Our blog is born..

This blog is being created so: family, old & new friends can follow The Fridley's on a journey to Russia to complete their family.

Where to begin...

I guess it started with a question one evening between Amy & I. For those keeping track, Mike was the one that asked the question, "Do you want a little girl?" It might have not been in those words, but you get the hint. After talking amongst ourselves we decided to share it with our Pastor. Pastor Jason thought it was a great idea and that he was happy that we had decided to open up our family to a little girl that needed one.

Deciding that to really understand our decision and make the most educated choices, we should make our decision public. Mother's Day weekend, we told our parents the great news; who were a bit shocked.. LOL Then we told other family members and close friends who we wanted to tell personally.

Our first meeting with an agency was the Lutheran Children & Family Services in St. Louis. This meeting was our first and basically told us anything thing we needed to know about domestic adoption. Our social worker was great and told us a lot of information and answered all of our questions. But, after much thought and prayer we decided that domestic adoption was not in our calling to find a little girl.

Fortunately we know a family that has just completed their journey of International Adoption with 3 beautiful children. After a little encouragement from Mike, Amy approached Eric Pitman at the weekly Rotary meeting. I'm not for sure how the conversation went, but it went! Eric was awesome, basically he put us on the track with what is now our agency. Children's Hope International. To show you how God works, that very weekend, Eric, Becky & their Children were actually speaking at an open house for CHI. Amy & I went, we needed to know if this was right for us.

We arrived early, got our composure and went into the facility to get our seat. The founder gave the opening address and then the ladies that headed the program from each different country that CHI represents. After each country was presented, two families that had recently adopted came in and gave their stories. Very powerful stuff! The stories and the pictures that were shared were amazing. After that formal presentations were over we broke up and were allowed to mingle with the case workers, families and others. We headed straight towards Anna the Russia program director. We talked her ear off, asked more questions than you can imagine. Then the question that "sealed the deal". What ages of little girls are most in need of adoption.? Anna said that most of the girls that are available are in the 1 to 3 year category.

Eric & Becky were so great, they stood and talked and answered out questions. The had brought one of their picture albums from the trips. Wow, it is amazing to see what is out there in the big world! We talked and talked, so much that we moved into the parking lot because the CHI employee's wanted to go home. LOL We actually stood in the parking lot, on the beautiful Sunday afternoon and continued to talk. Thanks again Eric & Becky!

We climbed in Amy's car to head home. We both new we were ready to commit to this. We talked and talked and couldn't believe how much at ease we were. God was really in control and we were ready to let him lead. We finished our paperwork that evening and took the pictures that were required to turn in with our initial application. Monday morning I called Anna and said, " We are ready, what do we need to do?" As of Tuesday morning our application has been received and being reviewed.

More to come!