Merry Christmas Eve to Us...

We got a call on this Christmas Eve morning that our travel date is officially the 20th of January! We found out that we are less than a month away from travel just after we finished opening gifts at home. The best gift was saved for last! Thanks for your prayers as these next few weeks will be busy and potentially stressful. May God bless your Christmas season.
Kari

Christmas Scarves

Christmas blessings to you and your family! We are filled with excitement in our home knowing that our trip is just about 1 month away. Since two of our previous trips were cancelled last minute we do ask for continued prayer that our travel plans continue to move forward without delay.
I wanted to remind you that I have beautiful scarves for sale that make perfect gifts for the holidays. Your purchases continue to bless the financial aspect of our adoption.
Merry Christmas!

Our New Letter of Invitation

Hello All,
Our prayers have been answered and we have been granted a Letter of Invitation for the end of January 2009. What a wonderful way to start the new year! We know this time that there are girls available and we are so excited to meet the little one whose picture we received a few weeks ago. As always, when dealing with a foreign country, plans are subject to change. But at this point our trip looks promising and we are beginning our preparations to leave. We hope that you and your family are enjoying this Christmas season as we are.

Toddler or Baby?...that is the question

In the event that we bring home a Toddler from Kaz...

A beautiful big girl bed for our princess.

We have received another photo of an available little girl who is healthy and also available in January. She is just beautiful! We are anxious to get our letter of invitation now! Once we get that, we are all but out the door. Thank you for your prayers for our letter of invitation to get here asap. As always, we'll update our blog when we hear any new news.

We Have a Referral

Last week we received a photo of a sweet little girl in Kazakhstan who needs a family. While we wish we could share her photo with you, her information and photo are confidential. You can take our word for it though, she's a doll and completely adorable! She becomes available for adoption in January so we patiently (or impatiently) wait till then. We do know her birth name but can't share that information either so we'll have to continue calling her "little girl". So...this little girl is two years old and has a slight hearing impairment. After meeting with a specialist here in the US we feel very comfortable proceeding with adopting her. The doctor was confident that her condition would be correctable. Our agency's staff in Kaz spent time with her at the orphanage and reported that she is very happy, loving, and obedient. We are thankful that information.
Getting a picture of a waiting child is something that we'd been waiting for since the day we started this process. Now that it's happened it's been wonderful and difficult at the same time. It's wonderful because it makes the waiting seem more purposeful. Seeing her sweet little face reminds us that our Ava is worth the wait. It's difficult because it becomes so much more personal. We can picture her going through her days without us and we long to be with her now. Also, in Kazakhstan, there is no such thing as a true referral. The orphanage will not hold any child for any family. Until we are there in person, anyone could adopt this little girl. While this is unlikely, it's an inevitable fear. BUT, we know that if she is adopted by another family, that she was not meant to be our daughter. We don't believe that we are plan B for Ava's life. We believe that she was created to be our child. There's no way that "our daughter" will go to another family...it's impossible. That is a great comfort.
We will keep you updated as we learn more information about her and about our trip. Thanks for continued prayer.

Trip Delayed - Take Two

Hello All,
This will be quick because we are still hoping and praying to travel before our visa expires (which is in 10 days). Our travel was postponed because the Kazakhstan government did not properly register this little toddler and therefore she must be re-registered before she becomes available for adoption. She will be available in three months. Three months isn't a long wait but it does mean that our visa will be expired and we will have to re-apply for it.
PRAYER is what we are asking for right now. Here are some specific requests:
1) The KAZ government miraculously finds this child's file in the next few days allowing us to travel on our current visa.
2) That, if the child's file is not found, we get a referral before the end of the year and are able to obtain a new visa quickly.
3) That God gives us patience as we wait for this little girl to come off the registry in three months.
There is so much more on our minds and hearts but we will leave it for our next post. At this point, we are still hoping for good news before the end of the month. If that date comes and goes before we leave, I'll post a longer update.
Much Love,
Kari and James

We had a great time in Santa Cruz last weekend for Kari's cousin's wedding :-) Family is such a blessing and an encouragement in stressful times such as this.

