Sick of paperwork, Praising God for donations!!

I’m tired of paperwork.  Really tired of it.  I just want it all to be finished.  I mailed our Home Study to our agency last week so that we can be registered with the SDA.  I heard from them today saying that I didn’t send the correct Power of Attorney form that she needs in order for her to register us.  The problem is that Jody is leaving early in the morning for the entire week.  So, we had to find a notary today – on a Sunday.  Nothing was open so we started calling notaries listed on the internet.  Jody found one who would meet us in Schertz (only about 15 minutes from us) and sign it.  We were in a hurry so I grabbed the document and loaded up the kids in the car.  We stopped at Sonic and got the kids ice cream – which ended up being their dinner because they weren’t hungry when we got home.  Anyway, she notarized the paper but she made a mistake and wrote “Texas” in the space for county.  She crossed it out and wrote “Comal” and said that it would be fine.  Wrong, Ukraine doesn’t allow corrections to documents.  I found that out once I got home and scanned the form to our agency.  So, waste of time and $35.  I had a feeling it wouldn’t work but I only brought 1 copy with me.  Luckily, I emailed our social worker that did our Home Study to ask a question about it and she said that she was just getting in town from a trip to Nashville and she would stop by on her way home from the airport and notarize it for us!  Wow, isn’t she great???  She also came over early one morning a couple of weeks ago to notarize another document before Jody left town.  She didn’t even charge us.  So, that is done.  I’m going to Austin to have it apostilled and then I will mail it right after that.  When I was looking through everything I also noticed that the paper with the Doctor’s license isn’t done correctly.  The license was supposed to be copied on to the form, and THEN signed and notarized, and instead they glued it on the paper.  So, I will have to once again ask them to redo it.  My Doctor finished our Medical Forms (for the 2nd time) and I scanned them and sent them to be approved but the agency is checking with the facilitator in Ukraine to see if it’s ok that they are on 2 pages instead of 1.   I really hope they accept it like it is because I am embarrassed to ask them to do them again.   I can’t even count how many times I have called the office or texted our Dr. about these forms.  He is a friend of ours who was actually not accepting new patients several months ago when we switched to his practice.  He accepted us because we are friends and now I imagine he is regretting that!  Sorry that I am boring you with these details but reading about some others mishaps has actually helped me avoid some costly mistakes throughout this process.  So, that is where we are – very close to being finished, but completely sick of papers and forms!

Now, on a much more positive note, we have had several blessings since I last posted about money.  We have had donations ranging from $5 to $500 and they total $1030.  Praise God!  He just continues to amaze me!  We went over to visit some friends yesterday because their parents were in town and it had been a while since we had seen them.  While we were there, L (friend’s mom) brought me her Christmas card that she had been meaning to mail and it also had a check for $100 in it!  What a blessing!  It’s also a huge encouragement because with each donation or word of encouragement it feels like there is 1 more person on our team, praying for us.  The peace that I find in that is amazing.  Our garage sale is scheduled for March 12th and people have been very generous donating great things for us to sell.  We have a bounce house – that is like new because it was only used inside.  There is a really cool organ – I need to look it up because it might be worth something.  We have several bikes, strollers, car seats, clothes, just a lot of cool stuff!  There are a lot of toys too and they are like new.  A couple of friends of mine have brought them over and they are separated into bags with all of the pieces together.  I have no idea how they can do that.  Toys with pieces don’t last long in our house!  One of my friends dad is getting rid of TONS of stuff.  It was probably about 3 suburbans full of stuff.   Someone in her family was into ballroom dancing and there are the most fabulous costumes ever!  Ellie is already planning to buy a few!  Here is a funny garage sale story – my friend brought several bags of clothes over and then last week I had a message from her husband on my phone.  It seems that she had gotten rid of some of his shirts that he still wears and he needs me to look through the bags and find these 3 or 4 shirts!  I will have to check with my friend before I decide if he should get the shirts back or not.  Or maybe once I see them I will decided for myself if he should keep wearing them or not.   

Jody is going to be out of town this week so it’s going to be a little crazy.  Ryan started baseball last week and Jacob starts this week.  A couple of weeks ago I was telling a friend how nice this semester has been.  All the kids activities were on Tuesday.  Tuesday was crazy trying to get everyone where they needed to be on time but we had all of those other evenings to just be home.  Well, that was a short phase.  Starting this week, we still have our hectic Tuesdays but we  have added baseball which will be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  So, I guess I will just enjoy our Thursdays.  I am so thankful that Jody is such a great dad.  He loves taking the kids to their practices and usually coaches their teams but this week it’s just me (with some help from Granny and Grandaddy).  Pray for me because I tend to get a little grouchy by the 3rd evening that he is gone– or maybe you should pray for my kids    I’m going to be leaning on Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  During these busy weeks, my quiet time is often one of the 1st things to go but it is the thing I need most.  I’m not letting it go this week!