What a month!

It's been crazy lately to say the least! Shortly after Thanksgiving
we received travel dates to go to Kazakhstan to begin the adoption of
a little girl. We are scurrying around right now trying to get
everything ready to bring our little baby home.

Since our adoption process is taking so long and paperwork
requirements are steadily changing we've had to re-do a lot of our
dossier. We had to get 10 more documents re-done and each one had
to be notarized, authenticated and apostille... just that alone cost
me $58 let alone all the mileage put on my car to follow-up on
everything. We've had to get a second visa for each of us because
our travel dates came later than expected.... that's another $250.
We are supposed to order new $100 bills to take with us on our
journey. Our bank was going to have to charge us $110 just to order
the money because Brinks was passing that cost on to them. And... on
top of all those unexpected costs, because we are traveling to Europe
the week after New Year's we will be joining quite a few Africans and
Europeans on their way back to their homelands.... it will be fun,
but we're told that flights are filling up quickly and because it's
the holiday season... you guessed it... tickets on those planes are
higher than anticipated as well. We may not come home with much
money in our savings account but we'll have a beautiful little girl
to love and cherish!

We're still in the process of trying to get our Christian Bookstore
(shopthenook.com) moved to the other side of town. We were told we
could probably be open for the big sales the day after Thanksgiving
but several weeks later we still aren't allowed to move in. The
construction crews are still waiting for inspections to take place
and we have to have a certificate of occupancy before we are allowed
to move in and set up.

I'm looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my family this
year... but I'm looking forward to getting on that plane to
Kazakhstan and leaving all this stress behind me!

Be Blessed!
-jenni

jhypes@treca.org