Paper work DONE!......NOT!
Wow....I really do NOT like paper work. We faxed 47 pages of documents to Maria (the lady helping us with the adoption papers) so that she could check on how things were looking. We did this 2 Saturdays ago and were hoping to have everything completed by now. Everything looked pretty good until they were emailed to Dima, in Ukraine, to look over. Dima had some documents that were similar to Maria's that he wanted me to use instead. Also, the Prime Minister of Ukraine had just made some recent changes in the Medical documents and some other documents. So ,now, late Wednesday night, I finially have another new stack of documents. At least half our stack as to be redone. The Homestudy has to have changes which always seems to take forever.
Tomorrow I hope to get as much done as possible so that the documents can be notarized and re-sent. As soon as the dossier is completed, we will send it all to Dima to be checked. Bill and I will then take it to Austin and then Dima will translate it and send it to the SDA (adoption) office in Ukraine.
Oh, and did I mention the SDA office is not issuing court dates right now? This happens off and on there all the time. Once they open again, they will catch up on who ever filed their paperwork first and then it will be our turn. One thing I remember from friends who have adopted in the past is that December and January are full of holidays and thier government offices are closed a lot during these months. They have New Years before Christmas. If I remember right, Christmas is January 6th. So, we may not even be able to get a date until late January or Febuary.
All this to say, I have NO idea when we will be in Ukraine. I was so hoping to already be there. God's timing is perfect. God's will is perfect. Waiting on Him is hard and waiting to bring "Luke" home is hard as well. I thank God that we are moving forward and I thank Him that He continues to show us that He is taking care of "Luke". We continue to pray for Luke's protection and safety as he is out of the orphanage and in 'college', living in a dorm with no supervision. Please pray for protection for Luke mentally, spiritually, and physically. Our God is able and He is capable of doing more than we can ever hope or imagine.
Before I close, I have a huge thank you and praise! Our church, which is only 2 years old, gave Bill and me a HUGE check on Sunday to help out with the adoption expenses. What a surprise and what a blessing! Our church is such a picture of what Jesus teaches The Church to be. They teach us to live each day missionarily and to follow God by taking huge risks, aligned with great obedience, followed by great perseverance. We continue to walk in this truth; the gift that our church gave to us is a picture of a blessing that God showed us to continue to persevere.