Successful!!

Yesterday we heard that our dossier was successfully filed with the SDA in Kiev! It has been taking the SDA 2-3 weeks to review files and accept them -or not, or request additional paperwork. Once our dossier has been approved we will receive notice of that approval along with an invitation to travel. We are praying it takes no longer than 3 weeks--2 weeks or sooner would be great!

Please be praying with us! We will keep you posted as soon as we hear something!

In the meantime we are finishing up some adoption training our agency requires us to take. We have been learning so much from this training and are even more convinced of God's call to adopt. I will share more thoughts on this later.

We have also been looking over our adoption budget and made the realization that we need $25,000. We have raised just at $10,000 in funds, leaving us with the $25,000 balance. This doesn't include the slue of medical bills we will have once we get Rance home. Ugh. This has been and most definitely still is a major stress for us. So this week will find us finishing up 2 loan applications specifically for adoptions and also looking into a home equity loan. So please be praying for us to make wise decisions in regards to this.

And, if you haven't given yet and would like to help us bring Rance home, you can still send in your check to Lifesong for Orphans no later than November 5! Just please follow the directions below.

1.    1. Please make checks payable to: Lifesong for Orphans. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “preference Richards  # 1448  Adoption” on the memo line of your check. (*Note:  In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization.  This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.) 

2.    

2     2. Mail checks to:

Lifesong for Orphans

PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St

Gridley, IL  61744

Filing Day!!

Today was our filing day, October 28th!

Although its a huge deal, it feels wierd not to actually hear anything. It could take up to 20 days for them to review our paperwork and decide on a travel date. We are most definitely praying it doesn't take them the entire 20 days!

In the meantime, we continue with our fundraising, we still need $18,000, which is more than overwhelming but we continue to trust that God will provide. We are still waiting to hear from one grant organization, we are still selling raffle tickets for two baskets, and my family is fixing to sell key chains. We are also hoping to get more donations through our Lifesong Account, see a post below to find out how you give! Just make sure you get our name and account number with your donation!

** When we receive our travel date we will have to pay the rest of our agency fee, $6,500 as well as the $12,000 Ukranian Program fee, as well as be able to pay for our travel costs. This is stressful in the least! So please continue to pray for us to have patience as we wait for God to provide in his perfect timing.

**Please continue to pray that our papers will be accepted before 20 days and we will receive an expedited travel date!

Dossier!

After a lot of stress and hard work, one trip to Jefferson City and one downtown for apostilles, and we finished our dossier!

Our dossier (all the legal paperwork we stressed over the past few weeks!) began its journey to Ukraine last Wednesday, October 13! When our dossier arrives in Ukraine, it will be translated, notarized and submitted to Ukrainian State Department for Adoption and Protection of Rights of the Child (SDAPRC), the only legal Ukrainian authority for adoptions (under the Minister for Family, Youth and Sports) on Thursday, October 28th!! It will be checked for completeness within a period of five to ten working days. If any mistakes are found, the dossiers will be returned.

**Please pray no mistakes are found! Maria, our social worker with our adoption agency says our dossier was perfect, so we are praying the SDA agrees!!

If the dossier conforms to all requirements, an application will be approved and we will receive a confirmation of registration along with an appointment letter from the SDAPRC. We will then receive an invitation to visit the SDAPRC on a specific appointment date. On our behalf, Yuri, our facilitator in Ukraine, will be requesting the earliest travel date available. This could be as early as 7-10 days from the approval of our dossier to a month later. Although we are requesting an expedited travel date, that doesn't mean the SDA will comply.

**Please pray that the SDA will accept our request for an expedited travel date and join us in praying we will be in Ukraine by November 15th!

Trivia Night in Review

Our trivia night on October 1 was a huge success! We had 14 tables of 8 people and the 8 raffle baskets were a hit! We had contest for the best dressed tables, and it was a hard decision to choose the top two! It was so fun to see each team's creativity! We played 10 rounds, with each round containing 10 questions. I think people had a lot of fun and I sure was impressed with their trivia knowledge!

We asked people to write a note to Rance for me to put in his "baby book." It could be a prayer, a Scripture, advice, anything. We want Rance to know how many people were a part of bringing him home. As we read the notes Matt and I were both brought to tears. What a powerful testimony this will be to Rance of the love surrounding him! If you would like to write him a note, it is not to late! I would prefer handwritten, but will accept typed as well!

Fundraising Update:
We have been so blessed by the generosity of others. We raised about $4,000 when it was all said and done from the trivia night alone! Put that with the donations sent into Lifesong so far, and we have raised a grand total of just over $8,000!!

The adoption as a whole will cost us $30,000-$35,000 so we obviously still have some work to do, but we are so thankful for how God has begun to provide! We can't wait to see how God continues to move in the hearts of others to help us bring Rance home! We are still waiting to hear from one of the grants we have applied for. We will also begin to look for a no interest adoption loan to help cover the costs. We will have to have all of the money paid before traveling to Ukraine, hopefully in less than a month!

It is not to late for you to help us financially. You can still send in donations to Lifesong for Orphans with the information given below, you can donate online through Lifesong as directed below, or you can donate directly to us (no tax deduction letter this way) and we will put it in our adoption account.

To Donate to Lifesong via Check:

1. Please make checks payable to: Lifesong for Orphans. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “preference Richards # 1448 Adoption” on the memo line of your check. (*Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.)

2. Mail checks to:

Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St
Gridley, IL 61744

To Donate to Lifesong Online:
Follow the link below, click on donate and make sure you put "Richards #1448 Adoption" for the purpose! http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html

If you would like to donate to us directly, you can email me for our address!