Welcome Home Isaak!

Hi everybody,
We got home at 3:30pm yesterday. We got to come home two days earlier than expected because we were able to move our flight up after we got his American visa on Friday. We went by the Lufthansa (airline) office right after the appt. with the embassy and they were able to move our flight up two days for a slight penalty ;-) ($600), BUT if we were to stay in Kaz 2 more days before leaving on our Monday flight, we would have spent $500 for all of the in-country expenses, so we lost $100 and got home two days earlier ;-). Praise God!

He slept about 11 hours last night all together and only woke up about 4 times throughout the night. The 1st of the four, mommy played with him for about an hour, and the other three, he rocked right back to sleep. God is so good! We were able to sleep. When we got home, we were EXHAUSTED. I've never been so tired in my life. We had about 2 hours of sleep total in about 48 hours, AND we had to try to keep an 8-month old BOY occupied on a plane for 24 hours...yeah, GOOD LUCK! Actually, he did really well; we were proud of him, but there were a few times that it was impossible to figure out what he wanted...b/c he didn't even know what he wanted ;-).

He's sleepin' right now on his morning nap.

The next thing we need prayer for is all of his doctor's appointments in the next week or so. We are going to the international adoption clinic at Children's hospital...he gets to see a international disease doctor, nutrionist, psychologist, neurologist, and some more specialists, but it's going to be a lot. He also has to get up to date on all of his immunizations and we need to find a pediatrician and then take Isaak to get circumcized (I'm sure this will be a lovely process).

Anyway, God has blessed us FAR MORE than we could ever deserve and even want. He has been so good to us, and we are so thankful that He has entrusted Isaak to us! What a blessing.

Soon, Kristin and I are going to make a list (LONG list) of all of the answers to prayer throughout this process...it's pretty incredible!

We love you all,
Jon and Kristin

On Our Way

Hi everybody,
Here we go again...we're sitting at our gate in Columbus waiting to board to travel to our first connection (Washington DC). The reality of what we're doing hasn't really sunk in quite yet. We're really excited, but it seems almost surreal that we're going back...like, is this really happening? ;-)

We managed to pack everything in just two suitcases, a stroller, a carry-on and a laptop bag. I don't know how we did it...well, we had to pack our things in about half of a suitcase and all of Isaak's things in the rest. ;-)

We received his ticket from FedEx to travel back with us...it was the first official "Isaak Krull" document. We were both pretty excited.

Well, here's the itinerary:
Monday: 11:20pm touch down in Astana, Kazakhstan (1:40pm Monday afternoon EDT)

Tuesday: Gotcha-day - go to the baby house and get his schedule for eating and sleeping, give out our gifts, pick-up Isaak and 5:20pm - fly to Almaty, Kazakhstan and arrive around 7:30pm (9:30am Tuesday morning EDT).

Wednesday: Isaak's medical appt. at US Embassy

Thursday: Isaak's interview and swearing-in at US Embassy

Friday: Isaak gets visa from US Embassy

Saturday/Sunday: Enjoy being a family and buy souvenirs and Sunday, go to airport

Monday: 1:55am depart Almaty for Columbus and fly-in around 3:30pm

Alright, time to board.

We love you all

Jon and Kristin

Isaak is OUR SON! Praise God!

We just received news yesterday (earlier than expected) that Isaak's adoption decree was picked up on Friday and that they have applied for the adoption and birth certificate. We are also heard news that they will receive us in country on Monday, April 13, so as long as we get our visas (which we should) we will be traveling on Easter Sunday...pretty cool huh? Makes Easter a little more real.

PLEASE PRAY!!! We got a phone call from the Kazakh embassy yesterday saying that we did not send them the correct amount of money for the type of visa that we need. My agency told me we needed a tourist visa, so I paid the tourist price, but it was not quite enough. Praise God that they contacted us so quickly (they got our passports on Thursday and called us on Friday). The gentleman actually said that we are approved, they are just waiting on the money to issue the visas. We are getting the money order this morning and overnighting it to them so that it will be there first thing Monday morning. I will call them Monday afternoon to make sure that they matched up our money order with all of our other paperwork. PLEASE PRAY that they get the visa out quickly so that we have a little notice to buy our airline tickets and everything else we need before traveling. I'm 98% positive that it's God's will for us to leave on Easter...we've been convinced of it since we left AND, God kind of confirmed that in my mind when the Embassy contacted us SO quickly.

Praise God!!

Pray in that visa!!!

Thank you,
Jon and Kristin

Court is Over! Praise God!

Hi everyone,
We are finished with probably the most difficult hour of question drilling of our lives...you would think we were criminals ;-). BUT, we are incredibly thankful that they cared enough about Issak's well-being that they would ask such important and deep questions.

Oh, and by the way, our coordinator did not spell his name correctly on all of the documents for court, and when we looked at it, we actually liked it better, so we told her that it was ok.

Issak Aleksandr Krull (I think the "K" makes it look more Russian which is cool). Also, when he plays sports, his teammates will call him "Issak K" which will sound like "Isaakay" which is kinda cool and unique.

They didn't wave the 15-day period, but they have good reason. It is kind-of like a loan in the United States. When you sign up for a loan, you have 72 hours to call back and cancel before it takes affect. Well the 15-days serves two purposes. The first is it gives us a chance to change our minds (NO WAY ON EARTH). The second is that it gives the mother and birth family another change to change their minds.

Well, considering that mother made-up her mind when she made-up her name and address for his birth certificate, I really doubt that it is possible. We're thinking like less than .5% of a chance. She would first have to go back to the baby house which would tell her "NO WAY will we give you any information, why did you abandon your son for 8 months" - we know this because this is exactly what they did with another couple that is adopting at the same time as us. The baby-house sided with the adoptive parents, and they are half way through their bonding period even though 2 weeks ago, an aunt came asking about their child. In order for mother to get the child after being told nothing at the baby house, she would have to hire an attorney and pay money to the court to file a protest about an adoption that they don't even know is going on at this present time...it would just be a guess. The court will not tell her in advance of filing a protest that Isaak is currently being adopted, so why would a mother file a protest for an adoption that they didn't know existed...in all likelihood, not possible.