We Have News

We haven't updated the blog in a while but that doesn't mean that things have not been happening. We have been waiting to share that our agency has presented a slightly older little girl to us. All that we know is that she is a toddler, she is 100% healthy, and that she is of Kazakh ethnicity. She becomes available for adoption on the 19th of October which is less than a month away. We are trying to find a balance between being excited and remembering what happened last time and how quickly things can change. I don't think that either of us will feel certain until we are on a plane (On a plane home that is).
Adopting a Toddler:
Since we've told people about the possibility of adopting a toddler, we have gotten a range of reactions. Some say, "Oh, but didn't you want a baby?" Others have expressed their excitement saying, "Oh great, you get to skip that rough baby period." The bottom line is that we did originally envision Ava as a baby but that didn't mean we were necessarily opposed to an older child. We know of the challenges that adopting an older child could bring. But we also know that God is the one who knits families together and he is capable of doing that with a toddler or an infant. We are in a place of asking God whether or not we are the parents that he has in mind for this girl or if there is another couple who he has prepared to be her forever family. We feel that a huge door was opened for us when we received our letter of invitation. Several families in our agency have been waiting a year longer than us. Since we have this letter we are able to travel as soon as this child comes off the registry which is the 19th of next month. We pray that, if this is not what God has for us, that he would now close the door and not allow us to travel.
Preparing:
It has been impossible to prepare for potentially bringing home a toddler in a few weeks for several reasons. Right now we have no exact age. We were told that she is 3 but have learned that in most Asian cultures, they start counting a child's age "1" at birth. Our agency's information is limited because this particular orphanage is packed with families at this moment. They are really focusing on getting families through before the new year because of all the changes.
Prayer:
- Please pray for us as we are in a time of waiting and in need of great patience, peace, and clarity.
- As a teacher I need sufficient time to prepare sub plans if we are leaving. Without knowing for sure means that, every day I have less time to plan.
- God has good plans for this sweet girl...plans to give her a hope and a future. Pray that God is near to her and that he is working in her life and providing for her needs. We know that it is his will to do so.
- Pray for our family and close friends that they would also feel peace about this possible new family member.
- Pray for James as he is attempting to learn Russian in 4 weeks! He just passed his first lesson this morning :-)
Praise:
- We thank God that he has given us peace about traveling to meet this child.
- We are thankful for the support of our parents.
- We are thankful for the understanding of our employers
- We are thankful for this opportunity to learn how to trust in the Lord and walk by faith.
Love to you all. Thank you for going on this roller coaster with us. We assure you that there will be more!
Kari and James

Happy Fall!

Still Praying for October...

Hello All. We are still looking towards October or early November for our travel date. After the initial disappointment wore off, we are doing well and looking forward to hearing more information in the next few weeks. Just to let you all know, the way our travel information was given was not the norm. Usually a family will get a referral and then will be invited to travel. Our specific region (which is a very small city in Kaz)gave us our invitation before confirming that a baby girl was ready to be adopted. Hopefully this time around things will be done in the correct order.

Although we are doing well now we do ask for prayer that we will receive good news in the next few weeks about an available child. The new year is likely to bring changes to the Kazakhstan adoption system. One reason that we were really drawn to this program was the fact that it hadn't changed in many many years. Well, things will be changing in 2009. It looks like we might just complete our adoption before these changed occur...we pray.

As we were having a difficult time with the changes in our travel plans, my parents treated us to a weekend in Lake Arrowhead which was such a blessing and so much fun. Here are a few pictures. Blessing!
Kari and James

The Family at the Lake. Even Zoe got to come!

Erica and Kari feeding the ducks...and laughing.

We were upgraded to a big room with an awesome view.

Delay in Our Travel Plans.

We just found out today that there won't be any baby girls available until sometime in October, which pushes our trip back to somewhere in the October/November timeframe. We were "in gear" to travel this weekend, so this news was not easy to hear. Please pray for us as we look to refocus on this new time frame; pray that there are no more complications and that we will meet Ava in God's perfect timing. We know that God is sovereign and he has our and Ava's best interest in mind, but still, these setbacks are difficult. We may not hear any big news for a month or so, but we will keep all of you updated in our journey.

We thank all of you who are constantly praying for us and Ava. We could not go through this process without the amazing support system we have.

The Letterneau Family

Waiting for a Referral

Hello All. We are still on track to travel a week from Sunday! God has done some wonderful, miraculous things in these past three weeks. Here's how awesome he is; 1)Our letter of invitation was not faxed on time and we needed that before we could get our visas. On the day we got out letter faxed, we got our visas issued...no delays at all. 2) We think we've found an amazing child care program for the few hours a week that I will be teaching. References have said that the lady who runs the program has made a huge difference in their child's life. Finding someone so wonderful who will take a child part time at a reasonable price is a total blessing. Plus, she's right here in Ladera Ranch.
God has proven himself faithful which is why James and I have faith that we will be leaving on the 24th of August. But...in order to leave on time we will need God to intervene yet again. We cannot travel until we have confirmed that there is a baby girl available in our specific region. Currently, the orphanage director has a very ill son and has not been working for about a week. Our agency cannot check on available children without her there. This is our dilemma. We are praying for the health of this young boy and are also praying that the director can return to work so that we can confirm that we will be traveling on time. We also need to make our flight reservations as soon as is possible. Thanks for your prayers! We'll keep you posted when we hear of a referral...hopefully on Monday or Tuesday.

