Word on the street....

Things we know...
1- The judge in Pskov is still granting adoptions (yeah Wendi and Terry (See "A Shuur Thing" blog)
2- Our papers we petitioned the court with before we left to adopt our little guy has made it's way to Moscow and already back to the Judge in Pskov.
3- She (the judge) has actually been looking at our court documents and given our case manager feedback on one thing that need to be redone (not ASAP redone, but before we actually go before her.) So far everything else seems to be to her liking.
Wow!
4- I have been in conversation with a lovely person at the US State Department that is keeping me up to date on the goings-on with the potential freeze/slow downs. We emailed several times this week and spoke on the phone once, she said just to let me know that there are "real live people working on our behalf" She was kind and very reassuring that everything is going to work out.
5- The US team that will be meeting with the Russia task force to nail down a "bilateral agreement" that was postponed by the volcanic ash will go and meet with officials on April 29-30. Please keep those days bathed in prayer. We pray for more clarification and of course, positive results.

Things we don't know
1- The Judge in our region is getting ready for her vacation in May. We've know about this for sometime and that's why we were thinking it would be June before we could get our little guy home. But apparently, our case manager that lives in Russia is going to make a special trip to Pskov to respectfully ask the Judge if she would "accept our case". We aren't really sure what that means. (Get a date before her vacation? Schedule a date before she leaves so that when she gets back we'll be ready to go?) We just don't know about this. We are praying mostly that for "still moving" but if things work out better than we anticipated TRUST ME, you'll hear no complaining from the Deetz household. We knew this waiting was going to be the hardest part, we did not take into consideration that an International adoption crisis could be thrown into the mix. It changes your longings to be with your child into a full on panic.
2- Any more Russian than we did when we traveled the first time. I am a Russian language failure. There are just so many things to do and so far learning a foreign language has gone by the wayside. But I PROMISE I will get to it this week. This is a time I wish Chad was a language rain man. Then I could just learn to say "what he said".