Just in case anyone thought we were joking when we said we experienced an earthquake in Ust last night check out the following link, 5.1 on the rictor scale!!! (thanks for the link Sandy) http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008mua7.php
Another great day with Leah, we think she has somehow gotten cuter since we saw her yesterday!! She was fighting sleep almost the whole time today, she still has a nasty cold and is definitely not used to this much attention.
Also want to say a big thank you for the huge amount of texts, emails and comments on the blog, its a big help for Amanda and I to know so many people are thinking about us and praying for us. Please keep it up!
And another thing, sorry we gotta disappoint you but it is going to be another 2 weeks before we can post any pics of Leah, we would love to be able to fill the blog right now with her pics but we have been advised not to until we get through court over here, if it would soften the blow I would be happy to post some pics of myself, let me know if this would help!
Philip, Amanda & Leah
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Bonding - Day 2
Being in Kazakhstan has been an earth shaking experience, figuratively speaking obviously and now after last night at about 1.30am literally as well!! We actually experienced an earthquake, it felt like a freight train racing past our bedroom window at high speed, though since we are on the 2nd floor this was unlikely to have been the cause of the quake! They are apparently not uncommon in this part of the world but last night was the biggest rumble for a few years.
But onto more earth shattering events now, we had our second day of visits with Leah today, I can safely say, without a hint of new parental pride or bias that she really is the cutest girl in all of Kazakhstan, once you see the pics in a day or so you will wholeheartedly agree!! Apart from a stinker of a cold she was in great form again today, she is very nosey and is interested in everything, her two favorite things today were Amanda's hair which she grabbed anytime it was close and my watch which she did her best to tear off my wrist! She is also starting to teeth and every little book or rattle we have for her goes straight into her mouth. We can't wait until we are able to bring her home, unfortunately we have another 6 weeks of hoops to jump through first.
We're just back from a walk to the 'Daniel' supermarket and are slowly thawing out, the funny thing about walking in minus 30 is the first 5-10 mins you think 'pfft, this is easy, whats all the fuss' the next 10 mins go like this, 'hmm, it is pretty chilly actually' finally the last 10-15mins, 'we may actually die out here'!!!
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In Victor news he has exchanged the black suit for a shellsuit and medalion, most people would struggle to pull this look off...... he manages it! We wouldn't be surprised if Victor had something to do with the earthquake!! 0.o
Be patient, hopefully we can post some pics by tomorrow.
God is good, keep praying!
Philip, Amanda & Leah
Outside the Baby House
Feeding time for Leah's group
Roughing it for the next 6 weeks
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Its a Girl!!
We arrived at the ophanage today at 12pm along with a representative from the MOE, Nadia and our translator. We were anxious that things would go well but also confident that God was in control of the situation, we were also sooo aware of all the support and prayers for us back home.
After meeting the director (who was lovely) we were told they would be bringing two girls in for us too look at, this was something we were worried about as how on earth are you meant to 'pick' a child from a lineup?!? The youngest was 1 year old, we had been hoping for under 1 year but before we had a chance to react they jabbered a bit more in Russian and we were told she was actually 9 months old.
They brought her in, a wee bundle wrapped in a big blue cloth, we were smitten pretty much instantly!! After we had 5mins with her a bit more Russian was jabbered and our translator told us they were now bringing in the second one, we immediately said 'no thankyou' thankfully they agreed and we were spared our 'choice'!!
She is 9mths old, VERY inquisitive and active, she loved playing with the rattles and crackly toys we bought, she is also trying hard to get up and is already up on her hands and knees! Orphanage children are usually months behind other children due to the lack of stimulation they recieve so we were expecting a little floppy bundle, God is good, we had been praying that she would be thriving, healthy and strong and God has answered our prayers!!
We now just want to take her home but unfortunately our trip is only just starting, another 6weeks of red tape and hoops to jump through.
I know the first thing you did was scroll down to look at the pictures! Come on be honest!! Anyway, as you can see there are none just yet! We want our health trust to view and give their formal approval first, in a few days there will be loads for you to look at! Our family have them already but there have been severly warned not to release them just yet! (If they do they will have Amanda to answer to)!!