Preparing to Travel

Hello All,
James and I are just about a week and a half away from leaving the US for Kaz. We have been busy getting all our travel items ready and I have been working around the clock trying to get my class room and lesson plans completed. We are waiting on our letter of invitation to actually be faxed to our agency so that we can get our visas. That is the only big stress at the moment. We can't book our flight until we get that letter. We are also waiting on our referral. We may or may not get a referral before we leave. We might just have to wait till we get to Kaz to see Ava's sweet face.
Praise Reports:
- We praise God that it looks like we will be able to make my cousin's wedding in October with the baby!
- I am feeling very little anxiety about traveling which is a huge deal.
- James should finish up his big project at work just days before we leave.
- We have such wonderful family and friends who are supporting us and praying for us.
- God has taught us so much about himself through these last few weeks...he is sooooo in control.
Prayer Requests:
- That we get our visas and can find a reasonably priced flight to Kaz.
- A safe and smooth experience in Kazakhstan
- That Ava would adjust well to her new Mommy and Daddy.
- I will sadly be missing the wedding of one of my very best friends, Jessica. I pray that she a beautiful day and feels how much I love her and her husband to be.

Love you all...hope you and your families are well.


Brandi made Ava a beautiful quilt. Her son, Sawyer, has a matching one :-)

We're Done!

Today James and I signed our final papers in preparation for leaving to Kaz. After finding out about our travel date on Saturday, we've had to get finger printed, Dr. checkups, visa pictures, marriage license, and the list goes on. James is especially happy that we are done since he deals with all our paper work. We received our Kazakhstan survival guide last night and read over it with much excitement. We are learning more and more about how this adventure is going to play out(And it will be an adventure...I can be sure of that) Our agency still needs to receive the fax of our Letter of Invitation before applying for our visa so pray that they get it very soon. Stay tuned...
Kari and James

Total Miracle!

When our agency called to tell us the wonderful news I was in total and utter shock! I didn't fully hear what our director was saying after he initially told us that our travel date was three weeks away. I called him today just to make sure that I hadn't missed anything. He told us that it is a MIRACLE that we received our letter. They have never seen an LOI (letter of invitation) issued in August for an August travel date. He also said that there were many applications before ours and somehow ours was pushed forward. I am so thankful I can't even express it! What have we done to deserve this amazing blessing? God's grace is so unbelievable. I just wanted to share the goodness of God and his ability to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." I know that we are not done with this journey yet, but I do know that whatever happens from here on out is in God's hands one hundred percent. He is so faithful to hear our hearts.

We have been invited to travel!

Hi friends and family. We are thrilled to be sharing this news with you all. Today we received our letter of invitation from Kazakhstan. This was the last major piece in this adoption puzzle. The date that we were given is at the end of this month!!! It could be after that depending on a few different things (but not too long after). So...we will be on our way across the world to meet our daughter in just a few weeks :-) We should receive our referral any day.
We received the news today as James and I were at the pool with our dear friends Emily and Darren who came to visit us for the weekend. We were able to call James' Mom who was soooooo excited and ended the night discussing what names my parents want their future Granddaughter to call them. What a great, great day!
God has blessed us and guided us in ways we don't even understand and we are so thankful for his constant hand in our journey. Now, instead of praying for paper work and approvals, we can focus on prayer for Ava as a person and for our travel details. We are almost at the end of this adventure...Praise the Lord. Expect many updates on our blog in the next few weeks. Thanks, as always, for your love and support. Ava is blessed to be coming home to such open arms.

For those who are faithfully checking our blog...

For those who are faithfully checking our blog...this is for you! We have nothing new to report other than the fact that everyday that passes means that summer is closer to ending, which means we are closer to traveling to meet our baby. We are now expecting to travel in September once all Kazakhstan officials get back from their summer holiday. Please pray that we will travel no later than September or October. We don't want to meet further delays when getting into the Christmas holiday season.
But, instead of focusing on what is NOT happening I wanted to take a minute to focus what IS happening:
1) God has encouraged me through a friend of a friend who is beginning the adoption process with her husband. Although many couples our age are starting their families, James and I do not know anyone who is starting their family in the same way we are.
2) I can hopefully soon say that my best friend has given birth to a healthy baby boy...Sawyer Smrekar!
3) James and I had the opportunity to take a weekend trip to San Diego to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. We enjoyed what will likely be our last anniversary as a childless couple. I just have to say how thankful I am to have a husband who has been so completely excited and on-board with this adoption which is something that has been a dream of mine since I was a young girl.

