First, the bad news. We still have not been able to apply for Mikaela’s passport. After gathering all of the necessary papers and having her passport picture taken, we found out that their equipment was broken. Yulia had to drop us off at our apartment and head off to court (she has back-to-back court appointments with two other families this afternoon), but she is trying to get us an appointment at the passport office for 5:00 this afternoon. So, it is still possible that we could submit the application for Mikaela’s passport this afternoon. Please keep praying about that.

On a much, much better note: Mikaela is now with us full-time! We signed all of her dismissal papers this morning, and she is now with us at our apartment, playing with her Aunt Meghan. She has been doing great so far, and she even nursed extremely well this afternoon on her first attempt. That is a huge answer to prayer, and we are hopeful that nursing will give her the nourishment that she has been lacking for so long now. She consumed so much today, in fact, that she could barely move afterward. Now that some of it has had a chance to work through her system, her activity level is increasing steadily. We are thrilled to have her, and it all seems so surreal still. Now we just need to apply for her passport, and then we’ll have a better idea of when we will be returning home. For the moment, though, we are praising God that Mikaela is now fully ours and are very, very happy to have our family whole once more. (Pictures to follow soon . . .)