Trip #1 Update

It's been a pretty long 3 days.  Right now it is Wednesday afternoon and there is so much going through my mind.  This morning was our appointment with the State Department of Adoptions.   These are the people who basically are the first one's to say we can adopt.  It was pretty much just a technicality, but an important one.  We go back to the S.D.A. tomorrow around 3p.m. (8a.m. @ home) to pick up our referral (the much awaited piece of paper saying we can adopt Vitya). Once we have that we will catch a bus for a 3 hour ride North to the town where the orphanage is.  Once we are there we will meet up with the social worker and be interviewed with Vitya......(by the way, His given name is Viktor, Vitya is short for Viktor) and they will make sure we aren't "forcing" him to be adopted.  After that it is just a waiting game until the paperwork has been submitted to the court.  While we are waiting.....for 5 days or so.....we will get to spend time with Vitya at the orphanage until we come home.
I'm excited and nervous about seeing him.  We've been waiting so long and really never thought this would really happen.  So much so that it is hard to believe we are really here.  We are so ready to take him home and get started with his new life.  We were told today that he is very ready to be out of the orphanage.  I've spent the whole day wondering if he gets picked on by bigger boys.  Does he wonder what took us so long?  Does he remember the fun we had when he visited us 3 years ago?  I wonder if he will want to have a new American name.  I wonder if he remembers my Memaw and what he will think when I tell him she is gone.  I worry someone will scare him into not wanting to be adopted like has happened to so many other kids.  Our life has changed so much since we had him.  When he was here we had 3 kids.  Now we have 5, including him.  We were at a different Church.  I was cooler....ok, maybe not.  Lots of things have changed but my trust is in God who is unchanging and has called us to something I could have never imagined.  I relate to the Prophet Jeremiah when God called Him out.  Jeremiah's reaction was fear and a deep feeling of inadequacy (Jer. 1).  But God pointed out: "I called you to this before you were ever born.  This was my plan while you were in your mother's womb."  We know that God called us to this way before He ever put it on our heart and He has prepared the way.  So my fears have to be taken captive and my focus has to be on the truth that my only job is to do exactly what the Lord has said.
~ Jono ~