Here are some pictures for you all! Hope everyone is doing great! We will hopefully be emailing you with a more exciting update very soon.


Anniversary Dinner


James painting Ava's letters with love :-)


Some books and stuffed animals that await her!


We also got to catch a Padre game on our weekend in San Diego.

100% Approved

A few weeks ago our 4 1/2 year old niece informed James and I that if we were going to have a baby girl, we needed to buy her a coloring book. Well, in hopes of being approved this week, I picked one up. AND...we found out today that Kazakhstan has officially approved the Letterneau family to adopt a baby girl! We are thrilled. As we reported earlier, things become terribly inefficient during the summer months so we may still be about 10 weeks from traveling. Our approved paper work is now in the region in which we will be traveling. We cannot share where this is yet but we are excited about traveling to this specific region. We've heard great things about it and about the health of the children that come out of it. We are so thankful for getting to this point. We are anticipating the next month or two to be slow but who knows...HE could surprise us :-) Thanks for the continued prayers for things to keep moving along smoothly.

MOE Update

Diaper Bag that James' Mom made for me and baby Ava! Beautiful isn't it!?

We should be out of the MOE by next week! This would be wonderful. We are still praying for summer travel even though it looks more and more like fall. We know all things are possible with God. He has already moved mountains during this process. The really exciting news is that we may have a referral (picture and information of a baby) in a couple weeks. That will really be a special moment. We are praying for Ava every day and wait with anticipation. Your continued prayer for a summer travel date would be very appreciated. You can specifically pray that the right people (government officials and baby house director) will be there when we are set to travel. We're just a few months away! Thank you God.


Our adorable pink and brown stroller. Thanks everyone who pitched in!

YAY...again

Well, as of a couple days ago, our paper work has left the MFA and is on to its final approval. Praise God!

Delays

Hello All,
We spoke with our agency director today and he informed us that, yes, things are certainly slowing down in Kazakhstan. They seem to have more dossiers than in the past and don't have enough people working to approve them. I guess we can praise God that more families are looking to adopt from this country. In the summer months, paper work moves much slower than in the spring and fall. This means that we may be looking at traveling this fall rather than summer. We also know that God is bigger than any government or any delay, and that is why we know that if we are meant to travel this summer, we will. We'll keep you posted!

Where in Kazakhstan is baby Ava?...We can't wait to find out!

Praying for Steven Curtis Chapman and family

We were so sad by the news of the tragic death of Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter. We have been so encouraged by the heart that this family has for international adoption and our prayers are with them. Check out the link on our page for Shaohannah's Hope to hear more about the Chapman's adoption assistance ministry and their heart for international adoption. They have also set up a fund, Maria's Miracle, which is in memory of their precious child who just passed.
Our adoption has unfortunately slowed down a little. Our paper work has still not left the MFA. We reported a couple weeks ago that it had, but we have now learned that it has not :-( We know that God is still faithful and that this is part of his plan in our journey to bring Ava home. Please pray for paper work to be processed quickly.
Love to you all!

YAY!

We are approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs!!!! Oh wow are we excited. The director of our agency said that we should be totally, 100% approved in Kaz in two to three weeks. After that we wait to get our letter of invitation and then we're off! As far as we know the baby girl that we were told about is still waiting for a family to take her home. That family very well could be us :-) So, right now, if things keep moving along we will be traveling in July. James and I have been praying and trusting that we would get through the MFA for so long and it's finally happened without any complication. Glory be to God.

"To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."
Jude 1:25

Prayer Requests:
-That our paper work continues to be processed smoothly.
-That Ava is safe, healthy, and loved wherever she is.
-That we would have safe travels and no unexpected changes while in country.

We love you all!

Short Update...

As we wait for little Ava, please pray that God would continue to grant us His peace. Our agency director is checking the status of our documents before the end of the week. We are praying that we will hear the good news that the MFA has approved us.
We haven't had much to report as of late because every bit of news that we hear from now on is big news. Once we hear that we have been been approved by the MFA we move on to our very last step which should only take about 30 days.
We know that God has a plan and that everything will work according to his perfect timing. But in my humanness I'm thinking...it would be so nice to have the summer with the baby before my school year starts! So, we ultimately want God's timing but are praying that his timing is this summer :-) Thanks for your prayers and support.

