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