight, boy was it yummy.

We are going to visit Luke tomorrow afternoon, so we should have more great photos to share with you when we get back to our room.

We have set up a local Missouri phone number for you all via a program called Skype, you can call it anytime. If we are away from the computer you can leave us a voice mail and we'll get it when we get back to the room. We'd love to hear from you! 573-234-6595

Here are some photos of the fun things we've been doing in between visits and meetings.

1) Hockey Game 2)Arbat Street shopping Me & Karin 3)Thanksgiving Day

Another day, another great visit

We visited Luke today and, as usual, it is the highlight of our week. We took him an apple, an orange, some cookies, and a bottle of juice, which he loved! He is such a happy boy and a joy for us to be with--we just can't wait for it to be a daily blessing. Today he took Papa's hat off and put it on his own head, backwards! He was quite proud of himself and we thought it was priceless, of course.

He and papa shared some cereal and cookies and then played with cars, yet another favorite of our adorable little boy.

Tomorrow we will move to a different hotel, another very nice one, but about half the price of our current place. We found it through our new driver, and friend-he has been a real blessing. He takes us wherever we need to go and offers help with anything we need. He and his wife took us shopping on Sunday after church and we had a great time.

We have requested a visit with Luke again on Wednesday, we should find out tomorrow if that is ok with the director. We would love to make the trip everyday, but it really is emotionally and physically exhausting. We are still praying for our court appearance to be moved up to this week, but no word as of today. If not this week, we are scheduled for Monday-so please pray for favor with the judge!

Love to you all!

A Step in the Right Direction

Hello. all. We have some positive news from our rep here and we are rejoycing. She had a meeting with the new person that will preside over our case here and he looked through our documents and said he feels that they are acceptable. We have a few still in translation and he agreed that she could submit those as soon as they are ready, instead of the usual requirement of waiting until the Friday office hours. Please pray with us that he will also find the last documents accpetable and that he will move up our date to this week instead of next week.
We had hoped to visit Luke on Saturday, but the director said they are doing a thorough cleaning so she cannot accept us that day and that she is very sorry about that. She said we can come for a visit on Monday, so we'll be looking forward to that. We have been doing some fun stuff with our new friends amongst all the documents and meetings, so we'll post those over the weeknd and we also have a couple of photos of Luke from the Wednesday visit to post, as well.
For now it's off to bed for a good nights rest to prepare for a new day here tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It has been a happy thanksgiving indeed! We got to see Luke again today and had a great visit. He ran in the room and said in Russian "there's Mama!" He has had a cold and it is better now and he was more energtic today. My, my this little one has and appetite. He ate an apple, an orange, some toddler cookies, and some cherrios, and drank a jar of pumpkin-apple juice! We also brought some turkey flavored Russian ramen noodles and ate them dry with him, because there was nothing to cook them in.......if you get a chance crush up a bag of them and pour in the spices, then shake it up. Its funny no matter how you do it, it doesn't taste like Turkey. Who cares though because we were together on Thankgiving. God is Great!
He is such a sweet boy, always putting things back where they belong and stacking things up in neat piles. He would take two cookies out of the bag and give one to Papa before taking one for himself!
His favorite toys are shape sorters, a train and anything that makes music. He will turn one toy on and play with another and as soon as the music stops playing on the first toy he'll go back and turn it on again. When two of his teachers came in to ask if we had played enough, we sighed and said no, time just goes by too fast! They asked him if he wanted lunch and he said Da! (yes!) Baakaa (Bye) Mama, Baakaa Papa, Ya Tiba Lubu (I love you), Dos vyadonya (Goodbye!). We asked what he was going to have for lunch and their response was "fish soup" He really is a healthly eater they say.......what ever that means when you're eating fish head soup! We've decided he takes after his Papa.
We are headed to Dwayne and Kara's tonight for Turkey dinner and we are so happy to have friends to finish off our perfect Thanksgiving Day. The Platters will be there, as well as the Bergstroms who just got here on Tuesday. They brought me some more asthma medicine from home, I had brought extra, but not enough for an extra 3 weeks! What a blessing they are.
Enjoy the photos from today!

Changes, changes, and more changes

Well, we did not get to visit Luke today. We were quite disappointed, as we have not gotten to see him in over a week now. We had a long meeting again with our court rep, trying to explain various documents, and of course they requested more documents for court. So our wonderful friends have run from here to there and back again compling them. They sent them to us express service only to find out that we need one more! So today the paper race begins anew.
Even with all these hurdles, changes and extended waiting God still give us grace and sustains us. We will get to visit Luke tomorrow, a huge praise.
Our friends Dwayne and Kara introduced us to their friend (Kirell, from the photo last week) and he is going to drive us for our visit tomorow, yet another blessing, as it is safer and cheaper!
Thank you all so much for the prayers, emails and continued support as we wait over here, we are a truly blessed family.

