Going to Latvia at Last!

We received our court date! We will be in court in Latvia on Nov. 23. We will leave here on the 21st, only 28 day from now (but who's counting??!!) We are so excited that we will finally get to see Gertrude, and that soon she will be home. We are not sure that we will be able to bring her home at the end of this first trip or not, due to some obstacles both on our side and the Latvia side, but even if we don't, we anticipate the whole adoption should be complete around the end of January. So, it will probably only be a couple months later that we would have her here for good.

Please pray for safe travel for us, and NO MORE surprises!! Also, expenses have risen a lot since last year. Inflation in Latvia has gone up, and food there is almost twice what it was last year, our apartment will be more, the attorney fees are more, etc. Also, our flights this first trip are $200 more per person than last year (so total of $600 more), and on and on. Please pray God will provide what we need and for us to keep the faith that he WILL provide. So far, He has shown us his faithfulness, even when our faith has wavered! Stay tuned..next update may be from Latvia!

The Latest

Ok. I haven't written because I wasn't really sure what was going on. After Gertrude's clearance date, our attorney told us "everything should be ok, the court will write up the decision next Friday." Well, that made me wonder, just because we never heard the words, "she is cleared." But, now we know she is (phew!) and we have to wait now for the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs to e-mail us an "allowance to meet a child", which of course we got last year for the same child, but it must be done again. Once we get that, we will get a court date. We hope to get that e-mail within the next week or so.

We got a letter from Gertrude today with a beautiful school picture. She looks a little more grown up and her hair looks strawberry blond, instead of just blond. I don't know if she colored it or what! It is a very nice picture though, and her letter made me cry. She had all the cute misspellings in it (hai for hi, gud bai for good-bye, etc.) but basically she said she loves and misses us very much and thinks about me, Daddy, and Tena every day. She wants to go to the USA. She also said to say hello to grandmother. That is my mom, whom she has never met, but talked to once or twice on the phone for a quick minute. I can already see that Grandma and Gertrude will have a very special relationship!

It was so wonderful to get her letter, can't wait to get her!!!