We are thrilled to be able to tell you that we recently received approval from the Immigration Department to adopt from Ukraine! We are very thankful. This came after our application was rejected twice because they couldn't get a readable set of fingerprints from Beth. (She could have a great career as a bank robber.) Finally she had to get an affidavit signed by the local police stating that she has no criminal record and that satisfied immigration. So, over the last several months we have been filling out paperwork, getting it notarized and apostilled (official government stamps.) Today we Fed-Ex'd all that paperwork off the Ukraine to be translated and submitted to the government there. We're reaching the home stretch now. Irina, our advisor from Love Cradle tells us we could receive an invitation to come to Ukraine as early as the end of May. Yikes!
On the financial front we have continued to see miracles. There were two big unexpected contributions recently. One was a large grant from a local Christian ministry. We had expected a grant from them of about $1,500 and were floored when they told us they would give us over $6,000! Then we received a gift of $1,500 from some dear friends. This is after they had already contributed to our concert fundraiser. That means we are just a few thousand dollars short of our goal at this point. We are pursuing more grants and loans to fill the gap. So, God is really making this thing happen. Thank you all so much for your prayers and gifts.
We've had a couple letters from V Every time we get one we rush across the street to our Russian neighbors to have them translate it. We were really choked up when we read his last letter. He said, "Thank you for letting me stay with you and treating me like a son." He went on to say, "Please forgive me if I did any thing wrong when I was with you."The kid knows how to get the tears flowing.
We'll keep you posted.
Love,
Beth and Bill