Thanks to all who have been praying hard for us, our prayers have been answered.
Praise the Lord!!
Philip, Amanda & Leah ! (been waiting for a while to type that)
After meeting the director (who was lovely) we were told they would be bringing two girls in for us too look at, this was something we were worried about as how on earth are you meant to 'pick' a child from a lineup?!? The youngest was 1 year old, we had been hoping for under 1 year but before we had a chance to react they jabbered a bit more in Russian and we were told she was actually 9 months old.
They brought her in, a wee bundle wrapped in a big blue cloth, we were smitten pretty much instantly!! After we had 5mins with her a bit more Russian was jabbered and our translator told us they were now bringing in the second one, we immediately said 'no thankyou' thankfully they agreed and we were spared our 'choice'!!
She is 9mths old, VERY inquisitive and active, she loved playing with the rattles and crackly toys we bought, she is also trying hard to get up and is already up on her hands and knees! Orphanage children are usually months behind other children due to the lack of stimulation they recieve so we were expecting a little floppy bundle, God is good, we had been praying that she would be thriving, healthy and strong and God has answered our prayers!!
We now just want to take her home but unfortunately our trip is only just starting, another 6weeks of red tape and hoops to jump through.
I know the first thing you did was scroll down to look at the pictures! Come on be honest!! Anyway, as you can see there are none just yet! We want our health trust to view and give their formal approval first, in a few days there will be loads for you to look at! Our family have them already but there have been severly warned not to release them just yet! (If they do they will have Amanda to answer to)!!
Thanks to all who have been praying hard for us, our prayers have been answered.
Praise the Lord!!
Philip, Amanda & Leah ! (been waiting for a while to type that)
Monday, 28 January 2008
Ust
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ust-Kamenogorsk, the local time is 5pm and the temperature is minus 31 degrees, thank you for flying Air Astana"
We are really here, even as I type this we can't quite take it in, tomorrow we meet our daughter for the first time! We are meeting Nadia (our coordinator), our translator and driver in the hotel lobby at 11am and heading over to the orphanage to meet with an official from the MOE and the orphanage director, hopefully a short time after this we will meet the one who really matters!!
Also I need to pause here and make mention of the coolest thing we have experienced SO FAR in Kazakhstan, our driver Victor! He really needs to be seen in the flesh to be believed, he has got an entire mouthful of gold teeth, black suit over white polo neck and shaven head, he looks like a James Bond villain!
He should have been driving a Black Merc S500 with bullet proof glass but unfortunately he was driving a small grey 'mini-bus of death'. When you are driving on roads that are 60% hard packed ice and 40% tarmac most people would take it easy..... not victor, he drove as if James Bond actually was behind him, changing lanes like a slalom skier, approximately 5inches from the bumper of the car in front of him, if the poor drivers didn't have the sense to get out of his way quick enough he would over take, engine screaming and Victor shouting something in Russian out of his side window!!
We are really here, even as I type this we can't quite take it in, tomorrow we meet our daughter for the first time! We are meeting Nadia (our coordinator), our translator and driver in the hotel lobby at 11am and heading over to the orphanage to meet with an official from the MOE and the orphanage director, hopefully a short time after this we will meet the one who really matters!!
Also I need to pause here and make mention of the coolest thing we have experienced SO FAR in Kazakhstan, our driver Victor! He really needs to be seen in the flesh to be believed, he has got an entire mouthful of gold teeth, black suit over white polo neck and shaven head, he looks like a James Bond villain!
He should have been driving a Black Merc S500 with bullet proof glass but unfortunately he was driving a small grey 'mini-bus of death'. When you are driving on roads that are 60% hard packed ice and 40% tarmac most people would take it easy..... not victor, he drove as if James Bond actually was behind him, changing lanes like a slalom skier, approximately 5inches from the bumper of the car in front of him, if the poor drivers didn't have the sense to get out of his way quick enough he would over take, engine screaming and Victor shouting something in Russian out of his side window!!
It was fun!
We need much prayer for tomorrow, its not the sort of thing you can really prepare for, we just trust that God will continue to guide us and that we will meet the child He has planned for us.
