“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”

James 1:27

Our cell phone number in Ukraine is: +38 097 828 9477. We are 8 hours ahead of Texas time. We can receive text but cannot send them. You can also reach us by email at joniredding@hotmail.com.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Passports, Police Clearance, and Fantasy Football

I was so excited because I got an email last week that said my passport had been processed and was in the mail.  We should receive it on the 28th.  I was excited to see they were here when we got back from our trip.  Mine was here which was so fast -  only 2 weeks!  Unfortunately they need Jody to send in a “long form” birth certificate.  I’ve never even heard of that.  You have to mail an application to the place where he was born or you have to go to Austin to get one.  The lady at the Comal County Courthouse told Jody he should be prepared to wait because it takes forever.  Ugh.  Jody is not very good at waiting so it will be good practice for him.  I hope he will get a chance to go sometime this week.  We did receive our police clearance last week which was also fast.  We are waiting on our Home Study to be completed and then we can mail in our application and documents to USCIS.  We need their approval to send our dossier to Ukraine.  From what I have read, it usually takes 1 to 2 months to get the approval from USCIS. 

I mentioned last week that Jody was playing in the Super Bowl for his fantasy football league.  The winner got $500.  Well, the good news is that Jody won.  The part that surprised me is that we only got $235 out of that $500.  He had to pay his entry fees $100 to 2 different leagues and also you have to pay fees for different transactions like trades or whatever you do.  He didn’t mention to me that if he didn’t win, we would have owed $265!!!   What????  Ok, that’s all I’ll say about that because I get mad every time I start thinking about it.

This week I am planning to continue researching financing for the adoption.  I wonder what Dave Ramsey says about getting a loan for an adoption?  His philosophy is to save the money and then make a purchase when you can afford it.  We do that everywhere else, but for this we just can’t wait.  We could save it over the next couple of years but that is that much more time our daughter will spend in an orphanage – ALONE.  We don’t have any debt except for our house and the extra loan we had to get to finish the house.  But, we don’t have savings either.  We just know that God is telling us to do this, even if it means getting a loan for it.  So far, God has provided for all of the costs.  He has provided it just in time too.  We have had a few donations and then the monogramming money too.  The day we went to be fingerprinted and have our doctor appointment, we spent $90.  While we were on our way home from the Dr. we got an email saying that we had just received a donation of $100.  Wow, His timing is awesome!  We have several big expenses coming up in the next couple of weeks and I am just trusting that He is going to work it out.