I know that God allowed us to see that first-hand so that we would have a peace about the whole process when we come home for 15 days. AND by the way, God has worked miracles to make Isaak be our child, He WILL finish what He started, we are both confident. Praise God for such an incredible experience...in some wierd, twisted kind of way, we're going to miss living in Kaz, BUT (BIG BUT), we cannot wait to eat American food...you know like "El Vaquero" and "Olive Garden" ;-). AND we miss our family. We're not talking just about our biological family, we're also talking about all our kids at Madison and our brothers and sisters at Maranatha...OH WE MISS YOU ALL! We are incredibly humbled, blessed, and touched by your incredible prayer support throughout this entire process...DON'T STOP PRAYING!

We love you all,
Jon and Kristin

Court Tomorrow...pretty scared!

Hi everyone,
Court is tomorrow. We are pretty scared...we don't really know what's going to go down. We've been talking with other couples that have been to court and every couple seems to have a different experience and story of how the questions are asked and everything, SO we really have no way to prepare.

I (Jon) am just scared because sometimes when I'm very nervous, I leave important information out and I stumble over my words (YES, even though I'm a teacher). PLEASE PRAY that God would give us both clarity of mind and speech and wisdom to answer as He would. It's so scary that EVERYTHING that we have put into this adoption emotionally, spiritually, financially all rests on this one decision...AND Isaac's future. Although, all the other couples did say it seemed like the judge and the all of the people in the court were on our side and agreed with us.

Neither of us have ever been to court in any form, so it's a little scary that the first time we have to go is in another country and we don't completely know their customs...oh well, that's why God will put the words in our mouth.

Isaac had an AWESOME day today. He was so much fun; he was smiling and laughing, and enjoying every moment. We were able to take him out of the baby house on a car ride to the photography place to take his picture. He wasn't so fond of the way that they bundled him up, but after we got to the photo place and took off 5,000 layers he was his normal happy self...all of the workers in the photo place were blown away that he didn't cry because every single baby that is brought in for a passport picture cries...interesting ;-). I think that's because God set it in his heart that we are here to take care of him and love him and meet his needs.

11:00AM tomorrow morning, or 1AM in the morning for all of you. If you wake up in the middle of the night, please remember us in prayer!

We love you all,
Jon and Kristin

Sorry Everybody

Hi everyone!
Sorry for the long time between posts. I would love to say that we've been busy, but that's not true, so we don't really have an excuse for not posting ;-).

Isaac has been doing great this past week. He's really teething and he's enjoying being mobile. He wants to do EVERYTHING everyone else is doing. He's cute.

He's continued to bond with us...everyday we come in, when we're putting new clothes on him, he smiles up a storm and talks to us like crazy...blah blah blah, dada, blah blah blah (pretty much exactly). One day, his teeth were hurting real bad so he started to suck in air through his lips and then proceed to make a spitting noise (really, pass-gassing noise) with his mouth. I laughed, and then I did it for him and now every time I do it, he does it too...it's so funny! Sonia, our translator thinks it's hysterical.

Here comes the date that we've all been praying for, for such a long time!! This coming Wednesday in the morning, we will have court (your Tuesday evening). The judge will ask us some questions about our home and our family, and our income, and our reasoning for adopting (all of which we've already answered for them a thousand time, but it's a formality, so we have to do it). Pray that God will give me (Jon - I get to answer the questions because I'm the man of the household) clarity of mind and speech and that He would help me say things clearly and properly. We're an open book...we've got nothing to hide.

Either we're going to have a 15-day waiting period, which we will travel home for, OR, they will decree the adoption Wednesday, and we will have to wait until we get his paperwork (birth certificate and passport), and then we will travel to Almaty for meetings with the US Embassy and then we will travel home.

USUALLY, the norm is to impose the 15-day appeal period for family to come back, BUT, as far as WE can see it, this is not a normal case because mom is not even in the picture because she lied about her name and her address so they can't find her...SO, you never know what God's going to do. You all know what we're praying for and I know that you all have prayed for it too, but we are definitely ok with whatever God decides to do...If we come home, we'll be coming back within 21 days...it will be long, but if it's necessary, it's necessary! We've waited this long, what's 21 more days...BUT for Isaac's sake, we hope we can bring him home this trip so that he doesn't have to go 21 days without seeing us...perhaps he would lose some trust that we've built.

We love you all, and we can tell that you are praying...thank you!
Jon and Kristin

COURT DATE!!!

Hi everybody!

WE KNOW OUR COURT DATE! One week from today, Wednesday the 18th of March...this is GREAT because the airlines fly out on Thursday. This means that if we have to do two-trips, we will be leaving one week from tomorrow and returning about 3:30pm Thursday in Columbus. If the judge rules out the 2 weeks that we normally have to wait, we will just stay and bring him home about 2-weeks from now. This is still our prayer, but we are okay with whatever God wants to do...of course, WE HAVE TO BE, He's God!

Anyway, we are very excited!! Isaac is still crawling (although today, I think his legs were tired from yesterday). Also, he kept giving us kisses today, AND he said his first words (dada). He actually knew what it meant! That's exciting...we're going to start saying mommy a lot to try to get him to learn momma before we leave (if we have to).

Anyway, we have to go because Internet is getting expensive ;-).

We will post again in 2 days!

We love you all,
Jon and Kristin

Another Day, Great day with Isaac

Hi Everybody,
I hope everybody is doing well. We had a great day with Isaac today. He's really teething on the top part of his mouth...his molars are starting to come in on top...he had a runny nose and was coughing and upset because his teeth hurt so bad. On the other hand, he started to crawl ALL BY HIMSELF today. He was so strong...he crawled about 5 feet on his own about 5 different times. We are so proud of him...;-)

He is really comfortable with us...we definitely know that we are his momma and papa and he definitely knows it too. He did not want to go back to his group of children...his care-taker reached out for him and he latched onto Kristin and wouldn't let go (until he saw they were watching a video). ;-)

Right now, we are waiting on a call from our coordinator to figure out the court date for Isaac. We should definitely figure out soon, but we're not holding our breath for today, because we don't want to be totally disappointed like we were last Friday when it didn't come. We should know by tomorrow...hopefully, because we need to call Lufthansa and delay our flight which was supposed to be this Thursday. Pray that God would allow us to know this piece of information soon.

Other than playing the waiting game, and being ready to come home and get everything ready for Isaac to come, there's nothing new.

