Thursday and Friday the abbreviated version

Thursday morning we packed for Kiev. It was an act of faith on our part, believing that we would be given the children's passports and leave Odessa. The children kept asking our plans, our itinerary. We kept trying to tell them we had no idea, only that we had plane tickets for Tuesday the 13th.

After a lunch of crab salad (the kids favorite), we all dressed in the best we had and piled into two taxis for our 2:30 meeting at the Regional Office. We arrived early and waited with a line of Ukrainian citizens who were also requesting permission for different items related to their properties. Our translator was with us, as was another translator Aloyna. Our names were called. We were third on the list.

REGIONAL OFFICE BUILDING

Steve remained in the hall praying as Carol, the two translators and the children went into the meeting. The meeting was a total of 9 minutes. After waiting 30 minutes with no decision yet, we decided that Steve would go to the apartment with the children and meet up with a friend for supper, if Carol and the translator didn't return by then. We hoped we could get all of the documents and notaries that afternoon and leave no later than Friday lunchtime. Carol and Natalia waited a bit longer and saw that the officials had dismissed their meeting. Natalia went to speak with our contact. They were still deciding and maybe they could give us an answer by next week. Our hearts sunk. They were saying no decision. Natalia and I went outside. Natalia made several calls. She had an idea. All I can say is by 4 pm we were walking out of the passport office with 4 passports for the children. We called a taxi service to see if they had a van available to drive us to Kiev. The van could be at the apartment by 6pm.


PASSPORT OFFICE IN A BLUR!

Natalia and Carol raced to the apartment and told Steve and the kids to finishing packing and cancel dinner plans. We were leaving. Several friends came by the apartment, we ran around the corner and picked up hamburgers at McDondalds to have a rushed goodbye meal. Jenya also came by to say goodbye.


GOODBYE MEAL OF MICKY D'S


As we pulled out of the city, the kids waved goodbye to Odessa.


GOODBYE ODESSA


THE VW VAN TAXI (SOME OF YOU KNOW HOW SPECIAL THIS WAS FOR CAROL!)

By midnight we were in Kiev in an apartment found by our facilitator. He would pick us up at 8 am to go for the kids medical exams and then to the Embassy for visas. We told the kids to "sleep fast".

FRIDAY

The medical clinic in Kiev reminded us of maybe a clinic from the 1950 in the US. It was better than in Odessa with the dog running around though. The kids exams, blood test, x-rays and a few extra immunizations were completed by 11am. They told us to return at 2:30 to pick up the final results for the Embassy. We headed for the US Embassy and began working on all the paperwork for the Visas. By noon we left to make copies, eat lunch and pick up medical reports . The Embassy said to return at 2pm.

NADYA AND THE KIDS AT THE MEDICAL CLINIC CAFE

At 2pm Carol took all 4 kids to the Embassy, while Nadya (our translator in Kiev) went with Steve to the medical clinic. We thought all was well until Carol realized there were additional forms to fill out. She frantically finished those forms while she waited for Steve to return. We knew from the woman helping us that we had to finish the paperwork today, because the Embassy would be closed Monday for a holiday. If we didn't get the visas today we would not make our Tuesday morning flight of 6:45am.

The lady behind the glass called Carol's name. "There is a problem," she said. Nadya had called. Pasha had tested positive for TB as a small child and even though his most recent test last month was negitive the head doctor would not sign off on his medical release until he had a chest x-ray. They were told clinic only does x-rays on Monday. (never mind they had done one of Lyonya earlier in the day) Nayda talked with several people and finally convinced them to do the x-ray today.

Now 3:30, Steve and Nadya took a taxi to the Embassy. Steve got out and stayed to do his portion of the paperwork while Nadya took Pasha back to the clinic for the x-ray and hopefully a clean report. We began to pray.

Steve was interviewed for his portion of the process as the clock ticked. We asked what was closing time. They said 5:30, but they quit process at 5:00 to allow time to print things out. However, the gentleman handling our case was leaving early that day at 4:30. He arranged for another agent to handle our case. We prayed as the clock ticked. Nadya called. Pasha had a clean bill of health, but the were stuck in a traffic jam.

Pasha came running into the Embassy at 4:56 pm. We walked out of the Embassy with visas at 5:25 pm. That was a day! The Lord is never late.

So thankful we obeyed and left Odessa Thursday night. If we had waited until Friday to go to Kiev, we would have never made it.