Philip & Amanda
Almaty
I always said I wouldn’t really believe we were going to Kazakhstan
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We landed at 7am local time (true to form we were delayed leaving London) the view from the plane was magnificent on the descent into Almaty, a crisp white landscape as far as the eye could see broken only by a stunning snow capped mountain range which lies between Kazakhstan and China.
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You know when you get off the plane after landing somewhere warm on your summer holidays? The blast of hot air that hits you as soon as you leave the plane confirms you are really there; the same was true for us as soon as the doors opened in Almaty, although as you would understand the blast of air was not exactly hot! We can confirm that minus 28 is quite chilly actually!!
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Also we are glad to report Air Astana are more generous than 'sleazyjet', when we told them we were taking aid to an orphanage they reduced the excess baggage fee from 100quid to 24quid (no pound signs on kaz keyboard).
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We are staying the night in Almaty and heading out to Ust tomorrow, the city and our hotel is much like we expected, a little bit grey and ‘soviet’ but nice! One thing Sue told us when we met her yesterday is very true, the inside of the hotel, shops, restaurants, etc are absolutely BOILING, it’s a very strange sensation walking out of -28 degrees straight into +26 to +30 degrees. It’s even worse the other way round!
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I’m typing this from our hotel room, we’ve just had a few hours sleep and are heading out now to try to find some grub and an internet café, if these jetlagged ramblings make it unto the blog you know we’ve been successful.
We will meet our daughter for the first time on Tuesday morning, keep praying that all will go well, we also need to thank the Lord for answered prayer in getting this far!
Also we really appreciate all the text messages, its nice to know how many people are thinking about us, remember though we are 6 hours ahead of you so if you decide to send us a text at say 6.30pm your time, when Amanda’s phone goes ‘BONG’ its 12.30am Kaz time, not mentioning any names *cough, cough* AVRIL, *cough*.
Our next post should be from Ust!
Philip & Amanda
Saturday, 26 January 2008
easyjet rant
OK as promised yesterday, my easyjet rant!!
We arrived at Belfast international airport on Thursday afternoon to catch our easyjet flight to London, we had 55kg of luggage in 2 bags to check in, 30kg of which was clothes and toys for the orphanage, we are actually allowed 50kg of luggage EACH but if there is more than 20kg per individual bag they charge extra.
We hoped that when we explained at the desk that it was aid for an orphanage there would be no fee, or at least a small fee. How naive we were, for the extra 16kg they charged us...... wait for it..... £100!?!! £100?? That's almost as much as both our tickets combined!! The girl on the desk told us it didn't matter that it was for an orphanage they had to charge extra, her manager said the same thing when we asked him as well!! So there we where, at the desk faced with 3 choices,
1. Leave the orphanage bag behind.
2. Go home
3. Be gouged by easyjet, pay the cash and whinge at the girl behind the easyjet desk.
We chose option 3
So in future, unless the alternative is walking, I'm never, ever going to fly easyjet again!! The boycott starts here! -.-
In other news, we fly to Kazakhstan in 5 hours *gulp*
Philip & Amanda
We arrived at Belfast international airport on Thursday afternoon to catch our easyjet flight to London, we had 55kg of luggage in 2 bags to check in, 30kg of which was clothes and toys for the orphanage, we are actually allowed 50kg of luggage EACH but if there is more than 20kg per individual bag they charge extra.
We hoped that when we explained at the desk that it was aid for an orphanage there would be no fee, or at least a small fee. How naive we were, for the extra 16kg they charged us...... wait for it..... £100!?!! £100?? That's almost as much as both our tickets combined!! The girl on the desk told us it didn't matter that it was for an orphanage they had to charge extra, her manager said the same thing when we asked him as well!! So there we where, at the desk faced with 3 choices,
1. Leave the orphanage bag behind.
2. Go home
3. Be gouged by easyjet, pay the cash and whinge at the girl behind the easyjet desk.
We chose option 3
So in future, unless the alternative is walking, I'm never, ever going to fly easyjet again!! The boycott starts here! -.-
In other news, we fly to Kazakhstan in 5 hours *gulp*
Philip & Amanda
Friday, 25 January 2008
Got them!!!