Please continue to pray for speedy governmental action (I know, don't hold your breath).

We love you all and can't wait to come home and see you all again!

Jon and Kristin

Still Waiting ;-)

I know that we told you that we would update yesterday, but we decided not to. We had a really bad day yesterday. For some reason, we REALLY started to be homesick and we missed everything about the US and all of our friends and family. You wouldn’t have wanted to read our post yesterday (ask my dad, he knows). We needed to just settle down, and ask God’s help. We spent about an hour in prayer together last night, and I was able to communicate with MCS. It meant so much to hear how many people have been praying for us…it really fueled our excitement and our getting out of our down-day.

Today went much better. First of all, we forced ourselves to get up instead of sleeping for 12 hours…teenagers, it’s the truth…you can sleep too much…I know it’s surprising to you; it was surprising to us, but you can! We were like losing our minds…so we got up this morning, did some cleaning and went for a walk. Much better idea, because when we got to go see Isaac, we were awake!! That’s a novel idea…arrive awake and energetic to play with your son! ;-)

God really showed us last night that things could be SO much worse; in fact, we’ve had it REAL good. God has pushed us through this process faster than so many couples…AND, he saved Isaac just for us. You all do realize that Isaac was saved just for us (Godsend)…three other couples were referred to 3 children each before we were, the same day Isaac was referred to us. If Isaac would have been offered to any one of those families, there is NO WAY ON EARTH they would have turned him down because of his age and his personality. That means, that God, through the orphanage, saved Isaac just for us! Wow! If that’s not incredible, I don’t know what is!

There were 2-3 couples working with our organization that started their process months before we started the adoption process, and we ended up traveling before them…wow, God’s plan huh? And there are so many little prayers that God has answered during the course of just this trip, it would blow you away! We can’t even remember them all; we need to take time and write them down. Recently, we’ve been praying for a few things and we’re having faith and anxiously awaiting how the Lord is going to answer. First, we are praying for a speedy court date (we figure out the date tomorrow). Second, we are praying (if at all possible, and with God all things are possible) that maybe God would somehow allow us to finish this adoption all in this first trip…I’m not sure how, and if it’s even legally possible, but one thing’s for sure, with so many people praying and God in charge, it’s definitely possible, so we’re going to keep believing. We won’t be incredibly discouraged if He decides not to grant us that wish, because we know that He would have a bigger and better plan, but wouldn’t that just be incredible.

I would just love to see the look on our coordinator’s face for the judge to say “the adoption has been decreed as of today.” After falling to our knees in worship and crying out incredibly loud “thank you’s” to God, we would be able to tell our coordinators that we knew it was going to happen, because that’s exactly what we prayed for, and our God is incredible! What a witness! I’m not sure it will happen, but hey, let us hope for now!

Anyway, there are your prayer requests from us for the next week or so…we’re excited to see how God answers.

Isaac was wonderful again today…this has been an awesome week! He has come so far…he is so incredibly happy! He is so strong too; he can stand on his legs unassisted for about 3-5 minutes at a time. Today we were playing a game with him to work out his legs and he thought his daddy was the funniest person ever. He was standing on daddy’s tummy and daddy would start to pull Isaac’s arms down to try to get Isaac to bend his legs. Isaac was trying EVERYTHING in his power not to let daddy do this! When he finally gave in and bent his legs, he would grunt and then laugh so hard he could barely stand it! It was hilarious, and we were both blown away by how strong he actually is. He was playing with a 5 lb. toy and mommy picked him up to give him to daddy, and he continued to carry the toy in his own might until daddy picked him up…he’s strong! I swear, he’s going to take over the world. We’re actually REAL proud of him for how far he’s come and how much he’s learned.

We were told today that we are allowed to take him outside of the baby house next week for 30 minutes every day. They have some strollers and we will take him out and go for a walk to get him some fresh air. This is probably some of the first fresh air he has every had because shortly after he arrived at the baby-house, it was wintertime and they don’t take children outside during the winter.

We are getting close to seeing light at the end of the tunnel. We are excited to be this close after such a long process. God has brought us so far!

I hope you all are doing well…I hope my classes at MCS are going okay…perhaps some of my students would like to e-mail me (krull@madisonchristianschool.com)…I kinda miss you!

Oh and I’ve heard all of my students are DYING to see a picture. Well, make sure you delay that process until I get home so you can see one. It’s kinda confidential to everyone but our family right now, but as soon as I can, you’ll see a picture! Either it will be my first day back (if it’s two trips), or after the judge gives their adoption decree (if it’s one trip). I can describe him to you though…picture the absolute most perfect, cutest, brown-haired, brown-eyed baby in all the world! He’s little, but he has some puffy cheeks that are so cute…his smile will absolutely make you melt, and his giggle, well after the melting, what is left? He has a very silly personality (good fit for Mr. Krull), and he absolutely loves to be held (another good fit for both Mr. and Mrs. Krull)…we’re enjoying this stage, it will probably be over shortly after arriving home! I hope you can picture him…I’m sure when you see the picture, he will be even more beautiful than you ever dreamed…maybe we’re just biased, but we don’t think so!

We thought we were going to get our court date today or so, but it turns out that it will take one more day...unfortunately, because Monday is a holiday, one more days is on Tuesday. So we have to wait until Tuesday to get our court date...our coordinator is supposed to inform us about everything soon, so as soon as we know something, we'll let you know. As of today, it looks like we won't be leaving for another couple of weeks from Monday.

We love you all and miss you all very much!
Jon and Kristin (or Mr. and Mrs. Krull) ;-)

Great Day Today!

Hi Everybody,
We had a great day today with Isaac. We were able to sleep in until 11:30 this morning which helped my (Jon's) health. I still have a little problems with my ears and some congestion in my lungs, but other than that, I feel a whole lot better today...thank you for your prayers. Pray that we would continue to get good rest to keep us healthy.

On tomorrow evening, our coordinator takes a train to our town (Astana) so that on Thursday, she can finish the paperwork for court, and on Friday, she can go to the judge and submit the paperwork in order to get a court date. With this milestone coming this Friday, we are able to think a bit clearly...after Friday, we will know somewhat of a time-frame of when we come home...of course that is dependent on the judge...if she decides that we can stay until Isaac can come home with us, we may be here another couple of weeks. Please pray that maybe God will give us a court date prior to next Thursday so that we can come home when planned (if we have to come home) so that we don't waste $600 in fees to change our flight reservations.