In Kiev

Not sure where to begin. How do you share so many miracles? It will take us a few days to put even some of it down but we wanted to let you all know that we are coming home. All 6 of us. We are scheduled to fly out of Kiev at 6:45 am Monday morning and arrive in Columbia, SC at 8:45 pm Monday night.

Through many miracles, we received the visas at close of business today. We hope to have details posted tomorrow.

Thank you so much to everyone for your prayers and encouraging emails.

Praising Him,
Steve and Carol

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord let the Earth Hear His Voice

Thursday Aug 13, 2009
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.

On our way...

Open arms waiting at home....
August 10, 2009
This past week has been busy and hectic as we raced to get ready to go. The Father has performed miracle after miracle to get us here and here we are on the plane to Kiev. We prayed for and were given a peaceful morning before leaving home. Matthew and JD drove us to the airport and watched as we made our way thru security. Carol's purse needed searching and as they pulled out book after book ….Carol finally asked, “Did I leave my pocket knife in there?” Yep...that cute little mother's day present from Steve with her name engraved on it had fallen to the corner of her bag. Thankfully we were in West Columbia and security enjoyed the moment to tease a little and then gave the knife to our sons.

In Charlotte we met a great young couple who are connected with Morningstar. They are songwriters with an incredible destiny. We had a great time sharing and praying and as the Lord would have it their seats were directly behind ours for our 8 hour flight to Munich.

This past week in some ways was a blur. Monday we learned that we needed to be there in 10 days for our appointment. Monday was just literally falling on our face and crying out that we needed His strength in our weakness and lack. He gave us Isaiah 60: 22b I am the Lord; in it's time I will do this swiftly.
Tuesday started with lists and thoughts of packing and cleaning and final thoughts about the kid's rooms. Carol met Tanya for lunch. She is another lady from our area that will be taking this journey in the very near future. They had planned the lunch before we found out we were leaving. It seemed important to make all the connections we could.
Then there's clothes and lists and lists. Mama (Grandma) was getting more anxious by the day. We had it all planned for her someone to bring a meal at least every evening, Carol's sister Sheryl to come once each week to check..... In the end it was decided for Sarah to stay with her each day. We are all more at ease.

Wednesday was another of the same and by time for church we were exhausted and discouraged. Still needing thousands and thousands....most of the pastors were out of town for a conference this week so there wasn't even a chance to request prayer that evening. Carol got into the car crying, not upset with the body at all, just desperate for Jesus. Isn't that always where we find him? We pulled the car over before we'd even left the parking lot and prayed until His peace settled. We knew money or not, nothing mattered but jumping in the river and being obedient. We would watch God send us to Ukraine. It was His doing and would be His glory.

Within 15 minutes the phone rang and a dear friend was sending money. We could go.
The Lord had told Steve the money would appear in our account one day, and Thursday that is just what happened. Carol's brother called later and shared that at that moment on Wednesday night at 7:15 pm CST in Colorado that a group there were praying for us and the Holy Spirit fell on them and he knew God had provided.

Thursday, Ann (our close friend) came and ran around town like crazy with us. The bank, the drug store, the grocery store, the department store, gathering all the little and big things. Mama gave us money for mattresses for the bunk beds.

Friday morning we were trying to finalize accommodations for Kiev. As only God could orchestrate things, our Ukrainian tutor here in Columbia is in Kiev (hasn't been home in 3 years) this week. Her home church has two apartments for rent for travelers for just a token compared to the prices of the hotels/apartments we found. We were just saying we hated to call her cell phone with the price of roaming charges for her when our phone rang. It was Luda. She asked if we wanted the apartment. Yes! God's Amazing.

And as if life isn't wonderful enough, Saturday, our son Matthew asked his girlfriend Becky to be his wife. She said yes!!! Hooray! We are so excited. Maybe a November wedding. After a day trip to the mountains they arrived home to a gathering of family and friends and a fireworks display. (Thanks Daniel)


Sunday was a sweet time of worship and as we left the service friends hugged and wished us blessings. At the door we received a sweet hug from Pastor Steven. He has no idea that Carol had prayed for that connection Wednesday night.

We received an email that afternoon from House of Hope USA. They have a ministry to the orphans that age out of the orphanage. It's hopeful that we may connect with them in Odessa while we are there.

The afternoon was spent with phone calls and family. We finished packing at 2 am ready for today. Ready to go get the kids. We were especially blessed that Steven and Cameron, our dear friends, had made it home from Montana and over to see us before we left for the airport. God is so good.

View from our room: more pictures today...