Hey Everyone!  I have a ton of news.  I had to take notes when I was speaking with Russell so I could keep track of everything!!  They had a VERY busy day.  They met with Siede this morning to finish filling out paperwork.  Confirmation:  Daniel’s paperwork has been sent to the Ministry of Health.  Also, the Caswells and Belisles’ paper work has been delivered as well.  PRAISE the LORD!    They have already found Daniel’s birth mother.  His birth father is not alive.  Russell spoke with Daniel’s birth mother today on the telephone.  Siede thinks that Daniel will be ready to come home in March!!  Even if that is a couple of months off, that is a lot sooner then what we were expecting!!  I guess since they already of contact with the birth family that this helps speed up the process!  Praise the Lord!!

Russell has been able to deliver all the letters (except for the Hall family…I sent you an email)!  He has taken pictures of the children and video!  So when he gets home we will try to figure out the best way to get the video uploaded so you can see your kids!!  If anyone knows how best to do this, please let me know!!

Our boys are great!!  Russell said they were so happy to see him.  Please pray for Daniel as he is having a hard time.  He wants to come home with Daddy now, not later.  Russell said that he understood that he would be back for him, but he wants to come with the others.  The boys are a lot smaller then he was expecting.  For those of you who know our Carol Jean, Russell said that Joel is just a little bit taller then her (and she is VERY short!).  Anthony towers over Daniel and Samuel.  Russ said when they got to the orphanage that all the children were running around Anthony telling him he was “fat”.  I asked Russell if this hurt Anthony’s feelings.  He said it did not because in Liberia, fat means “tall” or “big” like a giant.  They couldn’t believe that he was 12 because he was even taller then the 17 year olds!  I thought that was funny! Russell said he ran around the orphanage and played games with all the children.  Anthony enjoyed all the attention!

Russell will be going to visit Cooper tomorrow.  He is in a foster care home.  This is the plan as long as everything is going well.  He said that he will take pictures and a video of him!  Please pray that everything will go well for that.  There is a family here in the US who is adopting Cooper.  He is 15 months old.  ACFI keeps them in foster care homes until they reach the age of 5 and then they move to the orphanage.

Russell had two full sets of soccer uniforms.  He delivered one to the Dixville orphanage and one to the Deaf home.  He said the children REALLY appreciated this.  They were very excited about all the soccer stuff!  Thanks to all the families that were able to pull this off!!  Russell also passed out all the small slim jims.  The larger ones were taken to the kitchen.  They said that they would slice those up and make a soup out of them.

Russell’s interview at the US Embassy is at 9am Liberian time tomorrow morning.  Please pray that this goes smoothly.  Siede is encouraging Russell to turn in the I-600 form for Daniel while he is there.  He is going to speak with Siede some more about this in the morning.  I’m not sure if that would help speed up the process more or not or if there is a benefit to doing it at this time, but Siede seemed to think so.

Russell also met Samuel, Jeremiah and Joel’s birth mother today.  Russell said she was very nice.  He took lots of pictures of her.  I asked if she was happy for her boys.  He said she was happy but she wasn’t happy.  I asked him if she was said and he said, she was sad but she wasn’t sad.  I know that must be very difficult.  She didn’t have the means to take care of her children and she sacrificed so that they had a hope of something better.  Now that is a mom!  I believe he will be meeting Daniel’s birth mom tomorrow.

I asked Russell what was the most shocking thing that he has seen.  He told me it is the attitudes of the Liberian people.  They have nothing, but yet they are so outgoing and happy.  Russ said this has really touched his heart at many different levels.  Please pray for him.  God is stirring something up in his heart.  He feels very strongly that God is calling us to do something more, he is just trying to determine what God is stirring inside of him!  I am very excited about this!

Russell said Daniel and Samuel spoke a lot and were very excited.  Jeremiah and Joel were very quiet.  I’m sure that won’t last long once they get around this brood!  He also said that the dorm moms were wonderful!  He said you could tell that they really loved the children and cared for the children’s well being.

Pastor Koffi is in the US right now so he did not get to meet up with him.  He did meet the director, James.  The price of rice has gone up.  It was $20 a bag and has gone up to $30 a bag. I’m not sure how big this bag of rice is or how many children that it feeds in one setting.  But per Liberian terms, it is very expensive.  That is like a months wages for one person.  It takes $18,000 a month to feed all the children.  Keep in mind that there are between 400-500 children they are taking care of.

Russell said they are getting fed very well.  The food has been excellent and the cook makes way too much.  I hope that they can take the left overs to their families!  Russ said he and Anthony don’t have a huge appetite as it is so hot there.  They are drinking LOTS of water.

Well, that is all the news I have at this time.  I will call him again tomorrow to get more updates.  Sorry if I was jumping all over the place!  Just typing from notes and adding things as I play back the conversation in my mind.  I did get to say hi to Anthony and tell him that I loved him, but he was so tired, he could barely say HI!

Until tomorrow!!!