Isaac had such a great day today...he was SO excited to see us, and all of the caretakers told us again that they have noticed such an amazing difference in his attitude...he's much more happy! That's the plan, and we're so excited to hear that. He was a bundle of energy and smiles and giggles today until about 10 minutes before the end of the session...he was so tired and ready to go to sleep for his nap. The only impatience that we feel at this point is that we can only see him 2 hours a day, and we are basically hear for his "glorified play time". We are ready to be so much more than that...we can't wait to cuddle him and to rock him to sleep and be by his side when he wakes up in the mornings...we cannot wait to feed him...mommy can't wait to change his diapers. ;-) I bet daddy can't wait either...well, we probably can both wait to do that, but that's okay...it's part of the job right?

Not much more news other than that we know a court date this Friday...we will post again tomorrow to let you all know if there is an update on anything, but I doubt there will be.

We were asked about his full name today and we were able to write it down in order to be ready to get his passport...Isaac Aleksandr Krull. It looked so great to see his name written down...also, Sonya told us about another couple that has come back to Kaz to finish the adoption process and they are from Columbus, OH. They are here for their 2nd trip and will be going home in a few days...this encouraged us as well to know that other adoption are being completed as we speak...it gives us hope!

She said after court, most likely we will go home (USA) and then we will come back after about 3 weeks to pick him up. When we get here the 2nd time, he is completely our responsibility...he lives with us, and we completely take care of him...we will pick him up, fly to Almaty all in the same day and then after about 3 days, we will be heading home! Yesterday, it seemed like an eternity away, but today, it seems like it will be very soon. Just after he hits 8 months old, we will be here to bring him home!!!!!!!!!!! Praise God!

We love you all and can't wait to see you soon!
Jon and Kristin

3 More Bonding Days

Hi everybody! We have 3 more bonding days with Isaac until we figure out what our court date is. We are VERY excited. Right now, I'm kind of tired as well as Kristin. We went out to eat at a restaurant yesterday that is much like Mongolian Barbeque, only it wasn't. When we got there they said they stopped putting out all of the meat and spices and started just cooking one big thing with all meat in it. We ate it although it was overly greasy...worse than fair food. After we ate, we went into the attached arena and rode horses for about 20 minutes...this was so much fun.

When we got back to the apartment, Kristin and I got a ton of things done and then we decided to eat dinner...I ate the left-overs from the Mongolian restaurant. Something didn't agree with me. I have a sinus infection and some chest congestion...I was up sick some of the night last night. I stopped getting sick around 4am and was able to almost get some sleep...I'll tell you what, when you're sick, you want a nice comfy bed with your nice comfy pillows and comforter...needless to say, we don't have that. It's as if we're sleeping on particle board and our pillows are stuffed with dead cats...you know, they weigh about 50 Lb. each and they are so clumpy...probably 3 or 4 cats each. ;-) Between the riding the horses (sore butts), and sleeping on particle board with dead cats, our backs are absolutely killing us...when my (Jon's) back hurts in a specific spot, it really affects my breathing and it actually aids in getting sinus infections...so I have one. Anyway, enough complaining...that is a small price to pay to be able to adopt Isaac.

Pray that my symptoms would go away so that I could have all of my energy for Isaac tomorrow and the rest of this week...mostly pray that I don't need an antibiotic...they don't have them ;-). So, we're getting ready to go sleep it off so hopefully we can feel better tomorrow...PRAISE GOD though that he gave me the energy to go today...I knew He would. At about 4am, I prayed, "God, in Your name, please stop my sickness so that we don't have to add another day to our bonding period and almost instantly I stopped getting sick...pretty cool eh?

Now about the good stuff! Isaac was so cute today and he is starting to teethe more...he already has two front teeth in the bottom gums. He was rolling over and reaching for us today and walking to us (one foot in front of the other)...with our help of course, but he was doing pretty well. He can't stop smiling unless we put him down for too long, and he's discovered the "play balls" in the play room. He tries to eat the balls and then he starts kicking and hitting them. He's so cute. He started to talk more today...he's beginning to be pretty vocal...he's also a BIG tease. He loves to roll away from mommy and daddy so we can roll him back...he grunts the whole time he's turning (He's going to take over the world).

Anyway, we are getting ready to go home and rest...we are also going to down a whole 2-liter of sprite because we're thirsty. Thank you all for your continued prayer and support. We are SOOOO ready to come back to the US. We miss all of the little conveniences that we take for granted in the US...you know, like a mattress with padding and pillows without dead animals living in them. ;-) I'm terrible, I know. It's pretty funny because, pretty much everything here is "good for health". The Kaz people always tell us "yes, it's good for health" you know like riding horses, and eating bread, and onions...there probably is some truth to it, but it's kinda funny because they're so obsessed with health, but their beds are so unhealthy...to our standards...they would probably say their beds are "good for health". ;-) We love them dearly!

We will post again in 2 days!

We love you all, and sorry for the randomness; I'm in a mood because I'm so tired ;-)

Jon and Kristin

Another GREAT couple of days...the only downside is we have to go all day tomorrow (Sunday) without seeing our son. Yesterday, he was very sleepy as he skipped his nap due to teething issues. He was trying so hard to be happy and awake, but it just couldn't happen. We kept offering him his teether, and finally, he put it down and we looked...two little bottom teeth poked through the gums...we're so proud of him!! He was SO tired after our play-time yesterday I think he probably fell asleep before they got him in his crib ;-). Obviously he slept well because today, he was one big bundle of energy and joy! He was one big smile after another today! We had so much fun...he is becoming quite independent. He loves to crawl and go around and look and learn about the many different pictures. He finally laid on his tummy long enough today for us to show him pictures of his new family and his new home. He was mezmorized, but more importantly, he wanted to eat the picture album!

He enjoys reading books even though we don't have any for his age...he'll lay down with daddy and he'll try watch me turn the pages, and he will start to reach out and swoosh the page over himself...he's a smart little bugar.

He is rolling from back to front and front to back with ease...it's crazy how strong he is and how fast he learned how to do that. Every time he rolls to his back he gets the "belly treatment" from mommy and daddy. He loves to act like he turning over and then mommy or daddy grabs him and swooshes his back on his back saying "you can't get away". He giggles and giggles.

