For those of you so moved by this account, we're don't have such pride as to not ask for your help with our situation ... monetarily. If you are so inclined to help the boys with their journey to America (and start their education funding), please use the PayPal link below to send us some funds:

The final Agency payment was applied to the credit card today. If you heard this big sucking noice from the direction of Garner, NC, that was me ... trying to continue breatheing. If you have a few bucks left over this month, and you can't figure out which charity to award, then send them my way ... I'm not too proud to take them. :-)

For those that attended, you know the gift table was overflowing and so now is our living room. We're sorting through the clothes and deciding on what goes to Russian in September, what is put away for awhile and what is a duplicate we can replace with something else. Fun, fun, fun.

We're really enjoying telling the story from July, most of it captured above, but nonetheless a good story to share repeatedly. Everyone is so attentive to the experience we're sharing. It is certainly opening us up to a whole new part of life. God's plan is being fulfilled before our very eyes. We are truly blessed by the experience, the ability to share it and by those around us that daily take the time to ask about how things are going and what the next step is. Thank-you!

My Dad and I spent the final hours on the construction phase of the shed. The walls, ceiling and attic spaces are now complete ... we've moved to maintenance mode now. Whew! Time to do the final preparation on the boy's room (i.e. move some stuff out into the shed) and prep the house for the return from Russia. But first, a quick trip to California is in our immediate future. I have some Dialog related activities to take care of in Mountain View while Carol will visit our dear friends, Brad and Elaine, in Atascadero. Brad has been diagnosed with throat cancer and we'd like to spend a little time with him and his family. Carol will visit from Monday through Thursday while I visit on Wednesday night. Please add Brad to your prayer list that he may realize the healing power of God, the Father, in the near future.

As many of you may know from the news, the two Russian airliners that went down this week did take off from the same airport that we use in Moscow to go to Kaliningrad -- Domodedovo. Yes, we are quite interested in the cause(s) and will pray for the families affected this by these terrible events. The planes, one a TU-134 and the other a TU-154 are in the same family as the ones we flew on in July, the TU-164. If you watched the news and saw clips from Russia of security personnel checking people at the airport, the area in the airport they were showing was exactly where we were in July.

The visas for our return trip arrived today! Yea! This is one of the last known major paperwork hurdles to cross for September.

Brad Taunt (and his wonderful family!), whom we visited in Atascadero, is progressing through his cancer treatments. His experience has been on the far end of those who suffer a little more than others. The docters have been surprised at how his body has responded to treatment. However, to his credit, the attitude and adjustment factors remain very high. He was having hydration treatments this week and it was helping him establish a more balanced response to the chemo and radiation treatments. I was very pleased to see that he was able to spend a few hours with us on Wednesday. He's a trooper. His family is behind him all the way. Please add your prayers for him during this difficult time.

During the California trip I have shared this Adoption News with a few more folks ... to you I say welcome. These include the management staff at Dialog's Mountain View office, the members of the Lake Powell group on groups.yahoo.com and the members of the Kaliningrad_adoption group also on Yahoo!. I hope and trust your time spent here is deemed worthwhile.

I want to say thanks to the many kind replies I've had in response to this journal. I know it has touched many people in ways they did not anticipate when they started reading it. I am humbled by your encouragement, your continued prayers and support as we move towards completing our adoption of Alexander and Eugeniy. As you can imagine it is difficult to express in words the emotions that are running very deep within Carol and I. Many have said the tears have flowed. I can assure you that the same has occurred while writing. Please continue your eMail and other communications to us as we move forward.

There is much yet in front of us; hopefully all of you are aware of that. It is not just the language barrier ... there are attachment issues that we'll need to assess and determine how to resolve. These issues will become evident over time; they do not all come at once, some will remain dormant for years. If you haven't been exposed to attachment issues, you should visit nancythomas.org to get a feel for what is involved with the most extreme cases. Obviously, we don't want or expect the extreme case for Alexander and Eugeniy. However, we know it can still exist. Hopefully, we are prepared at least for the identification portion of attachment. Your prayers for Carol and I will help.

Since you've read this far, I know you're very interested in how adopting two older children; please know that you're welcome to call or eMail us as you please. Some of you have been hesitant to call or write more often; please do not be. We know this is a huge life-changing event and many of you desire to be a part of it. We welcome your desire. We will always be available to help you know how we're doing, how the boys are progressing and how to help new, prospective adoptive parents on their journey to have one, two or more toddlers (or greater) join their family. Sometimes it may take a few days to respond to eMail or vMail, but please know that we value all your inquiries.

The waiting is nearly over at this point. Final house preparations were fully underway last evening. The new shed is beginning to look like the old shed. It is filling up. What a great idea Carol had to build it. I'll try to post a picture of the school room so you can see how the boys will have their learning space.

We have received confirmation from CSS that all tickets are booked on the Kaliningrad flight ... so now it is Christina's turn to say 'YEA' and prepare for the trip. We also attended the last shower this afternoon at my work. All were most gracious and very supportive. We are so pleased with the outpouring of love and prayers. We are truly amazed at the attention this adoption is receiving. Thanks to all of our friends at Dialog! Your contributions to the boys education will be greatly appreciated in the weeks and months to come. A special thank-you goes to Sherry Rubio who organized and conducted the shower in the Town Hall.

Carol and I are so filled with anticipation at this point. It is getting very difficult to think of anything else. I can walk around the house now and 'see' things as they're going to be. A mess. It will be so much fun.

Christina agrees to go. Her mom, Annetta, says she can back out up to the last minute, even at JFK airport and they'll come to get her. I don't think that will happen. Her bags are packed and at our house for repacking (you know 13 yr olds!).