Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His scts of power; praise him for His surpassing greatness. Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet; praise Him with the harp and lyre;praise Him with the tambourne and dancing; praise Him with the strings and flute; praise Him with the clash of cymbals; praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! Psalm 150

That is what I kept saying while we were in Russia. From making it through the "bumpy" plane ride from Moscow to Siberia (Beth you didn't warn me about that!) To the first time I saw my daughters bright blue eyes! Thank you all so much for the continued prayers for Ladi Elizabeth! It has been exactly a week since our return and Steven and I have missed Ladi every second! We are 12 hours behind Siberia; so throughout the day I think "Oh it is 8:00am here so she is preparing to go to sleep there". I wish I was able to tuck her in bed and say her prayers with her and kiss her good night. As my very wise and dear friends say, "All in God's time"! I know this, yet those of you that know me all too well know how impatient I can be. They have given us a time frame as to when we can expect our court date in Russia and make Ladi officially our daughter and bring her home. Our social worker in Siberia said to expect to return around the end of March or beginning of April. Please pray that it will happen soon. Because we adopt her in Russia we must go through their court systems; which some of you know that nothing is predictable there. It was incredibly hard to leave Ladi at the orphange. However, from what Steven and I experienced at this particular orphange, she is in very good hands. Everyone that works there seems to truely love each child, and you can tell by the way the children act around the caregivers. We were able to spend quite a few hours with Ladi. We had four visits in the two days we were there. Everyone has asked, "What was it like when you first saw her?". I can't tell people exactly what happened at this time because I was so overcome with joy at finally meeting our daughter face to face. The only way I can describe the feeling is it was the same way I felt when my three boys were born and after the pregnancey and labor you are holding this beautiful baby in your arms. The feeling of joy, excitment, and a little bit of shock at how they are made so perfect and beautiful. When Ladi was brought into the room we immediatly made eye contact and she came right over to me and sat on my lap! I remember just sitting there speechless and holding her. I think the social workers and director were speechless as well because it seemed like no one was talking. There were tears of joy in all our eyes! Just like the moment my boys were born; I will never forget this moment as well. Like I said, Steven and I were able to spend time with Ladi playing and getting to know her more. She is definitly a "girly girl"! She likes to have her hair in pig tails or a pony tail. And thanks to our dear friend Kathy, who has gone before us, knew to put together some goodies for her; bead necklaces that she LOVED putting on and also a pink pocketbook full of wonderful surprises that she carried around with her the entire time. We brought coloring books and crayons and she loves to color as well and she is quite a talented artist! (I'm her mother I'm allowed to brag!) She would sit on my lap and color for a long time. Once she got acquainted with us she was ready to play with Steven. He would tease her by whistling and she would just look up at him and smile. Then it turned into a game and they started teasing each other and playing a tag game. She would laugh so hard when he got her and picked her up in the air! She started calling us "Mama" and "Poppa"! Steven just melted when she would get so excited and start talking very fast in Russian and end it with "Poppa"! Ladi is also a very happy child. She would sing songs to us when we weren't playing. It reminded me of the way Brady is; he is always singing when he is happy! The caregivers asked Ladi if she was happy- she said she was very happy! We brought pictures of us, the boys, Phe and Pops and Dodie for Ladi to see. She loved going over the pictures and she would point to a person and I would say their name. She kept the album with her and the care givers are going to continue to show them to her and prepare her to meet her family! The boys saw the video we took of her and fell in love with her already! Brady has watched the video several times since we have been home. They talk about when the "sister" gets here! Well there are so many wonderful things to say about our trip. I couldn't possibly begin to write about it all. But I do want you all to know that everyone that worked with us in Russia was so kind and loving towards us. From the driver to our social worker to the woman who picked us up at the airport at 5:30am. Steven and I were constantly shown the face of God in the perons helping us! We cannot thank them enough!

Please continue to pray for Ladi and a speedy return to Russia to bring her home! I will let you know as soon as we hear something! Love to all!