We have four more days to bond with him before we know our court date (Monday through Thursday). We figure out our court date on Thursday afternoon. Pray mostly for a speedy process so we can come home and get everything ready at home, and pray that absolutely nothing would keep the adoption from taking place and becoming final! God has been absolutely incredible in leading us to this point...He has opened EVERY single door almost all according to our prayers. He then answered every prayer through the referral process and throughout this bonding period...I can't imagine a door closing now! Praise the Lord!

We love you all and you're in our thoughts and prayer...every day we miss home a little bit more!! We cannot wait to bring our son home with us!!

Jon and Kristin

Another GREAT DAY TODAY!! He's really attaching!

Today was another amazing day with Isaac. The caretakers told us when we arrived that he's so excited and happier every day because he knows that we're coming to see him! He's continuing to develop...he's reaching for us now when we call for him and he's really starting to become mobile when we put him down on all fours. He loves to turn over and when he does, he knows what's coming...you can't turn over on your back without daddy getting the belly ;-)...he LOVES that and he just giggles and giggles...it's so cute.

He loves to jump and play rough with daddy, and he LOVES to cuddle with mommy; like all baby boys right? He gets SOOOO tired toward the end of every visit that he starts to yawn and close his eyes, but we have to keep him awake for his nap-time at 4pm. Today, we took him into his group where his crib is and we gave him his pacifier and he laid his head on mommy and cuddled her and started to fall asleep...it was SO difficult for mommy to put him down because she wanted to just rock him to sleep...we probably could, but we don't want to make it harder when he won't see us for a month after court.

Thank you for all of your prayers...every day we continue to thank God for such an amazing gift that leaves us speechless...we just can't explain with words how amazing it is to parent a child and to watch them bond with us as a family!! God is good!!

We miss you all and can't wait to see you all soon! One week from today our papers go to court and they give us a court date...so it shouldn't be much longer!!!

Jon and Kristin

AWESOME DAY!!

We had an awesome day with Isaac today! He sat up, rolled over front and back, crawl, and he began to talk...in Russian of course. He was so happy today! We were able to change his clothes and his diaper before we took him to play, and then we were able to put him down in his crib for his nap after playing...that was very special! He is starting to teethe, so we bought him a teether yesterday...we figured out the when he bites down on the side, it vibrates, and HE LOVES IT! He really loves to jump and be mobile.

We were told today that we are going to be able to finish this adoption in just two trips. All of our paperwork is going to the judge on March the 5th and then she will set a court date. Typically court dates are set 10 days out. We are allowed to leave as soon as this court date is over...after this, there is a two-week waiting period for the child's family to come and find him (even though he was abandoned and they can't find mother), and after that, he is ours and our coordinator will start getting his paperwork together (i.e. His Kaz passport, and a few other things). When she has these in hand, she will call us and tell us to buy our visas again and come back to Astana. We will come, pick Isaac up and fly to Almaty where we will have his US Embassy medical exam and his Visa processing. From the day we pick him up, he is ours...he lives with us, travels with us, and everything!!!! WE CANNOT WAIT! After about 2-3 days in Almaty, we will by flying home! So, we're praying that God will allow us to travel during Spring Break as to not miss any more school than necessary. Middle of April, this should be complete!!!

We cannot wait to travel home (except for the leaving Isaac part) and begin preparing all of his things for him! We are so excited! He is so beautiful, and he's such a Godsend! We love him!!!

God has worked out so many incredible details...we are so thankful for how He has blessed us so much more than we deserve! Praise God!

Jon and Kristin

Isaac's 7-month Birthday

Today was Isaac's 7-month birthday. He was so cute...we bought him a couple of outfits last night and we were able to dress him in one today...he was SO cute. He was a little tired and down today because he is starting to teethe, and he has a little cold...we will take care of that because we bought medicine and a teether; I'm sure he'll be very happy tomorrow.

Our 5th day out of 14 bonding days is done! We are getting closer to being able to go to court. Today, our coordinator was getting a date for court! YAY! We should be able to get a quick-court date and HOPEFULLY, we can come back on the same day that we planned...March 12 UNLESS, they will allow us to stay for a 2 weeks or so and then bring him home...we don't think this is an option, but you never know...it's up to the judge.

It's beginning to be very difficult because we want to be able to parent Isaac ourselves, and we have an coordinator always looking over our shoulder during the bonding period. It's hard because it feel like someone's always watching. We want to be patient with her when she comes up and tell us what to do with him because we knows she means good, but it's still very difficult to be patient. Some of their culture we just have to accept (smile and nod, smile and nod) because it is very different. For instance, they think that just because a baby is coughing or something, they must be cold (like freezing cold), so they tell us to put a sweater on him even though he's sweating already. If any skin is showing except for his hands, head, and neck, it must be covered up because he will catch cold (they're constantly telling us to cover his legs even though it's only like a 1-inch gap from his sock to his pants. Also, his back must be straight...do not allow the baby to slouch while it sits on the ground...7 months is too early for him to be able to sit up. They told us this directly after he sat up unassisted for 30 seconds. Just pray for patience because we want to just do what they tell us so they're not offended, but it's so hard because it's like they're telling us we're bad parents because he's showing 1-inch worth of skin on his leg.

PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE...it's a virtue!

Anyway, we have to go...we're wracking up the internet bill here!! We'll talk to you tomorrow!
Love Jon and Kristin

Another Day in Kaz

Hello everybody,
We did not post yesterday (Sunday) because were so busy running to different places. Sonya took us to a tower which is the symbol of Astana, and then she took us to the Kazakh museum. It was neat to see some of the history, but also very tiring.

The worst part about yesterday is that we did not get to see Isaac. I think yesterday counts as THE LONGEST day of our lives.

We went today and visited with him from 2pm-4pm. This was the first time we visited for the full 2 hours. You should have seen him after about 1 hour and 30 minutes...we did our best to keep him awake so he would nap at 4 after we were done, but he DID NOT want to stay awake...they told us to keep him awake so we did the "Nod and Smile" thing and did what they wanted us to do. He is so beautiful and his smile is contagious...he crawled a little today, sat up for 30 seconds unassisted, and stood on his legs for a very long time (assisted), and he cackled a little bit. He loved patty-cake and "get-the-belly". What baby doesn't?

