Friday, April 29, 2005

APRIL 29 2005 - Travel visas

Our travel plans have been made. Thank you God for sending such generosity our way from our incredible friends. Words cannot describe our gratitude for God's provision of enough SkyMiles for our entire trip to and from Kazakhstan with our boys!!

Now we have some funny math to pray for: we have to go through the Kaz consulate in NY to get our travel visas. We did that today, via FedEx. They say that visas normally take 2-5 days. Well, the consulate will receive our applications on Monday. Our flight leaves on Thursday. Please pray that God will put our visa applications in the hands of a very conscientious and expedient person in the Kazakhstan Consulate in NY, and that we will receive the return FedEx package before Thursday at noon, when we leave for the airport.

Back to packing, shopping, packing, planning....

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

APRIL 27 2005 - The Letter of Invitation has arrived!!!

We just got the call from our adoption agency, and our letter of invitation has finally arrived! We have to be in Kazakhstan on May 9th, the day after Mother's day, and the day before my birthday. We've just found out, so there are many more details to come in the FedEx package that will arrive at our home tomorrow.

Please pray for God to handle all the details of our travel: visas, passports, tickets, travel safety...and please pray that God would begin to prepare Dub & Jack's hearts to meet us.

God's time, not ours, and God's time is now!!

Update - got the FedEx package. All is in order. Europe is PACKED for the summer, so it was very hard to get seats through Europe both ways. We're sure our return tickets will change, but we leave next Thursday May 5th!

Now, it's crunch time. Much to do: visas, money, packing, last minute preparations, etc.

Please pray that God will take care of ALL the details!

Friday, April 15, 2005

APRIL 15 2005 - God's time, not ours

Apparently there is quite the backlog at the Kazakhstan Ministry of Education. A couple we know of is over there now and had to wait almost 2 weeks to get exit visas for their newly adopted kids. That should have taken a couple of days.

So, we're still waiting for "the letter".

This is a lesson for all of us about setting expectations. Originally, many months ago, we were told that when we got to this stage, getting the Letter of Invitation would take 7-10 days. When the time actually came, we were notified that it would take "up to a month". We'll, it's been nine weeks.

I don't think the socialist government of Kazakhstan is up to speed on the old customer service mantra, "under promise, and over deliver."

That's ok. The weather over there keeps getting better and better. God has His reasons for His timing. God mentions the word "grumble" 8 times:

Exodus 16:7
Numbers 14:27
Numbers 14:36
Numbers 16:11
Matthew 20:11
John 6:41
1 Corinthians 10:10
James 5:9

None of these references has "grumbling" in any sort of positive light, especially the 1 Corinthians passage. So, we are not going to grumble, but rather continue to pray that God would feed, love, protect, grow, love, nourish, and prepare our boys to meet us, whenever He decides we should go.