Things to think about, numbers to crunch

So right now I am patiently (not patiently actually) waiting for the UPS man (or woman) to bring me my freshly apostilled Dossier.

It SHOULD be here today.  We will Fed Ex it tomorrow to 'Claire's' country - once it is there we will wait for it to be acepted - we have been told this is typically a few days and court dates are assigned just a few weeks out.  There of course are all kinds of new things going on in her country and we don't know if that will speed up or delay our process. 

So we are (theoretically) getting very close *yay*

Right now we are just trying to get ducks in a row.  We are fairly confident we are fully funded - but need a couple things to work out.

First - Tax Credits for adoptions are being given out manually (bummer) - which means the several thousand dollars we anticipated going into our 'adoption fund' has NOT made it in yet - as we near travel dates we are very nervous it won't be there in time for our first trip - it isn't like travel won't happen - but we will feel MUCH better having that money (that we already calculated for) sitting there waiting.

Second - please continue to pray for stability in her country - specifically pertaining to adoptions and those of us in the middle of this transition - we know that this change is in the best interest of children who wait - we are PRAYING it does not delay us any longer and also that it will not require paperwork to be redone or more paperwork to be done - new paperwork is not budgeted for - and we have already waited so long.

Third - please pray that when we do travel that we are able to move FAST - when we went to adopt Silas everything was planned out - we knew exactly how long we were to be in the country.  In this case, it is not so cut & dry - we have two trips - they could each be a week - they could each be 3+ weeks - for MANY reasons we are hoping for the shortest trips possible - if the trips are shorter we hopefully get in and out before June 12th - also - every day we spend in country costs money (apartment, food, translator - it is NOT a fancy trip, but it is expensive), every day we are in country we are missing work - Harry has one week worth of paid vacation - anything more than that is protected, but unpaid.  And of course we have two kids at home - we will miss them terribly and we will be relying on friends and family to care for them while we are gone - we know that everyone involved will be very happy if this can just be a short trip!

Quick praises

- Harry has had quite a bit of freelance work the last month - this is a tremendous blessing - this has helped us stay on track financially and if it keeps up we will hopefully have money saved to make up for that time off at the beginning of the trip (not something we will have to borrow from an emergency fund or CC).

- My little stay at home mommy hobby is really starting to turn into a 'job' - I'm not spending much extra time on it - but I am starting to make a little money.  We pray that it continues to grow - every ad we sell and every commission check goes into our adoption fund (this was always the plan -but it didn't really come to consistent fruition until this last month or so) - we are hoping this will also help fill in the gaps while Harry is not working as much.  Last week we got three commission checks and several emails about advertising (only one new advertiser actually signed on the dotted line so far - but we are hopeful!) - All in all - we are only talking a few hundred dollars - but it was very encouraging to have money to deposit into the adoption account - those of you who dont know about my blog you can check it out at http://sandiegodealsandsteals.com/ (just so you know what I am talking about =)) We are hoping this is just the little extra bonus our family needs to get us through debt free without extra weight on Harry's shoulders - we also hope it will help supplement his income once we have another member of the family and ultimately be an avenue to make more money to donate to help future RR families - anyway - please pray the momentum continues!

Thanks for caring & thanks for your prayers!