We awoke this morning to the sound of hymns being sung outside our room as the men of the church were having a prayer meeting. We recognized the song even if we didn't understand the language. Worship is worship everywhere.
We had a breakfast of fruit and bread and prepared to go to our appointment at the State Department of Adoption. Our facilitator picked us up and things went much faster than we expected. We were approved for a referral to visit both of the orphanages where the children are located.
We left knowing we needed to return later in the day to pick up the paper work. Since the papers would be ready we decided to travel that evening by train to Odessa in hopes of seeing Lyonya on his birthday Friday. We returned to the church to pack and get ready to leave.
In an effort to be brave we decided to venture out alone and walk to the cafeteria that our tutor Lyudmyla had taken us to the previous day. We were so proud, we made it there without getting run over. We even went back for supper! Traffic is interesting to say the least. Like Chicago without stoplights! Really. No stoplights. Maybe some in the other areas but not in this part of town. Steve had heard that there are two types of pedestrians, the quick and the dead.Our goal was to be quick.
We couldn't pronounce the names of the food we wanted but managed to point and ask please. The food at the cafeteria was amazing. Wish we could share.
We picked up our referrals, said goodbyes to the church people and caught an evening train to Odessa. We had a very nice train, must be newer, not what we were told to expect. We left at 10 pm and arrived about 6 am the next morning.
We traveled with our interpreter and went straight to a friend's apartment. She is graciously allowing us to stay here at least a short while. I know once we have the children we will have to do something else. Her roommate, Lena, greeted us. She is such a blessing. She's young (22) and her heart is to serve Jesus above all else. We look forward to getting to know her better.
August 14
We slept a few hours and headed to the camp hoping to see Lyonya before our 2 pm appointment with the inspector. Apparently we need to see the inspector, then the two local directors, then the director of the orphanage where we will see the children.
At the Camp we waited to see the children as we were told they had gone on an outing that morning and would return by lunch. We would have to leave by noon though to make it downtown by our 2pm appointment. In the end the children could not be found even by their friends. Their friends think they went to see their grandmother for Lyonya's birthday. We left them a note saying, “Steve & Carol came from the US to see you. We will return tomorrow.” After an intense taxi ride to the inspector's office we waited quite a while and then were told it would be best to return on Monday morning at 10 am. So the official meeting will hopefully take place on Monday. We will try to go to the camp tomorrow and visit the children again. We will keep you posted.
There is much that just has to be left in the hands of the Father. He has provided in amazing ways and has given us many divine appointments in our meetings with people.
DIVINE APPOINMENTS
Gaby, the young lady from the airport in Charlotte, told us that the Lord told her that we would have many divine appointments in our time here in Ukraine. We have already had several. The most memorable is Esther. (Carol brought her “Esther: Beth Moore” workbook from the ladies bible study at church last fall. Thinking this would be a good time to go thru that again.) Wednesday morning after a shower we tried using our hairdryer. Yes, we used a convertor,but still POW! We weren't sure if we just cut off the power in our room or in the whole church. It took a while but we finally communicated in broken Russian what had happened. We learned where the panel box was and never had another problem with the hairdryer. However a few minutes after returning to our room there was a knock on our door. It was Esther. She is a single mom who struggles to make ends meet. She works at the church cleaning. She had received some paper work in English that she was unfamiliar with and could not read. We were able to translate it for her and help her fill it out. They were standard papers that Carol sees at work every day. If we had not been able to help her with them she would have had to pay some one to translate them. She came again later in the day and talked with us while our tutor Lyudmyla was visiting. She is a precious sister and had been praying that the Lord would send someone to help her. She cried as she shared how touched she was by how He cares for her in sending us to help her. She prayed for us and walked with us to the subway until our paths took different directions. We hope to see her again when we return to Kiev.
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