Court Date!!!

Dear family and friends,

It is with great joy and excitement that we write this letter…we have been assigned a court date in Russia!  Our date is April 7, 2011!!!! 

Many of you are wondering (as we were when we heard) what this means. This means that we need to appear in the Russian court and make the case/request for Zack to be our son.  Lord willing, we will leave for Russia on Friday, April 1.  This will give us a few days to do the things we will need to do in Moscow, and then leave on a twelve hour overnight train ride for the region of Chuvashia on Tuesday night.  We will arrive in Cheboksary (the capital of the Chuvash Region) on Wednesday morning, and go to the orphanage (roughly an hour drive) to go get Zack.  We will stay in Cheboksary Wednesday night and prepare for our court session on Thursday.  Court has been known to possibly be two days long.  We particularly ask for your prayers that the Lord would soften the heart of the judge as he has been intensely difficult to deal with these last few months. We do know that we will be leaving again for Moscow either Thursday or Friday night to make our flight on Saturday, the 9^th.  Approximately 2 weeks later, Dan will return to Russia to get Zack and take him home.  Russia has a waiting period after the court date, while the child’s visa is applied for.  Dates on this trip are not yet set, so we’ll keep you all posted.

In our haste to make arrangements for travel and adoption, we spoke with our adoption official, and she informed us that costs have gone up, and the value of the American dollar has gone down, making the exchange rate unfavorable.  Therefore, we are in desperate need of more funds than we originally thought.  We are in need of $10,000.  We will be having a last-minute fundraiser at Bethel URC in Jenison.  We will be having a pizza party open house from 5-8 on Friday, March 25. 

We thank you all for your support...it has meant so much to us.  We know that MANY people have given money, time, help and most importantly…prayers.  We know that this is our Father’s will and He will provide, as we have seen His hand time and time again.

GLORY BE TO GOD, OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, WHO HAS LOVINGLY ADOPTED US AS HIS CHILDREN AND HEIRS TO HIS KINGDOM!