Time Off Work

One of the issues with international adoption is travel time.  It requires you to be gone for long periods of time and therefore time off work.  This was a factor we had to face while preparing for Russia and now for Uganda.  Chad and I spent a total of six weeks in Russia.  At that point in his career he had four weeks of paid time off.  On top of these 4 weeks he also had 6 weeks of FLMA.  I like to think of Family Medical Leave Act as a type of mens maternity leave. The benefit of FLMA is that your job must let you off work for an adoption the same way they would for having a biological baby.  The downside to this is with most companies this time is unpaid.
While preparing to bring our Nolen home this was something that was a worry for us.  Not only would Chad not be getting paid for part of our Russia trip but we would be hemorrhaging money at the same time.  We choose to deal with this by prayer.  God answered that prayer in a huge way.  At this time Chad's company was celebrating their 40th anniversary.  As part of the celebration they announced that they were going to give away 1 week of PTO to 40 employees.  There were different things you could do to increase your chances of winning one of these weeks.  For example, if you donated items to charity you got an extra entry into the drawing.  During this year I made it my mission to do as much as possible to increase Chad's chances of winning this extra week.  All of the work paid off because his name was drawn.  About two months before we went to Russia his company announced the winners and he was one of them.  What an answer to prayer.
Right now I am praying for God to help me with this request again.  I am not aware of any free weeks of vacation floating around Chad's company but my God is powerful.  We are told to be prepared to be in Uganda for four to six weeks.  I believe Chad has four weeks of vacation saved up for this trip.  My prayer is for God to help us with this need or to shorten our trip (wouldn't that be nice).  Please add this to your prayer request this week.

When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:3