Yes, We Are Expecting

It's been a busy week. We sent out our latest newsletter by e-mail and the USPS. We mailed some more requests for support. We finally dispatched our visa applications. Somehow, we forgot to post about our most exciting development - we're expecting!

Since this has raised as many questions as it has congratulations, here are some of the FAQs & Answers:

When are you due?

Baby B's ETA is November 16, 2013. 

Do you know what you're having?

Not yet, but we'll find out sometime in June. Yes, we'll tell you the gender. We need to know how to pack!

What will you name him/her?

We have no idea at this point. We might not know until November. We both take names pretty seriously, so this is something we'll be mulling over for quite some time. We probably won't reveal the name until the birth. 

How are you feeling? 
Phil's great; Christiana's green. There is no such thing as "morning sickness" around here - nausea lasts all day, and frequently through the night. Some days are better than others; some foods help and others don't. We're hopeful this will pass as we end the first trimester, but if it doesn't, we'll roll with it.

What will this do to your plans to move to Prague?

Right now, not a thing. If all continues to go well, Baby B will be born there after we arrive.

As we've researched maternity & child care in Prague, we really like what we're learning. The Czech Republic has some of the best birth statistics in the world (even stronger than the US.) One of our future colleagues at CISP had her first child in Prague, and she's been incredibly helpful as we've been making plans. We've already made connections with a doctor there (who speaks English!) and we're prayerful that we'll be able to register in our maternity hospital of choice.

What will this do to your plans for ministry?
Phil will still teach English & Bible at CISP; Christiana will continue to serve RCE (though she obviously won't be traveling this fall) as staff care & recruitment coordinator. Naturally we will have to adjust our schedules/levels of involvement once we have a baby, but we'll take those as they come. 

Does this mean you'll have to increase your budget?
Our estimates were made with the hopes of starting a family. We didn't know if we'd be adding Brandes by birth or through adoption, but we knew we wanted our home to include children.

Are your parents/families excited?
OH.MY.WORD, that's the understatement of the year! It's hard to gauge who had the better reaction, Christiana's mom, or Phil's dad. Baby B will be the first grandchild/niece-or-nephew on both sides, so yes, everyone is very excited.

What do you need most?

PRAYER! Please pray for health & safety for Christiana & Baby B. Pray for us to have wisdom as we continue to make plans as a family. Pray that we'll be able to register in our maternity hospital of choice. Pray for us to have patience as we deal with (more!) document demands. 

We appreciate all of the encouraging notes, e-mails, phone calls & texts we've been receiving. Thank you for sharing in our joy!

Support Springs from the Heart

Christiana's Corner: I've had a rough day, work wise.
That's not something I say very often these days - most of the time, I love my roles in staff care, development & recruitment. Yet every once in awhile, I have an unfortunate phone call that just leaves me feeling drained, wounded, and totally ineffective. Today I had to deal with an irate sponsor.

(Before I go any further, I just want to clarify that this was not one of OUR sponsors - this was a call I had to field on someone's behalf.)

I will not go into great detail, but the crux of the call was that the couple was unhappy with the direction in which the sponsored staff  was headed with service. Although they were asking me to give explanations & justifications, they didn't really want to hear them. It was irrelevant that this worker has the full backing & support of the agency. They had already made up their minds about what they were going to do:  they couldn't control the actions of their sponsored staff member, so they were just going to stop giving.

Sadly, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Ordinarily I'd dust off the phone & go on, but today's encounter has continued to weigh heavily on my heart. (Perhaps it's the pregnancy hormones?) I ache not only for this particular individual who will lose this support, I'm hurting for the sponsors, who are so misguided & angry.

Since writing is the way I often reclaim my calm, I decided to channel today into something which might eventually be of use to someone, rather than allow it to continue to eat at me. Here, in no particular order, are some things I'd like to ask all supporters of missionaries- no matter who you are or who you support- to please hold in mind:

• You have been *asked* to give. Asked is the key word - you are never obligated to support anyone, even if we're relatives. We love you anyway.
• The size of your gift is secondary to the sincerity with which you give it. Those of us who've been on the field for many, many years know that the $5 per month donations sent with love & heartfelt prayers are every bit as precious as the $100 checks.
• Pray carefully about your decision to give before you fill out a commitment card. We will count every card toward our monthly/annual budget. If you're sending in a card just to be "nice", but have no intention of really giving those gifts, it's that much harder for us to stay on budget.
• It's okay to change your mind!  We understand that circumstances can change, but please communicate these changes with us. 
• Unless you've been called to the exact same culture/country/circumstance, please don't assume to know what we're going through. Please remember that every worker is unique, and that there's not always a "perfect" answer to the problem.
• Choose to sponsor us because we're called by God for a purpose. Although it may be attractive to support a particular project or cause, remember that plans sometimes change, and not of our own decision. We might not get to build the bridge we intended; it won't stop us from working just as hard to dig a well somewhere else.
• If you're concerned or confused about how we're doing, please connect with US! If you can't talk by phone, e-mail or send a letter. Don't call up the home office and demand a full report, because the person on the phone isn't the one on the field.
• Please give out of love. If you're giving to try to gain control of something, you're giving for the wrong reason. 
• Your support springs from your heart, not your wallet or your trust fund. If there's a day when you resent writing that support check, that's the day you should stop giving. 

My heart is still sore from the earlier event of today, but it's not nearly so heavy. Thank you for allowing me to share some of my thoughts here.

And They're OFF!

Three months, multiple agencies, and 32 pages later - we're FINALLY submitting our visa applications! They were dispatched not 20 minutes ago, to the Czech Embassy via Express Mail.

