On to the homestudy!!

Hi everyone, I thought I'd pop in and give you a bit of an update. You may have heard that Washington state was not complying with Russia's requirements regarding accrediting homestudy agencies. This meant that people in Washington would not be able to adopt children in Russia. This was heart breaking to hear as it was looking grim - our heart broke for families who had already accepted their referral, looked the kids in the eye and said they wanted to be their mommy and daddy. We explored other countries, but we are either too young or have not been married long enough for many of the other countries. It was a difficult time for our fam with lots of waiting, praying and hoping! With a lot of people working with the state, we're happy to say that Russian adoptions will continue for Washington State residents! Hooray!

So, we've chosen a homestudy agency and are ready to get that going. Probably Monday morning we'll get our finger prints sent to the FBI, Zoë and I (Chandin) will get passports and we get this thing rolling!

We are so, so, so excited to bring our baby boy home. Please continue to pray for him, his orphanage, and this journey! Please also be praying for God's provision in financially. We know he'll bank roll it, and prayer has a lot to do with that.

We'll try to keep this thing up to date! Thanks!

Mini update!

Just a quick little update!

We've narrowed it down to two agencies and spoke with a rep f rom one tonight. And oh my goodness. We are in for a ride. We knew it would be a lot of work, waiting and sanctification and now we know how much. She was great and spelled out every step we would take. We have realized that it will be a longer process than we were expecting, which is fine. We will take three trips over to Russia, which means we leave our precious baby boy at the baby home not once, but twice and go home to wait for the next step. I'm fairly certain those will be the longest months of our life!

Please continue to pray for us, we will meet with the other agency Thursday, make our decision Friday and hopefully apply to one next week! And please also lift our baby boy up to our Heavenly Father, the Father of the fatherless!

Welcome! And exciting news!

Welcome to our new family blog, where you can keep up on all the family happenings!

Our most exciting new happening we are SO excited to announce! Team Geihsler is growing! Our newest addition is in Russia and we are going to bring him home! You might wonder why we are adopting when we are able to have biological children. The reason we are adopting is because we have been adopted by a heavenly Father and it is the best thing that has ever happened to us. Nothing is more important than our adoption. Adoption is greater than redemption, it is even greater and more shocking than justification. Redemption makes me whole, justification makes a horrible sinner like me right before God, but neither make me a son. Being a member of Gods family is the greatest thing in the universe. This is our main foundation for adopting. For us, the question of adopting was more along the lines of "how could we not?!"

Through the Word, the Spirit has impressed on us God's heart for the fatherless. How many times have we prayed for Gods will for our lives, asking for direction and not see what is right in his word? Some are called to preach, some to teach, some to help, but ALL Christians are called to serve orphans and widows (James 1:27). What is an orphans greatest need? Parents! Not all families are called to adopt, but we are all called to care for them. There are many organizations that help Orphans. Our favorites are Vision Nationals and iOrphan.com

So why Russia? Of all countries we looked into, we had the biggest draw to Russia. There are over 760,000 orphans in Orphanages and millions on the street. There are more Russian orphans today than there were after World War II. Orphanages are often overcrowded and understaffed. Infants are changed and fed but are not held, consoled or given much medical attention. Once they are out of the orphanage,only 1 in 10 become a functioning member of society. Others are lost to crime (40%), drugs(40%), and suicide(10%). Young girls are often forced into prostitution. The other 50% are high risk/impoverished.

Why a boy? There are more boy orphans in russia than girls...I don't know why.

Brian and I are extememly excited about our growing family. We would ask you to join us in prayer for our son, his care givers and us as we begin the journey to bring him home. We will keep you posted as things progress.