The latest

I've spent the last 5 minutes writing then deleting the opening paragraph to this blog entry in order to get the right balance between being too positive and too negative. My first attempt was, aarrrgghhh!!!!!!!!!

Overall we are heading in the right direction though as usual not as quickly as we would like, our agency rang us today to say that our dossier has arrived in Ust and we should have a rough travel date by the end of the week, we will not however be able to make our flights on the 6th November.

At this stage we are looking at travelling out around the 17th-20th of November, which would mean that our chances of being back for Christmas are practically 0%. This will probably extend our stay in Kazakhstan as the whole country seems to shut down for the first couple of weeks in January. On a more positive note our agency was able to confirm that there are multiple infant girls available in the region.

Once we have a better idea of when we will be travelling we will let you all know, KEEP PRAYING!!

'For with God nothing shall be impossible' luke 1v37


Philip & Amanda

The Soap Opera Continues.....

Ok, where to start?!?

We got an email this afternoon from Nicole at our agency informing us that we had feedback from the committee, good news and bad news and that she would be in touch soon....

After a lifetime of waiting (2 hours) Nicole rang us with the news, lets get the bad out of the way first...

• Despite our best efforts the committee is unwilling to allow us to adopt from Almaty.
• The girl we were hoping to adopt is gone.

'Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord' Thankfully we have good news to report too,

• We were terrified that the problem we were facing in Almaty would prevent us from adopting anywhere else in Kazakhstan, however the MOE official assured us that this issue was an Almaty issue and we would be free to adopt elsewhere in Kaz.
• There are a number of infant girls available for adoption in Ust-Kamenogorsk which is a region in the North East of the country. Unlike Almaty this is a region which handles many intercountry adoptions and one where our agency has worked before.
• They are hopeful that we can get a LOI from this region and still make our flights on the 6th November.

We have been praying that we would have clear guidance on where we should go as a result of this meeting and the Lord has answered our prayers, Almaty is completely closed for us and the little girl we were hoping to meet has been adopted, the little girl we were due to meet in Almaty was suffering with a club foot, if she had been left in the orphanage as a result of our inability to travel it would have made it harder to take, we are thankful that the Lord has intervened and made sure she is with a family who can help her, we can now concentrate fully on travelling to Ust knowing that there are many children available there, we are also travelling to a region which our agency is comfortable with.

Praise the Lord that we have now a positive direction to go in after 6-8weeks of 'limbo'.

Pray that we get our LOI in time to make our flights and that the Lord will continue to lead and guide us.

On a totally unrelated matter, at lunchtime today Amanda noticed a grey hair in my head, i wonder why!!!!

We will keep you posted with the progress on our LOI

Philip & Amanda

Committee Progress...

The last week has actually lasted for 0ne year and we have been going steadily insane with impatience but thankfully we have at last something positive to report!! We've just recieved an email from our agency who tell us that Alma, who is our coordinator in Kazakhstan, has set up a meeting with the MOE for Thursday. They are going to discuss our case and she is confident she will have some feedback for us on Thursday afternoon!

We have also had to put our flight times back again, they are now booked for the 6th November. This is the last time we are going to put them back!!!!!!!!!

Pray that she will have a good meeting with the committee and that they will tell her they are happy to approve our paperwork!

We have Stephen Grant with us in Cardy this week taking children's meetings and ministry meetings, this has been a help in taking our minds off our situation. Tonight we had over 100 children from around the hall in to hear the gospel which is wonderful to see!!

We will report back on Thursday evening with feedback from Alma's meeting with the MOE, KEEP PRAYING HARD!

Philip & Amanda

Committee Update

We heard last night that the committee have not been meeting for the last number of days, they are due back today.

They haven't even looked at our letter yet but we are hopeful that they will consider it this week and make a quick decision.

Our flights for the 23rd October are now looking pretty unrealistic so we will probably have to put them back a further few weeks.

We know that Gods timing will be perfect and we appreciate all your prayers.

Pray that we will hear positive news soon
Pray that our child will continue to be preserved and protected

We will hopefully have some positive news to post soon!

Philip & Amanda

Childrens Rights Committee 2

Just got an email from our agency, they hope to get an answer from the committee next week, keep praying that we get good news.

We will keep you posted

Philip & Amanda

Childrens Rights Committee 1

Alma, who is our representative in Kazakhstan was able to hand deliver our letter of answers to the Children's Rights Committee on Monday morning.

She was able to speak with one of the committee members for a few moments and give him a brief background of our case. She was told that the committee will try to address our request in the next few days and may have an answer for us by the end of the week!

We pray that this little personal touch may count in our favour and we are still hopeful for a positive outcome.

Pray that the committee will look favourably on our answers and restart our application process.

We will of course keep you updated and will post as soon as we hear anything! KEEP PRAYING.

Philip & Amanda

Its Friday!!

Our documents finally arrived in Kazakhstan last night, they should be delivered to the committee either today or tomorrow. We now need to pray hard that the committee are happy with the answers that we have given and also have the ability to make a quick decision about restarting our application!

Also Amanda's brother Ken was released from hospital yesterday, his aneurysm has healed by itself without surgery!! In his last scan the doctors seemed to be very happy with how well it had healed up, they will bring him back in for regular scans for the next few months to check everything is still OK, Good to see God is still able to 'answer exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or think'!!

We will report back as soon as we have anything to tell you, PRAY HARD!!!


Philip & Amanda

Monday Update

We got the Russian translations of our responses to the Kaz authority questions back this morning and they are now winging their way to our Representative in Kazakhstan via DHL, they should arrive wed/thu.

Once Alma in Kazakhstan receives them she will hand deliver them to the 'Children Rights Protection Committee' and we wait and pray! We have answered their questions as far as UK legislation will allow, not exactly what they want to hear but the best we can do.

We should know quite quickly if they are satisfied and will post once we get an answer.

Amanda's brother Ken is doing a lot better, they have done a number of CAT scans on his head and the bleeding seems to have stopped of its own accord, his headaches also seem to be easing. Thank you to all who prayed for him, it now seems like there is nothing stopping us from getting news soon that we can travel!!!

Pray that our letters will get a good response from the Kaz committee.
Pray that they will make a quick decision and allow us to travel soon.
Pray that we will get clear guidance and direction from God

Philip & Amanda