Great News!

We have had a lot of exciting things going on! Let's see where to begin...
Last week I was given the name of a family nearby who is also adopting from Anya's orphanage. I emailed the wife and received a phone call from her later in the day. She had so much helpful information for us, but the most wonderful thing was that she personally knew the social worker (Nina) in Anya's orphanage and gave me her phone number and email address. I emailed Nina on Thursday and by the time I woke up Friday morning I had an email back from her. The translation of her email is below:

Dear, Stephanie! Shall be glad to help you and Аnya to communicate on phone. I one week ago have translated for you the letter and have sent by mail, soon receive. Anya misses on you. Call on Wednesday, I shall invite Аnya in a cabinet to myself. Nina

Not only was this the first time we have actually received communication from Anya (although indirectly), it is so great to hear that we can call her on the phone Wednesday. We will definitely be blogging on Wednesday night! Also, I have been checking the mail every day... I never imagined we would receive a letter from Anya, but I can't wait!

Okay, now for more great news. All of our paperwork for our Dossier (court document) is ready! On Tuesday I will be driving around Atlanta picking up several documents (including the original copies of our homestudy). Once I get all of the documents "apostilled" on Tuesday, I will overnight them to California. Once in CA, they will be shipped to Russia for translation. We will then be "registered" within two weeks and will find out about a travel date then. Please pray that things move quickly and smoothly. If all goes as planned, we anticipate traveling to Russia on our first trip as soon as the first week of May and Anya being home with us by the end of June or beginning of July. Our second trip (when we go get Anya) will be longer than the first, but we are praying that the judge will wave the 10 day waiting period in order for us to return home quickly. We never imagined 2 months ago that we could have come so far in this process. Things are definitely going much faster than anyone could have imagined. Praise God! He has worked so many miracles throughout this process!