The issue is that we can't get it there by Friday, as it takes almost a week for FedEx to get it to Russia from here and we don't even have the form yet, not to mention notarizing it and apostilling it (that takes a day in and of itself). So, most likely we won't be able to count on the January 23rd court date and we have to change our flights ($250 per flight change) before Tuesday (our original date to fly to Russia) but we don't know when to schedule them in January - if it will be January at all. And we don't want to have to pay $250 per ticket AGAIN. Frustrating. Plus this may affect our visas, as they are single entry and expire on March 10th - more on why that may be a problem further in this post.
I do not doubt our decision to buy the visas and plane tickets. We were asked to do so by God and we did it. I do not know the reason, but I can think of many examples in the scriptures of people asked by God to do things that didn't make sense to them. We do not always understand things, but I want to be faithful in all things. A favorite quote that I came up with is this: "A test of faith requires a test." And this is a test, but my faith is strong. We will make it through this.
Today I was shown this link which talks about the 10 day waiting period becoming a 30 day waiting period. If we go mid February and have to wait for 30 days, we will be in country longer than March 10th, hence messing up our visas and requiring new ones (more $). So we would most likely go to the court date, fly home and then fly back - but our visas are single entry, so we would have to get another one. Ugh.
Since we were planning to leave on Tuesday, we had called Santa Claus and asked him to come last night. We decided to keep our appointment with him so last night was technically Christmas Eve for our little family and this morning we opened presents and have had such a great day. I think we needed a little Christmas to raise our spirits. So, Merry Christmas from Tyler, Jill, Anna, Keith, & Iryna!
