This has been a big week for us.
We got our immigration approval in the mail Wed from USCIS. I have mailed everything else off to apostille, but since this was the last piece to our dossier I decided to drive it several hours to get it done in one day. Every day I could shave off sending it to Eastern Europe is a day we are shaving off waiting for our travel date, which wasn't the case with the other paperwork we sent, so it was well worth getting up at 5 to make the drive. Richmond is a little crazy at 9am and I'm sure I stood out like a sore thumb driving in circles trying to find a parking spot. I finally parked at a McDonalds and took a long walk to my destination. I expected to drop it off and pick it up by 3:30, based on the website, so I was very pleasantly surprised when the lady told me to have a seat. Not 5 minutes later she handed it back and I was out the door! Phew! I hit the UPS office and sent that baby out to a family traveling over on Tuesday. Our facilitation team should have it in hand Wed, and as soon as it's translated, we SHOULD be ready for submission, (hopefully in a week and a half or so) unless they require last years tax returns. There's a good chance they will not. (praying!)
Submission means we have met all the requirements set forth by Tavin's country to travel and view his file and puts us in rotation for travel dates. Average length of time from submission to travel is 8 weeks but it could be less.
When we finished the BBQ fundraiser last weekend, we only had $2000 left to raise. We planned to hold another one, and I also had some beautiful prints that were designed by a local design artist to sell, which we sold at the fundraiser as well. I was planning to sell them online too when we neared our goal to get us over the edge. I had pictured in my mind struggling with the last bit as we neared travel...because I have lots of faith like that. As we entered the week though, a beautiful thing started to happen. Our friend Brian wrote about Tavin on his blog, which was picked up by a couple of his friends as well, and our donations started to climb....a friend who had hosted a Norwex fundraiser received her comissions and donated. And suddenly we were only $1000 away!! What?!?! Then $900...$800...$600...Thursday as I drove back from Richmond I thought "I really need to go ahead and post those prints to sell"...but throughout the day as I was completely exhausted, our Family Sponsorship Fund continued to climb...friends shared on facebook with their friends, and as I fell into bed at 9pm (yes I said 9 - don't judge), I received a message from a friend pledging the final needed to reach $21,000! I went to bed full of emotion, gratitude, and just downright awe of how God has provided.
So now here we are, fully funded, done with paperwork...waiting....I'm secretly (ok maybe not so secretly) hoping that the funds came in early because we will travel early....of course all families wish for that though. There's plenty to focus on in the mean time to get the house ready, rearrange rooms, de-junk and just in general knock out things that we haven't had time to get to. Hopefully the next weeks will hurry by so we can meet our son SOON.
My prayer now is for His perfect timing...if that's in 6 weeks, or 10 weeks, He knows when we need to be there. The waiting is certainly the hardest
part. It's weird to not have any control now over the timing. When we
were pushing through paperwork, there was stress in knowing we were in
control of the timeline to some extent, but also nice to know we could
push forward to move it forward. Now it's completely out of our hands,
which gives us an opportunity to rest in the Lord and trust His perfect
timing.
Also a warning: if you see me out somewhere and hug me, I might cry....as my sweet friend in Target found out yesterday. I can't help it and it doesn't take much...let's call it adoption hormones. :)
Thank you a thousand times over for all the love and support, emotional and financial that you have given. Your prayers are so appreciated!
~Chrystal