After flying out yesterday literally on a wing and a prayer we have got the answer we and all of you round the world were praying for, we've got our Visa's, our flights have been changed and we are heading out to Kazakhstan tomorrow!! Yeah, we can hardly believe it either!!
Let me review the last few hours for you,
Worst nights sleep in our entire lives.
Hotel shower with only 3 settings within 1mm of each other - Freezing, Just right or Surface of the sun.
Arrived at the embassy at 8.30am to find 5 people already there in front of us.
Overhear conversations like ' it takes 2-3 days to get a visa here' and 'I've been coming every morning for a week and my LOI still isn't here' etc.
One and a half hours later get to the front desk to be given a lecture that we should have made an appointment.
Be told since it was for an adoption he would make an exception, come back at 12pm.
Ring Air Astana to change flights, find out their entire computer system had crashed.
Ring back 1 hour later and manage to change flights to tomorrow!!
Arrive back at embassy at 11.50 and wait for another hour and finally get our visa's!!!!
To say we are relieved is too make the biggest understatement since someone said 'I think this Internet thing might catch on'!!
God has answered our prayers in a wonderful way! Thanks to all who are praying for us and all the texts of support this morning, Keep it up, its really appreciated!!
Also just let me clear up the 'matching coats' thing, Amanda's coat is her own, the one I'm wearing has been lent to me by James Greer, if I get one more abusive text message about it I'm going to refuse to wear it in Kaz, get hypothermia and quite possibly die, if you can live with that keep on texting!!1!!!1!!! ;)
Haven't room here but look out for my 'easyjet' rant coming soon!
Philip & Amanda
Let me review the last few hours for you,
Worst nights sleep in our entire lives.
Hotel shower with only 3 settings within 1mm of each other - Freezing, Just right or Surface of the sun.
Arrived at the embassy at 8.30am to find 5 people already there in front of us.
Overhear conversations like ' it takes 2-3 days to get a visa here' and 'I've been coming every morning for a week and my LOI still isn't here' etc.
One and a half hours later get to the front desk to be given a lecture that we should have made an appointment.
Be told since it was for an adoption he would make an exception, come back at 12pm.
Ring Air Astana to change flights, find out their entire computer system had crashed.
Ring back 1 hour later and manage to change flights to tomorrow!!
Arrive back at embassy at 11.50 and wait for another hour and finally get our visa's!!!!
To say we are relieved is too make the biggest understatement since someone said 'I think this Internet thing might catch on'!!
God has answered our prayers in a wonderful way! Thanks to all who are praying for us and all the texts of support this morning, Keep it up, its really appreciated!!
Also just let me clear up the 'matching coats' thing, Amanda's coat is her own, the one I'm wearing has been lent to me by James Greer, if I get one more abusive text message about it I'm going to refuse to wear it in Kaz, get hypothermia and quite possibly die, if you can live with that keep on texting!!1!!!1!!! ;)
Haven't room here but look out for my 'easyjet' rant coming soon!
Philip & Amanda
Thursday, 24 January 2008
London
We've made it to London! I'm typing this from our hotel which is fantastic and only 5 mins walk from the embassy. We have also just received the cable number for our LOI from our agency, this means that it should be at the embassy already, woohoo!!!!
Also if anyone wants a good workout we would like to suggest the following,
Firstly you will want to get yourself a 30kg bag and a 10-15kg rucksack. You should then drag this around Belfast and London for 2-3hrs, make sure you jump on and off at least 2 trains. Finally arrive at a tube station with no working lifts or escalators and then drag all 90kgs up two flights of stairs, if this hasn't killed you then at least you should be a little fitter!!
Tomorrow is the big day! We will arrive early and hope there is no problems with our visa being issued. We will report back as soon as we have any news.
Keep praying everyone!
Philip & Amanda
LOI, yes really!
OK..... Where to start?!? Its probably best if I blurt it all out in one go!
Our LOI has been issued!
Its already in Astana waiting to be sent to London!