After we left, we went shopping and bought him a few outfits to wear while we are here. They are SO cute and I know he will look great in them.

Please pray...when we first got here, our coordinator said confidently that she thought we could finish this adoption in just 2 trips. Today she told us that tomorrow, she will meet with the judge and ask her of she will allow us to do it in two trips. Please pray for this as, we were convinced before today that we could do it in two trips, and when she said this we were very surprised.

Thank you for your prayer...we have to walk back to our apt. before it gets completely dark outside.

We love you all!
Jon and Kristin

First Full Day With Baby (1 hour and 30 minutes)

We started out the day yesterday by going to the internet café…we were able to gain access to e-mail family and post our first blog. It was fun trying to communicate with the staff in Russian. It wasn’t too hard really; she knew some English and we knew some Russian, so you put that together and we were taken care of ;-).

After this we went to the baby house and we were able to spend about an hour and a half with our son. We figured out that his name is Isaac (pronounced “Eesock” in Russian). As we talked to him throughout the day, we called him “Isaac” pronounced like in America and he responded really well to that name. We mutually decided that it would be a good idea to keep that name because of how he already responds to it. We are thinking “Isaac Aleksandr Krull”. I (Jon) was blown away when I heard his name was Isaac. Isaac Anderson (Sam’s little brother) came up to me before we left and said “Mr. Krull, you should call him Isaac”, and I just laughed…well Isaac, you got your wish ;-).

We had such a great time with him…we keep telling ourselves that there’s no way the bonding is going to be this easy…it has to be harder. He was smiling from the moment he saw us the first day and he kept on smiling today. The only time that he started to cry was when we laid him down on his back on the ground because he was so tired, so we picked him back up and all was fine with the world.

He absolutely LOVED the toys that we brought to him today…they tasted really good I guess. We also laughed when we found a Jack hair (our dog) on his lip. We tried to show Isaac pictures, and he loved them because they tasted really good. He’s obviously almost at the teething stage because everything goes in the mouth.

His favorite game is “kiss the hand.” If you make a really loud kissing noise, he will giggle and just think that’s the funniest thing ever. We have lots of video to show when we get home ;-).

The nurse told our coordinator that three other adoptive families came in the morning to bond with their children and Isaac would not fall asleep for his nap because he was looking for us…he just knew we were going to come and he was very excited. When we finally came after about an hour and fifteen minutes, he was woozy and exhausted so dad picked him up and rocked him to sleep…this is an unbelievable answer to prayer because Sonya said that he possibly has never seen another man ever and if he has, it’s been in passing – never 1-on-1 attention.

We took him upstairs to his crib and to his “group”. We met his nurse that cares for him and we asked if we could kiss him one last time in his crib because when she laid him down, he looked very concerned. We gave him goodbye kisses and he smiled again and tried to latch onto Kristin’s hair and never let go. When he knew we were leaving he looked upset.

We get to buy him diapers and clothes today (Sunday), but the thing we’re not looking forward to is that we don’t get to see him today…we have to wait until tomorrow. Sonya is going to “take us everywhere” today…that’s what she said. “Go back into apartment, get good sleep and tomorrow I will take you everywhere.” She’s so sweet! She is going to show us around the city, and we are going to visit some historical places so that we can learn about Isaac’s heritage so that we can teach it to him as he grows.

Sonya explained to us the process from here on out. On the fifteenth bonding day, we apply for court and the same day, they give us a court date, which is normally within 10 days. We will stay for court and can leave the same day that court is over as long as it’s a Thursday or a Monday. We get to visit Isaac every day while we wait for the court date. After court, he is our child barring a 15-day period where the birth family has a chance to keep him (they are not contacted though). After this 15 days, he’s officially our son and then we will wait in the states another 2 weeks or so for Sonya and Tatyana to gather all of his necessary paperwork. We will fly to Astana, pick him up (he will live with us in our apt. now), and then we will fly to Almaty (30 minutes away), and we will visit the US Embassy, get his medical exam and his visa, and we are off to the states!

Pray for 2 things:
1. Our fingerprint letter to get to our agency from the FBI because we cannot go to court until that has come in.
2. That time would start to pick-up a little bit…it’s dragging because we only get to see him for 2 hours a day Monday through Saturday, and our mattress is extremely hard, so we’re not sleeping well at night ;-).

Thank you for your prayers, and we love you…sorry no pictures or video until we get back. We will tell you, he’s the most beautiful child in the world!

We love you,
Jon and Kristin

CRAZY first 24 hours…

I’m sorry it has taken us so long to post, but we haven’t had internet access until this morning…we weren’t even able to talk to our parents until last night, so they were all freaking out.

We landed in Astana at about 11:15pm Kazakhstan time which is about 12:15pm (noonish) US time. We made it through passport control and then we had to fill out a form for customs declaring what we brought in country so that we didn’t have to pay tax on our valuables when we leave. In the process of looking for the forms, we found another adoptive family from the US who was on a plane. We put our minds together and found the form…the only problem was, the form was completely in Russian…we had no idea what it said. We had to find someone who could interpret for us and everyone was very nice.

We met our driver and our assistant coordinator (Sonya). They took us to our hotel and we arrived around 1am. We very promptly passed out on our bed and slept until morning.

When we woke up, it was time to get ready and then go eat our breakfast included in the cost of the hotel. This was an experience to say the least…we were looking for the place to eat the free breakfast and we found a restaurant, but it looked very upscale, so we weren’t sure it was it. The hostess and the waiter began speaking to us in Russian and I said “English” and they had no idea as we didn’t either. So I went upstairs to the desk and she could speak enough English to tell me that we were in the right place…SO we went back downstairs and then I think she told us to “go have a seat” in Russian, so we did. The waiter did not come out for about 10 minutes and when he did, he brought food (two fried eggs and a roll). I think he just brought us something because he knew we couldn’t understand the menu (it was very nice). He then asked us if we wanted coffee, to which we responded “sark” which means juice, but our accent was so bad, he didn’t know what we were saying, so we took the coffee. That was our first eating experience.