Love to you all,
The Letterneaus

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."
Colossians 3:15

I am so getting us these t-shirts. We need to find a website that makes shrits for men so James can join the party.

Update...Please Join us in Praying...

Today we heard some very exciting news concerning our adoption. Our coordinator informed us that there is a baby who he thinks would be perfect for our family! However, our paper work is not yet through the two levels of approval. We have at least 30 more days before our paper work will be leaving the ministry of foreign affairs. After that, it will be moving onto the next, and final, step. Please pray that our paper work is pushed through quickly as there is a child who we could be matched with immediately. We are spinning at the idea that our baby could be coming home in the next couple of months. We are praying that God would allow our paper work to be processed quickly. We know that the Lord knows the best time for our baby to come home and would appreciate you prayers for God's continued provision. We will keep you posted.


Ava's first bit of Padre apparel.
Thanks Smrekars!

Praise God...

God is so good to us! James and I are so thankful for how God continues to guide this adoption along. I am constantly checking the Internet, trying to learn new information about Kazakhstan adoption. Well, last night I read that the Embassy in D.C. has temporarily stopped accepting new applications due to documentation issues. Our paperwork just left D.C. two weeks ago and therefore will not be affected. Our dossier is actually in the process of being approved right now! WOW! That's incredible timing and another confirmation that we are right where God wants us.
I hope that you all had a great Easter yesterday. Ava got some Easter gifts already! Here are a few pictures of the nursery and some of Ava's goodies.
Blessings,
Kari and James

Ava and I have matching aprons! Thanks Aunt Kristie

What a perfect Easter basket! Ava got lots of Baby Genius DVDs and CDs!
Thanks Mom and Dad!

Now Ava has one of Grandma's famous blankets too. So pretty. She'll love it...Thanks Grandma.

About this blog..

Hello All,
James and I decided that this would be an easier way to keep everyone informed on our adoption. Things are moving quickly and this blog will allow us to update everyone more often. This will also be the sight that we will use while we are actually in Kazakhstan. Since our last update there is no new news. Our paper work should have made it to Kaz by now and we could hear about an available child in as little as 4 months. It could also be much, much longer than that. Oh yes, we are learning to be very patient and flexible...good practice for parenthood huh? Anyways, hope that you all have a very blessed Easter weekend. Thank you Lord for the price you paid!
Much Love,
James and Kari


Thumbs up for the new Blog!

Another Previous Update...

Dear Friends and Family,

Our paperwork has been translated, approved, and is on its way overseas! Today we found out that our dossier was approved by the Kazakhstan embassy in Washington DC and should arrive in Kazakhstan next week. This happened much quicker than expected and we are thrilled to be one step closer to meeting our baby.

We only have a few more big steps to go before we could be traveling. Our dossier will arrive in Kazakhstan where it will have to go through two more approvals. This usually takes 2-3 months. After we are approved, a God’s Families staff member can begin looking in the orpahanges for an eligible child. In Kaz a child is eligible once they turn 6 months old. Once we hear that there is a child for us, we can begin making travel plans. In the meantime we are learning as much as we can about the nation of Kazakhstan. We have been doing our online research on the culture, the sights, and the people. Of course we are also getting things ready here. James is working on the nursery as I type.

Thank you all for your prayers…God is hearing them! So far we have gone through this process with very few bumps in the road. We are still on track for traveling this summer but we will keep you posted. We hope that you and your families are doing well and we would love to hear updates from you as well.


Blessings,The Letterneaus

Previous Emailed Updates

Hello Friends and Family,

We are excited to report that we are done with all our paper work!!!!! Yay! All of our paper work will now be sent to Washington and then off to Kazakhstan for review. We are still expecting to travel to pick up Ava Lynn Letterneau (yes, we have decided on a name) this summer, but we may be looking at fall or even winter of 2008.

Thank you:
We wanted to thank all of you who supported us at our Craft Fair in December. We raised enough money to cover our travel costs which was more than we could have ever imagined. Thank you again for your financial support and, more importantly, for your kind words and prayers. We can’t wait to someday tell our daughter about all the people who had a hand in getting her to us.

What’s next?
The paper work should make it to Kazakhstan within the next few months. After that, our applications must go through review in Kazakhstan which normally takes about 2 to 3 months. Once that is done, we could be asked to travel at any time. We are quickly learning how fast things can change when it comes to international adoption. This is what the process looks like as of now but who knows how it will actually pan out.

We would be grateful for your continued prayer for this process. Ava could be born right now! Please pray that she stays safe and that she is being loved and cared for until we can get to her. We hope that you and your family are doing well. We love you all.
James and Kari