We are hoping to get a copy emailed to us in the morning!
The LOI should arrive at the London Embassy by latest Friday!
We along with almost 60kg of luggage and aid for Kaz are flying out to London on Thursday!
We are going to the Embassy first thing Friday morning to try to get our Visa!
If we get our Visa we are going to attempt to bring our flights forward to Sat evening!
If this goes ok we will arrive in Almaty on Sun morning and Ust that afternoon!
We should then meet our daughter for the first time on Monday morning!
Yes, I know!! Its bonkers, you wait three years for something and it manages to take you by surprise when it happens!! There are still a few 'unknowns' in the above list but worst case scenario we come home again on Friday and try again for our Visa next week, the BIG DEAL is the fact that we finally have our LOI. PRAISE THE LORD!!
'I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope' psalm 130v5
We will update from our Hotel in London tomorrow, I've already checked that the London hotel and the hotel we will be staying at in Ust all have wireless broadband so keep watching! ;)
Pray that the LOI makes it to London on Friday and that we are able to get our visa's that morning!
Philip & Amanda
Our LOI has been issued!
Its already in Astana waiting to be sent to London!
We are hoping to get a copy emailed to us in the morning!
The LOI should arrive at the London Embassy by latest Friday!
We along with almost 60kg of luggage and aid for Kaz are flying out to London on Thursday!
We are going to the Embassy first thing Friday morning to try to get our Visa!
If we get our Visa we are going to attempt to bring our flights forward to Sat evening!
If this goes ok we will arrive in Almaty on Sun morning and Ust that afternoon!
We should then meet our daughter for the first time on Monday morning!
Yes, I know!! Its bonkers, you wait three years for something and it manages to take you by surprise when it happens!! There are still a few 'unknowns' in the above list but worst case scenario we come home again on Friday and try again for our Visa next week, the BIG DEAL is the fact that we finally have our LOI. PRAISE THE LORD!!
'I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope' psalm 130v5
We will update from our Hotel in London tomorrow, I've already checked that the London hotel and the hotel we will be staying at in Ust all have wireless broadband so keep watching! ;)
Pray that the LOI makes it to London on Friday and that we are able to get our visa's that morning!
Philip & Amanda
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
few more 'shoulds'
First things first, my sister Avril just had a little boy this evening so welcome into the world Charlie Rogers!! We will be getting your cousin soon so please be patient...
We haven't anything more to update tonight other than a few more 'shoulds', we should get a copy of our LOI tomorrow and the original should make it to the embassy in London by Friday.
As we can't get an early enough flight into London on Friday we intend to fly over on Thursday evening and be waiting at the Embassy first thing Friday for our Visa. If it all goes well we are going to try to move our flights to Saturday morning!
Also thanks to Amy for the Shiny River Hotel link, its looks a bit nicer than the hotel in our picture, we have already found out that they have rooms available for the time we are staying.
We will hopefully be able to confirm tomorrow that we have actually got copies of our LOI.
We really appreciate all who are praying all round the world for us, keep it up, we're nearly there!
Philip & Amanda
We haven't anything more to update tonight other than a few more 'shoulds', we should get a copy of our LOI tomorrow and the original should make it to the embassy in London by Friday.
As we can't get an early enough flight into London on Friday we intend to fly over on Thursday evening and be waiting at the Embassy first thing Friday for our Visa. If it all goes well we are going to try to move our flights to Saturday morning!
Also thanks to Amy for the Shiny River Hotel link, its looks a bit nicer than the hotel in our picture, we have already found out that they have rooms available for the time we are staying.
We will hopefully be able to confirm tomorrow that we have actually got copies of our LOI.
We really appreciate all who are praying all round the world for us, keep it up, we're nearly there!
Philip & Amanda
Monday, 21 January 2008
Monday holiday
This is the week we expect to get our LOI, our representative in Ust (Nadia) is hoping to pick it up today and fax a copy to our agency then take the original to Astana, it should then make its way by telex to London for Thursday.
However Monday is a holiday in the USA so we won't have confirmation that this has happened until Tuesday evening. We'll keep you posted.
