Nice Surprise mixed with what we already knew......

Nice surpise: Today I received an email from our Russian translator. She is so sweet, I just adore her. She is so concerned about our return to Russia. She is visiting some of her family in Pskov this months and is going to talk with the orphanage director and ask her to PLEASE take some pictures of our boy for us, or at least take some periodically while we are away so that we can have some pictures as he grows. I told her any information she could get us would be much appreciated. When news of this fiasco originally broke, she was on phone calling people on our behalf. Even if her efforts are in vain, I so appreciate her desire to help us in what ever way she can. What we have been through makes us feel so isolated, as if the ocean that seperates us from Charlie is like an entire universe, impossible to cross. But when you stop to remember that we have made relationships (not only with our son) but with the people we came in contact with during our brief visit, it makes that impossible ocean a little smaller, the abyss a little less isolating. I firmly believe that God places people in our lives to get us through these trying times. And now, what we already knew..... We heard today that our Judge has started her 6 week vacation. We knew (even when things were "normal") that unless things went exceedingly well for us, with the timing of our first visit, most likely we would be delayed by this summer vacation. So, International incident aside, we thought figured this would happen, and now it has.
So now we wait for the next round of bilateral adoption talks in Washington DC in mid-June and hope that everything goes smashingly well, so that when the Judge returns we can get something scheduled. We are hopeful that it will go that way. Let's keep praying, We have seen first hand that God always has better ideas than ours.