32 pages, 4 pictures, 2 passports and 2 payments

Here's an itemized list (per person) of everything that was just stuffed (and we do mean STUFFED) into the envelopes:

5 pages of visa application
4 pages of bank documents (+ translation into Czech)
2 pages of Russian background checks (+ translation into Czech)
1 letter of invitation from CISP (thankfully, already in Czech!)
1 letter verifying place of residence
1 notarized affidavit for the Czech Embassy
1 letter of employment verification from RCE
1 passport
1 copy of passport data page
2 visa pictures (thank you, Walgreens, for having the technology to format pictures according to European standards!)
1 money order for $127 dollars to cover the application fee
(not pictured, the return envelopes which also had to be sent with the documentation)

Please continue to pray for us as these documents go forward. The embassy claims that it can take anywhere from 90-120 days for them to process our applications. Pray that we might somehow gain favor and speedy processing time, allowing us to have our visas no later than the first of August.

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back...

Just when we think we're ready to submit our applications for long-term visas in the Czech Republic, we hit another speed bump.

First, we hit roadblock after roadblock in trying to obtain our background checks from Russia. When those finally arrived, we realized we had to get them translated. Additional delay of 7 days.

We needed four very important documents from the school in Prague, verifying our purpose of stay and our residency. When the envelope was delivered, we discovered we'd been sent another couple's papers. The other couple  had ours. We contacted each other & arranged a trade. Additional delay of 5 days.

Once we had the correct papers in our names, we were informed they had not been completed. The school had inadvertently omitted two key dates of some sort. The papers must be redone, and resent. Additional delays unknown.

Today we received an envelope from the Florida Secretary of State. We assumed it contained the much-awaited apostille on our marriage license. Nope. Even though we had called (TWICE) to verify the procedure, the office refused to apostille the papers because we were not married in the state of Florida. (Any WHY did it take them two full weeks to return our documents with this news???)
We must contact the Secretary of State of North Carolina. Additional delays of up to two weeks for the apostille, with a potential 7 additional days for translation.

We know we've been called to serve at CISP. We see God providing blessing after blessing, and we continue to receive confirmations that we are to arrive in Prague by August 15, the date the school requested us to be there. Please continue to pray with us as we press forward with our visa applications!

We Have Background Checks!

Our Russian background checks have finally arrived!! We received four pieces of paper - two in Russian, two in English - stating that the Russian Ministry of the Interior has no criminal record on either of us. (We weren't expecting they would, but it's nice to have it in writing.)

Now we have to send these documents to be translated into Czech. We would love it if it could be done overnight, but in all probability it could take a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, we're still waiting on several other documents which must be submitted along with our visa application. They are all in various stages (and locations) of completion.

We are so thankful to everyone who's been praying with us through this process. Please continue to stand with us as we track down the remaining paperwork!

On the Up Side

Today is April 15th. Everyone refers to it as "tax day", but for us, it was the target date to have all of our documents & visa applications on their way to the Czech embassy.

-We still haven't received our background checks from Russia.

-We don't have the apostilled copy of our marriage license.

-The letters from the bank don't have the words "ATM" or "wire transfer" anywhere in the documentation, so we must have them redone.

Obviously, we won't be putting our applications in the mail today. It's disappointing, but it doesn't deter us from pushing forward in our efforts to return to the field.

On the up side, our support is slowly but steadily increasing. We're blessed by every pledge, every donation. At last tally, we're now at 43%.

Only 57% still to go.

The Deal with the Documents

Most of you probably know that we've spent a good portion of the last 6 weeks trying to chase down some background checks from Russia. Many of you have no idea why we need them, but you've been praying for this process anyway, and we really appreciate that.

The good news is that we're one step closer to getting the documents we need from Russia! The bad news is that we've got about 15 more steps to go before we can even APPLY for our Czech visas. Please don't stop praying for us as we work through this process.

While we're used to dealing with foreign visas, registrations, permits, etc., we've never encountered anything quite like this, and it's going to take a bit more time and a great deal more money than what we anticipated. Since we will be in Prague for longer than 6 months, we're required to complete a longer, more detailed visa application. When we submit these applications with our passports, we must also produce:

• Background checks from every country in which we've lived for more than 6 months within the last three years (hence the Russian document dilemma) 
• Apostilled copies of our marriage license 
• A notarized letter from our bank, stating that we will be able to access our funds via ATM or wire transfer while living in Prague
• A recent bank statement, showing a minimum balance of $3,500 (This requires some creative budgeting & banking...)
• A copy of a major credit card accepted in the EU (numbers may be blacked out) proving that we have a line of credit
• A letter from our employer (RCE, in this case) stating that we have a legitimate purpose to serve in the Czech Republic
• Letters from the school in Prague, verifying that we have been asked to come and serve for the next term
• A rental agreement from a landlord in Prague, proving that we have a place to live

The fun doesn't end there. :) Any document that is not originally in Czech must be sent to a translator. Each translation must then be notarized. (The low estimate for these steps is $45 per page.)

We had hoped to be able to submit all of our paperwork to the Czech Embassy by the 15th of April (because Czech visas can take up to 4 months to process, and we need to be in Prague by the 15th of August.) As of today, we have ZERO documents completed and ready to send. They are all in various stages of readiness.

If you're looking at all of this, shaking your head and asking yourself, "Why do they bother?", well, we feel called to serve at the Christian International School of Prague. We believe this is the direction in which God is leading us to go. No one every said it would be easy. This is just a part of "counting the cost" and preparing to go.