The Flores Journey

Hey friends! If you haven't heard the news yet, we are expecting our second child! We discovered this wonderful news on April 29th and are so happy to be welcoming another member to our family. At first we weren't sure how this pregnancy would affect our journey... but after much prayer, deliberation and wise council, we have decided that we will be having this baby without the help of insurance in South Africa. (Our Global Health Insurance won't cover maternity until May 2011) Thankfully, a pregnancy and delivery are actually much less expensive in South Africa than here in the U.S. We are looking at a grand total of between 2,000-5,000 including pre-natal care and hospitalization. We are praising God for this added blessing and the fact that He has made a way for us to have this child overseas. We actually heard of a woman who lives in the states but chose to fly to S.A. to have her baby because she preferred the care offered there!!!

Well, we are "down to the wire" as far as our leave date! Only 12 days until we are supposed to be leaving! Please pray for us because our visa applications are lost in the mail... and have been lost since April 22nd. The last "touch" that shows up on our tracking number was on May 5th in Chicago. We have called multiple postal services and everyone we've talked to seems to simply give us excuse after excuse to get us off the phone. We've been told that we would know for sure on Monday... then Wednesday... then Friday... and so on. But we've run out of time to wait. We called the South African Consulate in Chicago (whose addressing mistake caused the package to be lost) and they are very apologetic and have promised to rush our visa application when it finally does get found. The head of the consulate also has promised us she will be calling the USPS daily until we find this package.

WE DESPERATELY NEED YOUR PRAYERS. We need a miracle right now to be able to move forward. Without those visas, we cannot leave on May 30th. Please pray for us, because in that application are our birth certificates, passports, checks and marriage license. We need this package to be located THIS WEEK or else we won't have enough time for the consulate to process the application and return the envelope to us. PLEASE KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS.

We know that God is in control. We are trusting Him that this will all work out!

Be Blessed,

The Flores Family