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.