JULY 12
Well, we are sorry for the confusion, but we have developed a new blog so that we can upload pictures once we get to Ukraine.
Please go to: www.adoptingsamuel.blog-city.com to follow the rest of our adoption journey to find our little boy, Samuel!
Much love, Jeff and Rachel
JULY 5
Things are moving along, but we wanted to ask for prayers regarding our travel date to Ukraine. Right now, our contact in Ukraine is trying to find out our travel date before July 17. We need to know our date by then in order to travel in September hopefully. Please pray for him as he talks with the National Adoption Center and works hard to get us to Ukraine as quickly as possible! We are excited about the possiblity that we could know in the next couple of weeks about when we get to travel. Please pray with us as we wait and trust the Lord with this.
June 24 
Just wanted to give a quick update...our Dossier (all of our legal documents) arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday!!! So, now our Lifeline contact is working on translating it and will then submit it to the National Adoption Center hopefully soon. Please be praying for us as we anxiously await word about our travel date to Ukraine. You can also always be continually praying for Samuel as he is most likely already alive. Pray for his health and safety as he is in the orphanage.
Also, we made it out to Colorado safely and are enjoying it so much. Our classes have been amazing and we are really excited to be learning more about the Gospel and the Kingdom of God. Pray with us that we would experience Christ in new and rich ways!!!
JUNE 17 
"I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16
God is so good! After a frustrating day on Wednesday, we were still able to send our dossier to Ukraine yesterday at 3:30!!!! It is such a relief and we are so excited to have finally sent it off. We were able to get all the documents notarized and certified correctly and then we went to FedEx Kinkos and mailed it all off. YEAH!!! 
Now we must begin the season of waiting. Once our dossier gets to our Lifeline contact, he will translate it and submit it to the National Adoption Center (NAC) where they keep a database of available children. Once they get it, they will begin to look for a child to refer us to. Then they will contact us with a travel date. We are still hoping and praying that we will be able to travel to Ukraine in September or October. Please pray with us that our dossier will arrive safely and get submitted to NAC quickly.
We leave for Colorado tomorrow to go take seminary classes through Campus Crusade. We will be gone for about 5 weeks. We will continue to update if anything happens...but until then...THANK YOU and please pray for us as we wait to hear about our travel date to Ukriane!
JUNE 15 
Today was frustrating to say the least. We updated yesterday saying how excited we were because we got our 171h and that meant we could send our documents to Ukraine hopefully today or tomorrow. So, we went to Atlanta today to get all of documents certified (this is required to send it to Ukraine).
Well, they could not certify our documents because a lot of them still needed things or were notarized wrong. We got most things done, but the sad news is that one form will not be able to get done until Monday. This is bad because we are supposed to fly out Saturday to Colorado for our Crusade summer assignment. I (Rachel) will have to stay back and change my flight (expensive) and get eveything done by myself next week.
All that to say, we are VERY discouraged. Please pray for us that we would continue to trust the Lord with this. On another note, we need your prayers too for the financing of this adoption as well as our general support with Crusade. We have to send some of the adoption expenses in the next few weeks and we have to pay for our summer expenses with Crusade all at the same time. We're not sure how it's going to happen. We need to trust the Lord with this as well, but it is not easy.
We hope to update you with some positive information soon. Thank you for all your prayers!
