Support and Fund Raising Update

First we want to thank everyone for their prayers, support and financial gifts.  As many of you know, adoption is a very time consuming and expensive undertaking.  We would not enter into this without fully trusting in God to provide the support and funds needed to adopt Elena.

Our first praise report is that a wonderful home school family has offered to take care of Hannah and Micah while we are both in the Ukraine for the first two weeks.  That is a huge relief as our families share many common values and live out our lives in similar ways.  We are extremely grateful and blessed that this family is planning to sacrifice their lives to help us in this way! We are also confident it will be a great experience for both Hannah and Micah.  In an ideal world, we would prefer to take them with us; however, since this is not possible  we have His peace and rest about the loving care and nurture this family will provide. We are still working on and praying about definite help when Jay returns to work and Lauren is still in the Ukraine for the past 2 1/2 weeks.  Once we know our travel dates, we hope to finalize these plans.

God has also provided a significant portion of the matching funds for the promise686 matching grant!  Praise and thanks to the Lord!!!  Through various fund raisers and gifts from friends, we have raised a total of approximately $2,800 so far.  We still have approximately $1,200 to raise.  This represents approximately five (5) percent of the total adoption cost of $26,000.  Below is a pie chart that shows the source of funds that God has provided.

We are still seeking one or more families to help sponsor Elena's education through the Georgia Private School Tax Credit (only those that live in Georgia can help with this).  Doing this does not cost anything, but requires filling out paperwork to direct your state income tax toward the private school that Elena will be attending.  Elena  has been accepted to Veritas Classical School.  This is a hybrid school, where Elena will attend for two days a week (part of one day and one full day) and be homeschooled for the remaining three full days.  This will provide Elena with a structured environment while allowing Lauren to stay closely involved and  prioritize a focus with Elena on character, language and other transitional issues. We have His abundant peace for this change to our homeschooling routine for this upcoming extremely transitional year. 

Last, but not least, we are looking for several people who have a heart to pray faithfully while we are in the Ukraine.  We plan to send out daily prayer requests to those who are committed to prayer.  We already have someone who has offered to coordinate the prayer emails.  Please consider praying for us during this time. Notify us please if you are interested and we will put you on a list to receive daily updates for prayer and praise while in the Ukraine. Thanks again for your kind loving care!