Lots to update on!
I was looking at our last post and I had put that I was planning on applying for our Chinese Visas. Well, that didn't happen until yesterday. We had to wait for the girls' passports to come back and apply all together. The girls' passports have been back a few weeks, but I just got around to fixing it all yesterday. Let me tell you, the paperwork for adoption is overwhelming. Just the Visa application alone was 5 pages, answers had to be typed in capital letters, to the girls' Visa applications I had to attach a copy of their passport, birth certificates, a copy of Aaron's and my passport and their actual passport. Not to mention $180 per person to have these processed. That was a depressing turn of events to have to pay out another $965 yesterday in Fed Ex and Visa Fees! However, God has been so good to us and has taken care of so much of the expenses. At some point, I will delineate the money we have received! Right now things are tight because most agencies that award grants want to send it to a 3rd party, like your agency, or home study agency. So we will be reimbursed at some point from our agency.
All of our paperwork we have been filing lately must be coming back earlier than expected because now our agency thinks we will likely travel the end of December, first of January instead of the middle of January. The sooner the better if you ask me.
However, I was thinking last night that if we were to leave, say 12/30, I have 28 days to prepare. Minus about 8-10 12 hr shifts I have signed up to work, the time is getting short.
Our agency is predicting the week of 12/14 we will find out when we travel. So that is very, very soon! Can't wait to meet Maleah!
Our LifeSong for Orphans $4000 matching grant only had about $1500 in it, and they will match up to $4000. Well, we received another grant I applied for this summer. The agency asked who I would like the money sent to (other than directly to us of course) and I mentioned that we still had a matching grant available and was there any way that they could send that $1500 to LifeSong and turn it into $3000. They said they were happy to! So sometime this week, we will have $3000 in our matching grant. Still $1000 to go to meet the full match, but I am content with what we have, and I can't complain at all.
So this month will probably be a flurry of activity. A little overwhelming. Pray for us and for our trip!
