mix-up, please read over to see changes.

I has it brought to my attention that I made a small mistake on some of the dates. The dates have not changed , I just was off one day on the calender. Here is a complete itinerary of our travel dates.

Fly from B'ham-Sunday, March 23, 08 at 1:30pm
arrive in Moscow -Monday March 24, 08 at 10:00am

Fly from Moscow -Tuesday March 25, 08 at 7:10pm
arrive in Vladivostok -Wednesday March, 26, 08 at 11:00am

Court date in Vlad- Friday March 28, 08 (We get Noah on this day)

Fly from Vlad-Thursday April, 10 08 at 1:30pm
arrive in Moscow Thursday April, 10 08 at 3:40pm (yes this is correct, we are gaining 8 hours flying west)

Fly from Moscow-Tuesday, April, 15 08 at 12:55pm
arrive in B'ham- Tuesday April 15 08 at 8:09pm

7 days to go.

I had totally forgotten how crazy it was getting ready for our first trip until today. I woke up and hit the floor at 100 mph this morning. We have been packing for Noah all day, why didn't anyone tell us how much stuff we needed for a two year old? Ha Ha, He has more things that need to be packed than we ever did. We finally narrowed down the number of clothes to take for him, that was really hared for me but for some odd reason Josh was willing to lighten the suitcase. I just wasn't sure if I had enough cold weather clothes, sleeping clothes, toys, blankets, etc. We can buy anything that we need in Russia, but it's just so expensive there, but if we take it with us we are carrying way too much. We are really packing light this time around because we know once we head home we're not going to realize how much different everything is going to be. Josh said, " I know what's going to happen. I'm going to end up pulling 4 suitcases through the two biggest airports in the world and here you'll come pushing the stroller with Noah and the diaper bag on your shoulder screaming I can't keep up , slow down." So, long story long-we are packing light.

We purchased out plane tickets yesterday so there is no turning back. I thought it was so cute that Noah's ticket actually said "Noah James Housley". That's the first time it has been recognized as his new name. I know, it's awesome right!! I will be blogging throughout this upcoming week so please check back in a day or two for a new update.

We Got the Call !!!!!!

Today we finally got that oh so waited phone call from our adoption agency saying "Are you ready to go get Noah?"I was speechless, yes me Leslie speechless and that soon passed as I filled her ear with 101 questions. Our travel dates are: Sunday March 22, 2008 we will board our flight in Birmingham at 1:00 pm. We have a connecting flight in Atlanta with only 50 minutes in between. Then, we're off to Moscow by Sunday afternoon around 4:00. It should take us about 11 hours or so to get there (just like last time).We will then be staying overnight in Moscow and boarding our next flight on Monday at 7:00pm (11:00am in the us).The flight to Vladivostok should take about another 11 hours, and we will land in Vlad on Tuesday, March 26, 2008.Wednesday we will be able to go visit Noah again, I can't wait. Thursday is the day we are going to court, when we walk out of the court room we will be going straight to pick up Noah !!!!
We will then begin our 10 day wait in Vlad with Noah, the Judge can waive this if he or she chooses but we can't count on that to happen. April the 10,08 we will fly from Vlad back to Moscow, We will have a Medical appt for Noah on our second day in Moscow. The third day in Moscow we will go to our interview at the Embassy. After that is done we will ship out on April 15, 2008 coming back home. This may change a little but the dates are firm. I hope I have not forgotten to tell you anything but we will be talking to everyone before we leave for good. It is so hard for me to believe that one week from Thursday Noah we be with us the rest of our lives. We wanted to let everyone know that the prayers were all answered, I have always believed heavily in prayer, but anyone who ever doubts the power of prayer should read our adoption story. I also think that Noah was to be our child, from the beginning, from the minute he was born. I think God special picked us for Noah's parents too. As angry and full of hate as I was when I heard how our child was abandoned by his "birth person"I'm also very grateful that his birth person was able to bring Noah into the world. I plan to always tell Noah about Vladivostok and as much of his past that he would like to know, but at the same time telling him how grateful we are that he was born to be in our family and we just had to take the long way around to meet.
If any of you are wondering why I use the term "Birth person" it's because I do not believe that his biological mother has any right to use the term mom, mother, birth mom or any other terms on endearment. Some of you may think that I am being cruel to take that title away from a mother but in my eyes you earn that name, by loving, caring, feeding, bathing and so on for you child. I just don't believe she was ever any of those things for him. Well that's enough about all of that, if you have any questions about our trip or just anything else please don't hesitate to leave a message on the blog or go to our Yahoo e-mail and leave us a note. Thanks for taking the time to read our blog and I promise to blog soon, especially while we are gone to Russia.

Waiting for Friday

We have been waiting for Friday the 14Th to come because that's when our Representative in Vladivostok will go back to the Judge to get our court date. There's a chance it will nit be given out that day but there's a great chance it will. The Judge reviewed our paperwork last week and requested more documents to be submitted. I got 4 documents together the day that they asked for them, drove to Montgomery the very next day to have them apostilled and overnighted them to St. Louis. The documents were received that Thursday in St. Louis and mailed off to Vlad on Friday. When they tell us that something needs to be done , there is no slowing us down.We want them to know how serious we are about getting over there ASAP. Well I'm pretty sure they know we are serious but you know what I meant. That's about all that's going on right now with the adoption, but as soon as i hear anything I'll be sure to blog right away.Please keep us and Noah in your prayers.

February, 26 2008 updates

• Hi there to everyone that has suffered through this long drought of
  information. Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. We have recently gotten good news about our process in Vladivostok. The paperwork has finally made it to the Judge, that is the last stop it
  will make before we are called to come back to pick up Noah!!!!!Yeah!!!! The Judge legally has up to 2 months to set a court date, They will be moving along as quickly as possible so it should only take a few weeks or so, we hope. Once the court date is determined they will call us with that date to be there, we will more than likely get 2-3 weeks notice. We are trying to be very patient but that is starting to wear very very thin. We know that we are literally almost there now, it is in fact just around the corner.
  We would like to thank all of our friends and family for being so
  supportive and inquisitive throughout the drawn out process, just hang in there because it's almost here.
  This Thursday is our 10 year Wedding Anniversary, yes it really has been 10 years. At times it feels like we have only been married a short time but other times it feels longer than 10 years.We have waited a long time to adopt, but we that right now , in this present moment, in 2008 we are fully dedicated and whole heartedly ready to meet and raise our son, there were times that we felt we were ready but God new that we were not. We may not have understood that at the time but the things that we have gone through and grown through as a couple have made us the excited soon to be parents that we are today.We have definitely learned through experience that you are never in control of your own life, God is in control completely and you must surrender and let him work!
  

Waiting Period in Vlad.

I wasn't sure if everyone knew yet, but when we go back to Vlad for our court date to bring Noah home we will be picking him up from the orphanage immediately after court. He will be spending the 10 day waiting period with us in the Vlad Inn until our papers clear and we will all three leave for Moscow, Russia.When we were at the orphanage the Director of the orphanage told us that he would be able to leave for good with us that day of court. So let it be 1:00 am, or 1:pm we will be going to get him straight from court! I can't wait!!!