Our Trip to Russia - Part Two

As you all should know, we have had many fundraisers since we began the process to adopt Leanna way back in January. From yard sales to puzzle pieces (which are still available for sponsoring, by the way) to yard sales to jars to fill with change and back to yard sales. When we got the news that we were to be in St. Petersburg in a mere 10 days, we went into a bit of panic mode…for just a day. Our first order of business was to apply for our Visas. It just so happened that that week the Russian Consolate had a two-day holiday, which meant they wouldn’t even LOOK at our Visa applications until the following Monday…and we needed them back by Thursday. Which meant that instead of applying for 8-day processing which would have cost $400 for both, we had to apply for 3-day processing…which cost $1,100 for both. Great. Then, of course, we had to arrange our flights. At that time we were looking at around $2,400 for both tickets. Some friends of ours had offered us their buddy passes…which would’ve reduced the cost to about $940 for both tickets. But it also meant we would fly standby. It was a tough decision. We only had so much money in our adoption fund. Do we go the cheaper route and hope we make it there in time for our meeting with the Social Committee? Or do we bite the bullet and pay full price for guaranteed seats? I did what any woman would do. I called a good friend for advice. She agreed it was a tough call. Then I told her that Jon had almost enough Skymiles for one ticket. We were a mere 2,000 miles short. My friend said, “My sister travels all the time. Let me call her and see if she’ll transfer some miles to you.” To make a long story short, after a round of emails my friend’s sister (who I met one time many years ago) had transferred enough miles to us for BOTH tickets. We paid the transfer fee and after all was said and done, we paid $715 for TWO round trip tickets to St. Petersburg.

But wait…the story gets better.

At the end of the week we paid our translator for her WONDERFUL services. Oksana is amazing…we both grew to love her over the week. After we paid her, we realized that we weren’t going to have enough money to pay our driver the next day. We knew when we left that it was going to be close...how much we had in our adoption fund versus how much we would need for the trip. We were short for a few reasons, but we really thought that since this was how much we had, then we would not need any more for the trip. We both figured that God knew how much money we had in our fund and He wouldn't let our need surpass that. Well...it didn't happen that way. We were short. About $400 short. We didn’t really have a choice, so we visited the ATM that night. There’s always the credit card, right? Although I don’t believe it’s God’s plan for us to go into debt to adopt Leanna. It seems like if He has called us to this, then He will also provide everything we need…right? But here we were…$400 short.

Meanwhile, back here in Georgia a few of our friends had been inspired to hold a yard sale and give the proceeds to our adoption fund. That is rather an amazing story in itself. They didn’t plan on having the yard sale for a few more weeks. But it just so happened that everything was ready, so the yard sale happened last Saturday. The very day we handed over $400 that we didn’t really have. Well, I guess it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened. Their yard sale raised over $400. $458 to be exact. Isn’t that awesome?!

But wait…the story gets EVEN BETTER!

Jon just finished working on our budget and getting everything input and separating everything we spent last week between adoption related and personal spending. Guess how much we have left in our adoption fund after receiving the check for $458? About $57. And guess how much we need right now to get a bit more paperwork done that Oksana told us about…$58. Once again, we have just what we need!! WOO HOO!!

I hope you will join us today in giving thanks to God…on Thanksgiving Day…how appropriate. He has provided our every need throughout this process. And I’m not just talking about financial need. I know He will continue to provide. He has increased our faith over and over. We have over $16,000 due in January and expect to take our second trip at the end of January or early February. I have no idea where all this money will come from. But I am waiting expectantly and eagerly for Him to show me.