Double Take Moment

Wow, our oldest daughter is graduating.  Wow.   It's amazing how many  feelings come with this knowledge. 
Joy, a touch of sadness, a lot of pride.
Danielle is incredibly fun and full of life.  She has excelled in school since she started (she learned to read at 3 years old), She struggles with time management (sigh), we are working on this :-)
She makes good choices, wants to do the right thing and above all loves Jesus. We are so proud of her and can't wait to see what God has in store for her future.
We will be having her graduation here at home, it is what she wanted to do,  celebrate with family and friends at our house. Here is her graduation picture, or one of them... well two, ok ok, here are 3 LOL
Did I mention that she's homeschooled? 

Maybe I should be more specific about the kind of snippet I need?

So my last post said that I was hoping for a snippet of info.  Well today I got one and just wanted to cry...again. :-(

It seems that an agency that handles something that I'm not even 100% sure about who was supposed to receive info from our Home Study agency (which is one of the things we had to re-do because the notary had changed but I was given the wrong paperwork. Once I had the correct paperwork I did get it to my HS agency and they completed it and sent it to Anna who sent it on to the other agency whom I have no idea about... clear as mud right?), well they can't find corrected paperwork??  What?!  I sent it to HS agency, HS agency sent it to adoption coordinator , Anna, she sent it in...!  Now they say "no, it's the wrong paperwork."!  Again?  No way, it just can't be...

So I spend all morning and part of the afternoon tracking down this paperwork (thank you Deborah at Little Miracles who is very organized and makes scans of everything!) and finally, finally, finally... the agency (that I'm still not 100% sure what they do) says that "they have found the corrected paperwork, will have it notarized and apostilled and sent to Russia."
I think I'm supposed to be relieved but I'm not. I'm stressed about this. They have had the paperwork for almost two weeks and are just looking at it?  (not to mention that they can't find it...then say its wrong...?)Why is this? 

This is the only thing that is standing in the way of our being given a first trip travel date... Sigh...I know God is in control, I really do but I can't help be get frustrated. :-(

Nothing new that I know of...

We had our 4H show last week, I must brag a bit... Micaela came in 6th place with her California Rabbits!  She made the sale and received $400.00!  She is excited and plans to breed her own bunnies for this coming year.  :-) This was our first time with Rabbits and she really enjoyed working with them.

Our nephew's wedding was beautiful and made for a great Saturday! Everything went as planned :-)

No News from Vladivostok tho  :-(  I was hoping for a small snippet... Maybe later in the week.

It's A Small World

Well according to Fed-Ex, my papers had been received by the 8:30 delivery time April 7th.  I sent a note to our Agency (to double or triple check), and asked if they had heard word from the receiving family on that.  "Nothing yet", was the reply. 
An hour later I have an email from a woman with whom I had been communicating a few weeks ago.  She will also be traveling to Vlad with her husband, she knew through our agency that Jeff and I would be going there as well. Our beginning conversations weeks ago were mostly that she hoped that we would be there at the same time, some company in our journey which would have been nice since we are both totally unsure of how things will go when we get there. :-) Well, she and her husband had already submitted their dossier, mine was almost complete.  So we gathered that they are a bit ahead of us as I told her that I was still waiting on a couple of documents, but wished her luck. 
So then I receive this email from her which said, "Vicki, I do not think that there are two Frankland families adopting using this same agency, So I'm pretty sure that I have the right one! I received your papers today.  Are these the ones you mentioned that you were waiting on?"  !
What a small world.  She and her husband were the one asked to carry our papers over and give them to the coordinator, Irina, for the final translation!  I was relieved to hear that our papers had been received and more so to know that I had been conversing with the family delivering them. It's almost like a friend is taking them for us. 
It gave me some comfort which doesn't come very often during the paperwork phase...
Thanks Lord.

A Quick Send Off

After our miscommunication yesterday I wondered if my papers would make it to Vladivostok in the next week.  I told God I was heart-sick.  I couldn't believe that after all that rushing I wasn't going to get the papers in after all.

As I walked around, trying not to sulk, Anna, from our agency called me (yes, she did call), and apologized for not calling me to give the heads up and to get my paperwork to her asap.
Anna also told me that I could send my papers directly to a family who would be leaving for Vladivostok. They leave tomorrow afternoon, ... so if I could send them priority overnight???   
Well, of course I can send them overnight! :-)   So I got everything ready and popped them right into the Fed-Ex box. Over nighting them I am! 
Thank you Jesus for this blessing.
:-)

I'm NOT going to cry...

I got our apostilled papers back on Monday (way to go Secretary of the State's office, only a week and I've got them back), so I send an email to Anna, at our agency and ask her a few questions and one of them was, what do you want me to do with these papers...? Send them to you?  Someone else?  ?

I get no reply so today I send her another note and she responds to a couple of questions but not the one on paperwork.  Maybe this should have been my clue to only send her one question at a time...?  So I ask again, Do you need me to send these to you or somewhere else? 

My mother in law came in and I went with her to the store.  When I got back I had an email from Anna saying to email her "within 20 minutes" she was leaving the office and needed me to get that paperwork to her asap  so that another couple can get them and take them to Vlad!", this other couple leaves on the 7th. 
Well guess what!?  I didn't get the email in time.  Gah!  Why not call me when she needed something asap??? 
I realize that I should have just tried to call her in the first place but she has been so good with email and getting back with me.  So, now what?? Maybe I'll find out in the morning.
Okay, I"m really not going to cry...

No word yet...

We are still waiting for our papers to come back from the Secretary of the State's office.  Ok, ok, I know that I just sent them in on Monday and they need some time to get them looked at, verified and signed, I guess I'm just a bit impatient.  I so want everything to be in Vlad and translated. 
Congrats to the Overstreets who passed court and get to have their baby B with them for the 10 day wait!! Yay!
To occupy our waiting time, we are gearing up for a wedding.  Jeff's nephew is getting married to a wonderful and beautiful girl.  The wedding is the 16th of April and we are all looking forward to it. Leslie, Jeremy's fiance, is a ball of fun!  She loves life and is really making this wedding hers, she wants everyone to have a good time and is combining the traditional with lots of humor and smiles.  She asked me to do her bridal flowers and to coordinate the wedding.  I was honored, I truly love doing this and it is always so special to be able to do it for people you love. :-)
The wedding will be in the evening right on the lake in Oklahoma.  It's only about 40 minutes from us here in Texas.  I'll have to post some pictures. :-)