We are now starting to believe its all happening and are beginning to make plans for being away for 6-8 weeks! We are trying to find out the best way to keep in contact with home, our hotel only has dial-up connection but we have been told there is an Internet cafe close to our hotel with wireless broadband, sounds like we are going to be having a lot of coffee out there! We also plan to buy phone cards and possibly a mobile phone for our time there, as well as a bit of time working I also plan to finish next years thirsty4god articles!
Quick plug, check out http://www.thirsty4god.co.uk/
The pic below is the hotel I think we are staying at in Ust, as Amanda's natural state is being cold I'm not sure if she is going to cope with minus 25C!!!
Keep praying, nearly there!
Philip & Amanda
However Monday is a holiday in the USA so we won't have confirmation that this has happened until Tuesday evening. We'll keep you posted.
We are now starting to believe its all happening and are beginning to make plans for being away for 6-8 weeks! We are trying to find out the best way to keep in contact with home, our hotel only has dial-up connection but we have been told there is an Internet cafe close to our hotel with wireless broadband, sounds like we are going to be having a lot of coffee out there! We also plan to buy phone cards and possibly a mobile phone for our time there, as well as a bit of time working I also plan to finish next years thirsty4god articles!
Quick plug, check out http://www.thirsty4god.co.uk/
The pic below is the hotel I think we are staying at in Ust, as Amanda's natural state is being cold I'm not sure if she is going to cope with minus 25C!!!
Keep praying, nearly there!
Philip & Amanda
Friday, 18 January 2008
Getting Close
We have changed our flights to the 29th January. There is even a slim chance we could fly out on the 26th! However after all that has happened to us so far we won't get to excited until we are actually on the plane leaving Heathrow!
We would love to be able to be definite about our dates but we are as close as we can be without being 100% certain. Our agency have told us that our representative in Ust, Nadia, should be able to get our LOI on Monday, we should get a copy of it by Tuesday and the Kaz embassy in London should get it by Thursday which should mean that we should be able to fly over to London on Friday to get our visa. There are FAR to many 'should's' in that last sentence for our liking but we leave it with the Lord and trust that His timing will be perfect as it has been already.
Whenever God told Abraham he was going to have a son in his old age the bible says that he was 'strong in faith, giving glory to God' and that he was 'fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform' . That amount of faith would be nice to have!
There is a national holiday on Monday so we will post around Tue or Wed and let you know if the mysterious LOI has finally arrived.
Keep on praying.
Philip & Amanda
We would love to be able to be definite about our dates but we are as close as we can be without being 100% certain. Our agency have told us that our representative in Ust, Nadia, should be able to get our LOI on Monday, we should get a copy of it by Tuesday and the Kaz embassy in London should get it by Thursday which should mean that we should be able to fly over to London on Friday to get our visa. There are FAR to many 'should's' in that last sentence for our liking but we leave it with the Lord and trust that His timing will be perfect as it has been already.
Whenever God told Abraham he was going to have a son in his old age the bible says that he was 'strong in faith, giving glory to God' and that he was 'fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform' . That amount of faith would be nice to have!
There is a national holiday on Monday so we will post around Tue or Wed and let you know if the mysterious LOI has finally arrived.
Keep on praying.
Philip & Amanda
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Ust Baby House
After months of negative posts its great to be able to look forward to travelling out to Ust again! We should hear from our agency later this week about when we can expect to get our LOI, after all that has gone on before we won't get too excited yet but hopefully we should be heading off to Kazakhstan in the next two weeks or so!!
We've found a few pics of the actual baby house we will be travelling to so lets see if I can still remember how to post pics on this blog!
Keep praying that the MOE in Ust will issue our LOI quickly! As soon as we have a date for travel we will let you know.
Philip & Amanda
We've found a few pics of the actual baby house we will be travelling to so lets see if I can still remember how to post pics on this blog!
Keep praying that the MOE in Ust will issue our LOI quickly! As soon as we have a date for travel we will let you know.
Philip & Amanda
Friday, 11 January 2008
At last!!!!
Its finally happened, after two and a half months of broken promises the MOE official has at last handed over our dossier to Alma this afternoon!!
