It was a shock to hear that Alina was adopted by another family. But how can we stay sad when there are encouraging family members and so many good, kind and supportive friends?! We know the Lord has a plan and in this we do feel peace. We are willing to be lead wherever He wants us to go!

Yuri just called us. He called to say that Alina has been adopted by someone else, so obviously, she is no longer available. He said he would help us pursue someone else if we wanted to. Wow! How do you make that decision when you feel like you've been put in a blender? I wish we could find out what happened. I don't know what we will do now...I guess we need to do some serious thinking.

Apparently, all the paperwork that Mckay needed from us did not come through on our email. So, the joy we felt that the paperwork was turned in and things started has been replaced with "You want how much more...?", thus we begin tackling "the rest". Over the last few months of paperwork, it's funny to see that some days have been/are busy, busy, busy calling, retrieving, sending, etc, and other days we have been almost twiddling our thumbs. Some days we can hardly contain our excitement and other days we feel so full of anxiety...

I have had a few inquiries from friends and family as to why I haven't blogged lately...Well, first off, thank you for your support and interest (sometimes I've wondered if anyone reads our blog). And, secondly, my goodness, there is a lot to do to get the paperwork in! We've been gathering, calling, sorting and typing, all in addition to getting the taxes done! Hoping not to jinx our situation and definately keeping our fingers crossed, we would like to say that we should have everything completed and turned in this weekend - yeah!

My son, Kurtis, had his surgery yesterday at 7:30 am and is doing very, very well - much better than the doctor expected! (Well, miracles do happen through blessings!) The surgery went smoothly and he didn't have any pain medications until bedtime as he "didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night in alot of pain." Needless to say, he slept through the night like a baby but his mother was up several times during the night to check on him. He really is an awesome young man, spiritually as well as physically (17 years old, 6 feet tall and 210 pounds. We refer to him as our Nephite warrior...). We see the doctor this morning to change the dressing and get further instructions on care.

I have been neglectful in not consistently "blogging" about ALL of my beautiful blessings that we call children. You are wonderful, intelligent, spiritual and creative young men and young women. We love you all and know that even though you are not always blogged about, you are first and foremost on our minds and in our hearts!! ISLY!!

We got the info to begin the process of bringing Alina home. In the email Yuri sent, he "recapped" her being asked about adoption and we just wanted to post his exact words as it warmed our hearts all over again, so bare with us..."She is still in the orphanage, she WANTS to very much, when she hear from the orphanage staff that the family she stayed with was thinking about her she was jumping in joy with tears of happiness in her eyes. So, I can tell you from our experience that is a pretty good sign that she wants to be part of your family."

Yuri called us yesterday...he said that Alina is definately available for adoption, she is still in the orphanage and when they asked her if she wanted to be adopted (hopefully he mentioned by the Love family), she clapped her hands, jumped up and down saying, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Wha-a-a Ho-o-o-o-o! Yuri said they would email info to us soon.

Wow! I am shaking...(FYI: It was Alina's birthday, too, yesterday, January 22!)

Earlier this week, we emailed Elliana (Adoption Way) to let her know we wanted to adopt Alina! We asked Elliana if they would contact Alina and see if she wanted to be adopted by us and live in America. As you remember from an earlier post, there were other families that were brought in to try and have a home for Alina. Some of you might be wondering why we waited so long to tell them we wanted to adopt her, but the story of "the other family" that became interested in her is far too long for blogging. Anyway, I emailed Elliana again this morning and she responded quite quickly with, "Thank you, we did receive the email, we are checking if Alina is still available and her decision. We will get back to you soon."

I am really not very good at waiting...