Christmas Day, 2006

We woke up to a bright sunny and cold Christmas day here. Of course it is only Christmas for Bruce and I, everyone else will celebrater Jan 7. Today is just another day as far as our schedule.

Through the help of several friends we have collected 3 letters that we hope will impress upon the judge the time crunch we are under. They have never done an international adoption here so Sveta has her work cut out for her. She is trying to catch our judge between sessions to give her these letters and to see if she will set the preliminary date. Apparently, there may be more than 1.

Please continue to pray for the expediting of our US paperwork. It is essential to things going through here. I am not above asking if anyone has any influence at BCIS(US Citizenship and Immigration Services) to use it in our behalf. We are now in the midst of the holiday break both there and here and it is not helpful to us. We are trusting that God will work a miracle and everything will get straightened out.

If you're wondering why we chose the name Gideon let me tell you, because the reasons still apply. Through out this process we thought we had it all together and then the bottom would fall out, only to see God pull it all together again. In Judges, God cuts down the size of Gideon's army so that everyone would know that the Lord won the victory. It is the same with us, when we finally get home with our children, we will know that only God was able to bring us through all of the red tape and emotional mine fields and financial difficulties to bring our family together. Every time we will call Gideon's name it will remind us of all God has done for us.

It is supposed to get REALLY cold here. Around 8 degrees farenheit. We will be piling on the layers. But our hearts are kept warm by your love and prayers. We had a bunch or Christmas wishes in our email this morning and it made us both smile to see it. We pray that each and every one of you has a blessed Christmas day.

The kids continue to do well. Gideon seems to be learning that Mama's lap is a comforting place to be and will now stroke Papa's beard when we leave (still no kisses, but Papa is patient). He is beginning to push limits and Papa is a stern disciplinarian (believe it or not). Nina still spends most of every day with us and continues her English lessons. We hope she will be able to speak to us about who she is in a week or so.

Peace of Christ to you all,
BLN&G

PS: Happy Boar's Head Week!! ;-)
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