Even as i'm typing i can hardly believe it! Alma will now fly our dossier to Ust tomorrow and hand it over to the regional office who will process our LOI.
The only slight disappointment is that our travel date of the 19th January is not going to be feasible, we will find out next week when our LOI is likely to be ready but our new travel dates should be around the 25th - 30th January. We are not to worried about this to be honest, we are just so happy that we have finally cleared the MOE in Astana!!
Thanks to all who are praying for us, keep it up we are nearly there now. It makes a nice change to be posting good news!!!
Praise the Lord for answered prayer!
Pray that the LOI stage will go quickly and that we can travel soon.
Pray that our child will continue to thrive and be preserved.
Philip & Amanda
Even as i'm typing i can hardly believe it! Alma will now fly our dossier to Ust tomorrow and hand it over to the regional office who will process our LOI.
The only slight disappointment is that our travel date of the 19th January is not going to be feasible, we will find out next week when our LOI is likely to be ready but our new travel dates should be around the 25th - 30th January. We are not to worried about this to be honest, we are just so happy that we have finally cleared the MOE in Astana!!
Thanks to all who are praying for us, keep it up we are nearly there now. It makes a nice change to be posting good news!!!
Praise the Lord for answered prayer!
Pray that the LOI stage will go quickly and that we can travel soon.
Pray that our child will continue to thrive and be preserved.
Philip & Amanda
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Still on the rollercoaster
Quick post to keep you all updated, Alma called with the MOE again today in order to get our promised dossier, she was told once again that she couldn't have it but if she came back tomorrow then it would definitely be handed over.
We were praying that if she didn't get the dossier this time then we would at least be given different information than the standard 'come back next week' line. Alma seems pretty certain that it will FINALLY happen tomorrow so we need everyone to pray hard that this will be the case.
We will update as soon as we hear anything tomorrow.
Philip & Amanda
We were praying that if she didn't get the dossier this time then we would at least be given different information than the standard 'come back next week' line. Alma seems pretty certain that it will FINALLY happen tomorrow so we need everyone to pray hard that this will be the case.
We will update as soon as we hear anything tomorrow.
Philip & Amanda
Friday, 4 January 2008
New year, same problem...
Happy 2008 everyone!
The Christmas holidays obviously did nothing to improve the mood of our MOE official! Alma met with her on the 3rd of January as she had been asked to and after waiting for over 3 hours she was told to come back on the 10th and she would be given the dossier then.
We are understandably dubious that this will happen on the 10th so we have asked our agency to find some alternative regions for us. There are two possibilities which we should get a little more info about next week.
This will at least give us some options rather than the current never ending waiting for Ust!
By next week we should be in one of the following categories,
1. The MOE official has finally kept her word and Alma gets our dossier on the 10th.
2. Alma is told to come back in a weeks time AGAIN and we decide to wait.
3. Alma has been told to come back but rather than waiting we decide to move regions.
We pray that the way ahead will be made clear and that we will have a direction to move in by next week.
Pray That the Lords will for us will be clearly seen and we will finally start moving forward again.
We will keep you posted, keep praying!
Still keeping the faith!!
Philip & Amanda
The Christmas holidays obviously did nothing to improve the mood of our MOE official! Alma met with her on the 3rd of January as she had been asked to and after waiting for over 3 hours she was told to come back on the 10th and she would be given the dossier then.
We are understandably dubious that this will happen on the 10th so we have asked our agency to find some alternative regions for us. There are two possibilities which we should get a little more info about next week.
This will at least give us some options rather than the current never ending waiting for Ust!
By next week we should be in one of the following categories,
1. The MOE official has finally kept her word and Alma gets our dossier on the 10th.
2. Alma is told to come back in a weeks time AGAIN and we decide to wait.
3. Alma has been told to come back but rather than waiting we decide to move regions.
We pray that the way ahead will be made clear and that we will have a direction to move in by next week.
Pray That the Lords will for us will be clearly seen and we will finally start moving forward again.
We will keep you posted, keep praying!
Still keeping the faith!!
Philip & Amanda
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