Visa Victory

Barring any surprises, God appears to have given us wonderful resolution to our visa woes. As I reported recently, we had decided to taken an open mind to all possible options and allow God to do the choosing for us. After a process of elimination (indeed in one case heart-wrenching for Diana), God made it quite clear that what was left was not just the best of the options, but was actually the place where He was indicating His blessing. To explain:

We had wanted to avoid the option of staying on a student visa for two reasons. First, we were very happy with the tutor we have been going to, and to give her up would not only be giving up a wonderful teacher, but also a key link for us to all things Russian. Ludmilla is always a prime source for teaching us about Russian culture, and she has a keen heart for the injustices of society that she has imparted to us.
Second was the cost. Going this route will cost a lot more than private lessons - about $10,000 for one year, plus about an extra $4000 in visa costs.

After appearing to not be possible, God eventually worked it out for Ludmilla to come under the auspices of the agency that will issue the student visas (the Swiss Center). Not only do we get to keep her, she ended up thanking us, as she will get paid a little more, get access to other students, and earn more towards a larger retirement income. Win, win, win!

A bonus came out of what also looked initially like a setback. The school run by our church that the boys go to was kicked out of its location less than two weeks before the start of classes. God provided an alternative very quickly, but this meant taking the boys much further away from home than last year. I had even bought a cool vehicle, called a Kinder Car (right) that I had started taking them to school in that cut the ride down to 20 minutes - and through a park! Now we have to sit on the Metro and take nearly an hour one way to school.

But wait! The metro where the school is now is close enough to Ludmilla that we won't even have to get back on the metro to get there. So all we have to do is drop them off (I on Tuesdays and Diana on Thursdays), go to Ludmilla for about 4 hours, then return to the school to pick up the boys on the way home. It is actually easier than going to the old location!

That leaves the money, which we did not anticipate in our budget. But trusting God for $10,000 (we expect to find another solution for next year) seems like a walk in the park compared to everything else we've had to trust Him for to this point.

If you feel led to donate towards this need, by the way, you can click here, with our deep thanks.