Our First Baby Blog

Dear Friends and Family,

Knowing that you care about us and this season in our lives as we wait for our beautiful 'forever child', we have decided to keep everyone updated, at the same time, through this blog site.

Here's our first update:

Our dossier(a collection of official papers, including home study report, criminal background clearances, and financial affidavits) is COMPLETE after 8 months of collecting, notarizing and being apostilled by the state. This means we are about halfway through this process. The next
step will be a referral from Russia via our adoption agency. We will take whatever information they supply about the child to a medical adoption specialist for their opinion. Upon acceptance of the child that they refer, we will be going to see her!

We are asking that you help us pray during this 'wait time'. Even before we know our baby's name or her face, we pray that God will keep our baby safe; that she will be nourished properly and cared for perfectly. Pray that all the paperwork will be accepted by the Russian government and that any other documents we will need to provide will be accessed easily.

We have started working on the nursery (Karen has to keep busy!). Steve's sister, Rebecca helped paint the room a cheery green. John Wilhelm Sr. just put up the beadboard for us this past Monday. The room looks beautiful--even though it's empty!

Thank you again for your prayers and for your incredible love and support.
Blessings,

Steve and Karen