As if this entire process hasn't been hard enough! We've been in LOTS of contact with our pal Jennifer over at Little Angel Adoptions. She makes all the magic happen. :-) We've been completely assured that sticking with Katerina and working through this chaos is the right thing to do. Our lawyers aren't concerned about her situation- she's simply a young homeless woman who's a foreigner to this country & needs our help. Nothing shady about it. (Whew!)
So, we've decided (after getting lots of counsel from Little Angel Adoptions) that moving her & her son out here is the best thing to do for everyone involved. We're hoping to do so in the next week or two! Jennifer was able to reach Katerina & the crisis pregnancy center she's working with to get all the information we need. Zach has also spoken to Katerina twice today (yay!). We've paid to have minutes added to her cell phone so we should no longer have communication issues (wahoo!). We've also put her up in a hotel for the next week while we work on finding her housing here in California. This way we know she & her son are off the streets. She couldn't stay at a shelter w/out going through social services (a 3 week process), so this was the best way to help her for the time being.
PLEASE PRAY that God will provide housing for her here in California! Jennifer has already started making phone calls for us & there just aren't many places without a long waiting list or that accept mothers with children over 3 months old. We have a list of places we've been given through church or other resources and we're praying something works out soon. We'd really like to avoid having her stay with friends or someone from church- we'd like to keep firm boundaries as far as how connected she is to us. Our task tonight & the rest of this week to call around to any place we can and work out housing for Katerina, as well as take a hard look at our financial situation and work out a good plan. Once she's out here we'll be paying for most of her basic needs until the baby is born, plus our finalization fees once the adoption is official. Lots to work through!
The last few days have been pretty stressful for Zach & me both. We know the Lord is going to work everything out just as He's done so far, but we simply have a lot on our plates right now. Please pray we can continue to have a calm & peace about the situation and that we will continue to rely on God & our marriage to get through this. We know it will all be worth it & that 4 months will pass QUICKLY!! Before we know it we'll have a precious son or daughter. =)