Good food and full hearts

Good fellowship and great food last night! We went to Dwyane and Kara's house and she made us meatloaf, baked apples, potatoes and cheese biscuits. Comfort food has never tasted so good. Our friends Scott and Lynn were there as well, they've been showing us the ropes around the city (ie trolley, preping us for medicals and such), they have been a true blessing. They are two amazing families and we have really enjoyed getting to know them.

After dinner we had delicious desserts, yes plural, and we watched National Lampoons Vacation and had some much needed laughs. They drove us home around midnight and we went to bed with full hearts and bellys.

We had a great opportunity to go to the Church of God here today, all in Russian, so our friends had two translators sit with the four of us so we could know what the pastor was saying. It was great to be in church and to hear God's word.

We are hoping to go visit Luke on Tuesday, so look for new photos of him in the near future.

The Girls!

A beautiful prayer from a special friend

We wanted to share this beautiful prayer from our dear friend Jennifer, in hopes that it would touch you as much as it touched us.

Dear God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Father of all, Redeemer of my soul, I come to you humbly and yet emboldened by your very Word and your promises. Father, I pray that you part the seas of bureauocracy and soften hearts. Glorify yourself through the Robbs. Use them as your instruments. Let your light shine through them and please, Father, bring them home a complete family. I pray that Luke be united with them, that they may worship you as a family. I pray that your love surround the Robbs and that their humble demeanor would wash over their enemies bringing them all closer to you. I am asking, pleading, praying, seeking, hoping, trusting and loving in you and your promises Father. Above all, please give us your peace that we may be content in you and your perfect will. Please place your hand on the Robbs and open your doors for them. Be their shepard in this foreign land. You are great and mighty God. Guard our hearts, remove the scales from our eyes, and soften our hearts to your Word that we may be a joy to you. In Christ's name,Amen.

Internet is great....when it works!

We are sorry it has taken us so long to post this time, our internet is not working properly the last couple of days. We have had a crazy couple of days, we got assigned a new appearance with a new person on December 3rd. We are very excited, yet cautious. We have been advised to keep things more generic on our blog, so you will probably notice we've made some changes. We made a trip to Luke's town to meet with the director and another official, it was a very lenghty meeting with lots of suggestions and many decisions to be made about this additional wait. We are trying very hard to please everybody, and as we all know that is not possible! Please pray for God to give us His wisdom for each decision we make along this journey and that we will not doubt His path once we find it. Thank you all so much for your prayers, calls and friendship.
We love you all,
Luke's Parents

Lost in Translation

Mark and I met with our court rep tonight, along with the other adoptive family, to discuss possible avenues with our court issues. It appears that she will resubmit our dossier on Friday with the new judge. We are praying this new judge (who has experience with international adoptions and is deemed to have been fair in the past) will accept our dossier and give us a new court date in early December, in which case we will stay here in Country. If the court date is not reset, or is in late December we may have to re-evaluate our travel plans. Will you all please pray with us for favor with the judge and a newly appointed court date so we can have cause to stay to bring Luke home?
I believe our fellow adoptive parents will travel home on Saturday as their dossier will not be available for resubmission until next Friday and they have already been here for 4 1/2 weeks. We went out for Sushi together and I had caviar for the first time, very tastey! Will you also pray with us for favor with the judge for the Platters and a new court date for them in early December, as well?
We also completed our medicals today, a huge relief to have that off our minds
We are so thankful that we serve a God that is in all the details, great and small. That He is going before us in all of these appointments and issues and working them all for His perfect will.
Thank you for the love and support.

Divine Bonding

We went to visit Luke on Monday and had another great visit. When we got to the orphanage the director was surprised to see us because our court rep. forgot to call and let her know that we were accepting her invitation to visit. Luke was on a walk with his group so we went to the local cafe for some more solanka soup and hot tea. He was waiting for us when we got back and he ran right up to us to be picked up. We had a tea party with him and he played a mini keyboard for us. He loves to go through our backpack, and he pulled out the iPod and put the earphones on to listen to the music, he said in his language before we turned it on 'a song'!

We brought Luke another pear and he was a very happy boy! Our translator, Mila, brought him some Cok (pronunced sok) juice and he loved that, too. He loves for his Papa to swing him in the air, he laughs and Marks says again? and he says Yes!

When it was time for us to leave he looked sad, a good sign that he is bonding very well with us.