Yesterday was absolutely crazy. Kristin and I had no idea what was going on the whole day. We got dressed in our dress clothes because we thought we were going to the ministry of education, so we didn’t dress overly warmly (warm enough for the US). Our driver knocked on our door a half-an-hour early and acted like he was in a hurry (cannot speak English) and he said “Tatyana” who is our coordinator, so we rushed and finished getting ready and he drove us to meet Tatyana. She almost ran out to the car smiling and greeted us.

We went to the baby house where we met the lady from the ministry of education and all of the doctors and nurses that take care of the children. The house was very clean and very well taken-care of. The children were very healthy and well taken care of. Three other adoptive families accepted a referral before we had a chance to speak with the lady from the ministry and the doctor.

They showed us two referrals. We prayed that God would help us to know exactly which one He would have to be our child. Once again, when you pray and have faith that God will answer, don’t be surprised when what you prayed for happened. This child knew we were his mommy and daddy before we knew he was our son; He adopted us! A nurse brought in this little boy and turned him around and he saw us and he lit up with this HUGE smile and he started waving his legs and arms. Tatyana was so surprised…she picked up the baby and gave him to Kristin. He just latched on to my (Jon’s) finger and wouldn’t let go…he actually tried to fit my whole hand inside of his…it was so cute. We found out real quick that he was ticklish on his belly because Kristin tickled him a little bit and he giggled.

They let us take him to another room and play him for about 30 minutes…and the lady from the ministry go up and left as if to say, “I think we have a match”. This little baby boy is just 7 months old…this is unheard of because typically they will not refer a child until they are 8 months old. He is SO beautiful, and it’s really starting to sink in for us…we saw him for 30 minutes and then last night and this morning we were already having separation anxiety…we cannot wait to go see him today!! We get to spend 2 hours a day with him! I believe our 14-day bonding period started yesterday, so we only have 12 days left after today.

Tatyana told us that we should plan on only doing two-trips here to Kazakhstan. She said that since we had a referral so quickly, we should be able to apply for court and be granted a court-date relatively quickly. As far as we know it’s still a good possibility that we can still come home on the day that we planned to…but, more likely, the next week.

After we come home, we will have about 1 month while they get all of the paperwork together like his passport, birth certificate, and things and we will travel back to pick him up and travel home.

After going to the baby house, we went to the grocery…we spent about $16 US dollars and we got milk, cereal, water, sprite, bread, butter, paper towels, toilet paper, and juice. We expected $30 like it would be at Wal-mart!

They also found us an apartment that we are currently living in. It is absolutely beautiful and spacious. We have a balcony with a view of downtown Astana…we will post pictures when we get a chance…an apartment like this in NYC would cost probably $400 per night and we got it for $100.

Once again, we give ALL glory to God for every incredible little detail that He has worked out and every prayer that He has answered! God has blessed us beyond measure…so much more than we even deserve. His incredible will and plan is so incredible to watch unfold. How can anyone ever say “There is no God”.

We are going to try to buy a card so that we have internet access in our apartment. We are going to start our baby registries today!

Please continue to pray for our health. We are not allowed to get sick or we cannot go see the baby…they are very sensitive to illness and disease (because they have so many children in one house). Also, pray that God would just go before and make the judge set a quick court-date and possibly allow us to come home as scheduled. Also pray for our baby boy! Pray that he remains safe and healthy, and strong. Pray that he KNOWS without a shadow of a doubt that we love him unconditionally and that we will continue to come back for him! Pray that he is able to bond with us and that God would give us wisdom as we discuss his medical history and as we develop a plan for parenting! We’ve never done this before, but how can we be scared…we both have had awesome examples of incredible parents, and we have an AWESOME GOD who sent His Son so that we could have a tangible picture of what adoption and parenting truly is!

We love you all and we’re praying for you as well!

DASviGanya! (Goodbye)

Jon and Kristin

Sitting At Port Columbus

Kristin and I are starting our crazy-long journey this morning at Port Columbus. My parents (Jon) picked us up from home and brought us to the airport. We had breakfast with Kristin and my parents and then we said our goodbyes. We are currently waiting at the gate for our flight to Chicago. The nerves started to hit this morning...we both said like it almost feels like our wedding day again. Nervous excitement, more excited than nervous.

Please pray for our flight from Germany to Kazakhstan. As of this morning, it said it was delayed...I'm not sure if that's because it's too early to say, or because we're the only passengers on the flight ;-).

Also pray for the weather...it's supposed to be snowing and icy in Chicago! I guess it should be okay; they're used to it.

Hopefully we'll be able to post once we're in Chicago so that you know that we're safe.

We Love You All,
Jon and Kristin

da sviDAniya! (Goodbye!)

We will be leaving for Kazakhstan this coming Wednesday, February 18 at 10:45 in the morning. We will arrive in Kazakhstan at about 11:20pm their time which is about 12:20pm (noonish) our time. We will be wide-awake and it will be time to go to bed.

One of our coordinators will pick us up at the airport and then take us to our hotel/apartment. Please pray for a smooth trip and check-in. We will probably be having a meeting on Friday morning with the Ministry of Education to meet them and to discuss referrals for adoption. Please pray that God would give us wisdom as we look over the different referrals and that He would make it clear which child to adopt.

Also, pray for a sweet and successful bonding period (14 days) with the child. I cannot imagine the emotion we will feel when we see the child that God prepared for us even before the foundation of the world. I cannot even picture it right now. We cannot wait to hold, kiss, play with, read to, feed our child. This will be such an incredible time. Pray that the child will gain a trust and that he/she will know that they are loved unconditionally. Pray that while we are gone, after we leave the first time, the child will know and have a peace that we will come back again!

Pray that the courts would set a date quickly so that we know if we should come home or stay in Kazakhstan until the court date. Selfishly, we would like to combine the first two trips so we would like to stay for our court date unless it will be 3-4 weeks.

Thank you for your prayer! We will try to update as much as we can in Kazakhstan.

We Love You,
Jon and Kristin

We Received Our Invitation

We received our invitation to travel to Kazakhstan today after a tiny delay. We have applied for our visas and will be receiving them sometime in the next week or so. We still aren't quite sure when we will be traveling, but it will be very soon.

