We have NGO status!

Thanks to everyone who prayed last week during the 24 hour prayer vigil! God responded by having our agency's partner agency in Russia receive NGO (non-governmental organization) status, which is a huge step towards reaccreditation. Our agency is having another prayer vigil specifically for reaccrediation on Sept. 15 if you'd like to say a prayer for us on that day. Reaccreditation needs to be completed before we can start waiting for a referral. We did get an email about an 11 month old boy who could possibly have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, who was available for review. We chose not to review his file however, since we really feel God has a daughter already chosen for us.

Russian vocabulary of the day:

hello- pryi-VYEHT

No new news

Well, our dossier is in Russia, so there probably won't be any new news for a while. The agency has told us that once it's there, they don't get any updates until we have a referral. So instead of posting adoption updates I think I'll be posting interesting Russian adoption tidbits, or other things that are going on with us.

Russia tidbit #1- The temperature in Moscow tomorrow is 61 degrees, a little chillier than here obviously. Their summer is only hot for about a month it seems. Makes me a little nervous if we have to travel in winter when temps can go down to 40 below.

#2- Russian people are sticklers for wearing a hat even when it's not all that cold. One woman I talked to said she was scolded by the orphanage workers and the cab driver because her daughter didn't have a hat on, and she said it was almost 60 degrees outside.

Well, that's all for now!

Russian vocabulary of the day: (phonetically, 'cause my computer won't type cyrillic letters)
oo-chee-tuhl-NYEET-suh teacher (female)