We went to our missionary friend's apartment and they are so wonderful, they cooked us pizza for dinner and let us do a load of laundry in their washing machine. They drove us back to our hotel where a phone call from our agency awaited us with frustrating news. The judge is holding up the progress of our court dates with paperwork hurdles. Please pray that God will give us divine intervention because we feel at this point that is what it is going to take to get in for court. Our court rep is meeting with the judge and an attorney she hired on our behalf today (Tuesday) and we hope God sends us a compromise with the judge. The other family is still here and it is really good to have friends to talk and pray with. Another family decided to delay their trip because of these new hurdles. Thank you all so much for the prayers and

comments on our blog-keep them coming we savor them.

Love, Mark & D

in photo above are Kara, Dwayne, Kirell, Nadia

Delays, delays

Well, we met with our court rep and we got the dreaded news that we will not have court on Wednesday--probably not even this week. There is a mistake on one of our documents, an incorrect name on a document that was not prepared by us. It is very disappointing to hear that we cannot have court, however, we are looking at the bright spot in our week-more opportunities to visit Luke. We will delay our medicals by a day at their suggestion and will visit Luke on Monday. Please pray for our document to be corrected and to make it to Country in record time, it will be sent express via DHL, however there is not an 'overnight' option here. Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments on the blog, we savor each and every one of them.

Luke loves pears and Kenny Chesney music!

Hello back in the states!

We had a wonderful visit with Luke on Saturday. Lots of time to play and give hugs and kisses to our boy. We took some cereal, a cakelike candy bar and a pear for him, my he has an appetite (just like his Daddy!). He ate all the cereal and the bar and then he pick up the pear, plucked off the stem and handed it to Papa and then preceeded to eat the whole thing!

We let him listen to Mama's iPod (Kenny Chesney of course!) and he loved it, he was so calm and he swayed back and forth to the music, then he would look up at us and smile! The orphanage director invited us back Monday, Tuesday, anyday! And she said we could come without a translator, something that is never offered so we feel very blessed that she is so comfortable with us.

We went to dinner at another hotel with another adoptive family and the missionaries from the States and had a great time. Unfortunately, the other family met with our court rep yesterday and the judge we are all assigned to is new and doesn't understand how our adoption agency and the umbrella agency we are all covered by work. She thinks something is 'fishy' with it and may require a letter from Moscow explaining that this is common practice (it's been the practice for 10 years!). If this is the requirement it will delay our court dates, so please pray for God to soften her heart, and have her speak with a more experienced judge to get clarification so we can all proceed with our court dates. We'll keep you posted!

The Robbs Reunited!

We had an amazing visit with Luke today. When he walked in the door he ran right to me and yelled MAMA and threw his arms around me, it was the most precious moment of my life. We spent about 2 1/2 hours visiting him and we played and played! He chatters about in Russian and we run behind him trying to keep up! He will repeat words in English if I point things out and say them. He picked up the digital camera at one point and when I tried to take it back he walked to Mark and said PAPA! He's already working the system! Being called Mama and Papa is certainly music to our ears. When we left he gave us big hugs, and when prompted by his care giver he said Ya tiba lublu!(I love you) and Dos vayadonya (good bye) Mama, dos vayadonya Papa.
Our orphanage director presented us with some 8 photos of Luke over the past year, what a gift! She also showed us his Christening certificate and a cross on a string that he will get when we pick him up, boy did I cry on that one! She asked us after or visit if everything was ok, and we said DA, DA, DA (Yes, yes, yes!). She invited us back to visit on Saturday, which is a rare invitation and we happily accepted.
We came back to Chely around 3:30 and had our chest x-rays, another special treat.
We'll post more tomorrow after our visit with Luke.
Love to you all.

WE'RE HERE, SAFE AND SOUND!

Hello from our Region! We made it to our hotel at 1:30am on Thursday local time, after 30 hours of travel. We were so exhausted we fell in to bed and woke up to our 6:30am wake up call. We traveled the three hours to visit Luke today in Triotsk only to find out when we got to the door that they are having federal inspections and the orphanage director told us with much remorse that she could not accept us today. We were disappointed, but did not want to do anything that might make trouble for the orphange or Luke. We picked up some documents at the Ministry of Social Services to bring back for court here in Country.
We went to a cafe in his town and had Solanka soup, which is make of pickles, olives, lemon, tomato broth, potatoes, various meats, sour cream and dill--suprisingly tastey! We also had a yummy piece of honey cake, similar to our cakes, but more of a graham cracker consistency that cakelike.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped and had our blood tests at a private labratory, like our labs at home really, very clean, and everything disposable and pre-packaged. We are hoping to see Luke tomorrow or Saturday, with several more medical visits for us in between.
Thank you for the prayers, we feel them all the way over here.
Love you all.