Kristin and I have been in incredible awe of some of the things that God has worked out lately. Last week we decided to go shopping for boots and other various assorted travel items. Before we went into Payless, I prayed "God, we don't have much time to look at too many places, and we don't have much $$ to spend on shoes, so please lead us to a pair that will work -- knowing that men's boots are not in season right now. The first pair of boots that I looked at said "waterproof" and I said "OO, that's interesting, that's what I need." I tried them on and said "wow, these are warm". I looked down at the tag and it said "made for extreme temps up to -22 degrees farenheight. They fit perfect, they were inexpensive and they are SO warm and comfy...PRAISE GOD! Kristin also found a great pair that works and that were inexpensive, it just wasn't as much as a suprise as women's boots are in style right now.

This same night, we got home and I had a message on my e-mail from my administrator (bosses boss) at school. She said that they have been looking for someone to take my place because no one that I suggested was working out and I was getting stressed about my students learning music while I am gone. I man applied to substitute at Madison earlier in the year because His church cut his hours and he was looking for some work on the side. On his resume, it showed that he sang in 2 choirs at Cedarville (where he graduated from), sang for Franklin Heights HS choir growing up, and he's the choir director at a local church. He came in to meet me and watch what I do...I was impressed. In the process of our conversation, he told me that his daughter is a missionary teacher in Uzbekistan which is the country just south of Kaz. I about killed over...:-).

God has been slowly but surely providing the finances we need...we have enough for our first trip and some of our second, and we will need a little more to buy airline tickets for our 2nd and 3rd trip and a bit for our post-adoption costs...BUT, he's provided this entire step of the way; I'm sure He will provide now!!

We were supposed to recieve our invitation last Friday, but it didn't come in and I got really dissappointed for a while. I was so excited to get the process rolling that when it didn't happen, I got really frustrated. Kristin and I talked and she reminded me that it's God's timing...I said today that "God and I had a meeting (fight)" and we all know who wins when we fight with God ;-). After about an hour, I calmed down and God enabled me through His Spirit to trust His perfect and awesome will.

I was at Church on Sunday morning accompanying the congregational singing. All of the songs that we sang were about God providing all of our needs and one song in particular said something like "even though we don't always know and things don't always work out our way we can rest in the peace of knowing that God is in control! I was playing with a humungeous grin on my face..."Okay God, I get it..." It just so happened that Pastor was preaching about stewardship. WOW, a double-whammy. About half-way through the sermon my mind started thinking about my attitude on Friday and about the whole adoption process in general. I knew that if our invitation would have come last Friday, I probably would not have been as thankful for it, AND, and would not have payed as much attention to the message that I NEEDED TO HEAR on Sunday morning. This is what I took out of it...

GOD IS IN CONTROL...HIS WILL IS PERFECT AND BEST even though it's hard sometimes to be patient for His will. I learned to give up our agenda and our time-clock because if we expect everything to go perfect or exactly our way, we're not only crazy, but we're not leaning on the will of God. While in Kaz, I'm sure there will be times when we will need to be flexible and stop and wait on the Lord's timing instead of trying to force things on our own. I think that maybe, just maybe God wanted us to learn that before we took a 19 hour plane trip across the world and begin this process...

Needless to say, we got our invitation today and as far as we know (it's up to God), we'll be traveling soon...we're waiting on our visas.

Please continue to pray that God would give us wisdom as we travel and make decisions, and especially as we are faced with making a decision about our child. We are so incredibly excited and at this point, we're still a little shocked that all of this has happened so quickly. Please pray for our safety and for our child's safety especially while we're away from him/her. Our child is alive right now and waiting for us to come and hold them!! It blows my mind! We are so ready to travel, and we are ready to hold our child and express our love to him/her. The day couldn't come quick enough...BUT we're being patient in knowing that we're waiting for God's timing!

Praise the Lord! There's nothing else I can say but Praise the Lord!

Packing Our Bags

WOW!!!!!! We just received a message last Friday on our answering machine saying that our invitation to Kazakhstan has been signed and the coordinator who lives in Kazakhstan and works for our agency said that we should receive our invitation this coming Friday. Right when we receive it, we need to apply for our visa. The plan is for us to be in Kazakhstan on Monday night, February 16. If all goes as planned, we will probably fly out of Columbus on Sunday, February 15 which is two weeks from today.

We did not expect to have to pack our bags so quickly, but this is so awesome! We are scared and we have a lot of questions that we're going to bombard our poor agency with on Monday morning, but we know that we are prepared and we are confident in the Lord's timing, and we know that He will work in every aspect of this process.

We most likely have to make 3 trips to Kazakhstan. On our first, we have to choose a referral and send all of the information to an international adoption doctor here in Columbus at Children't Hospital. After the medicals are looked every and everything is a go, we will go to the orphanage to spend a two-week bonding period with the child which we will spend a set amount of time every day talking, playing, feeding, and bonding with our child. After the two-week period we have to return home for about a month...this is going to be the most awful part; I don't even want to think about how difficult it will be to say goodbye and come home for a month.

After about 20-30 days, we will be invited to return again, and we will return for approx. 4-5 days. We will then return home for about 2-3 weeks and then go back for another 4-5 days. The last trip is to pick-up our child and to buy their passport, and visa and register them with the US embassy in Kazakhstan. After all of the paperwork and court hearings are said and done, we will be returning home!! Our best guess (which probably is incorrect) is the beginning of May for our third return.

PLEASE PRAY! We are trusting the Lord for our finances to come together before the 2nd and 3rd trip (Airfare), and we're trusting God's timing and His perfect plan. Sitting here right now, we have no clue how God will work everything out, but I know sitting here in 3-4 months after it's all said and done we will look back and be completely astonished and we will see His hand so powerfully in everything that we accomplished. WE KNOW that there will be kinks along the way and that God will allow trials throughout this process to test our faith. Please pray that we would not lose faith and that we would continually trust Him in all circumstances. It's so easy to worry and to stress, but we do not want to do this because we want to just enjoy every little aspect of this journey.

We are about ready to embark on a journey rarely embarked upon, and we are going to get to experience the love of Christ for us in reverse when He adopted us to be one of His children. We can't even picture or begin to understand what emotions we will be experiencing when we see and hold the child that God would have to be our son or daughter. We can't wait!! Can we go today?

Thank you for your prayers! Pray that all of the details would come together!

WOW! We just want to give God all of the glory and praise for what's about to happen!

Jon and Kristin