Day 13 - One of Those Days

Hi everyone,

It's about midnight here in Ukraine.  There is not much to blog about today because we didn't do very much accept eat and wash clothes.  But, just to let you all know how it's going...

First of all, just a quick note to let everyone know that I have cleaned out all of the old posts on the blog.  I have saved them (along with your comments) in a MS Word file for posterity's sake. As I was reading through them, I was overcome with humble appreciation for all the prayer, support and interest you all have shown in how things are going with the adoption process.  Your kindness is encouraging us more than you can know. 

We didn't wake up until about 9:45 a.m. today.  I guess the fatigue of the last three days caught up to us.  We had cereal for breakfast and lounged around in pj's until guilt got the best of us around 1:00 p.m. or so.  We got dressed and walked down to McDonald's for lunch and then visited the grocery store to exchange some American money for Ukrainian currency.  We went on a little shopping spree at the grocery store and decided to try and fry something for dinner.  I mean, we are from the South so going without fried food for this long begins to take an effect on one's ability to run fast, think fast and walk up the highest mountain on three planets.  We chose chicken mcnugget looking things to fry.  Technically, these are pre-fried but I don't know if I can convince Angelia to let me try and fry some raw meat.  I think she secretely believes the plant that manufactures the chicken mcnugget looking things sanitized them at some point.  Picking out oil was a little bit of a chore because you never know if something has had some seasoning added to it.  We went with a bottle that had a picture of a sunflower on it - for sunflower oil. 

We did have an opportunity to hang out with the kids this afternoon.  I spent some time playing outside with them.  It started raining and we just stayed outside anyway.  One thing that was worth mention is that when it started raining, I kind of headed for an awning over the door.  The kids came under with me but they were smiling and sticking their hands out in the water.  I just sensed that they were appreciative of the rain and that they wanted to just play in it so out we went.  We just played in the rain for about 45 minutes.  We kicked ball, threw a frisbee and then just started splashing each other with water puddles, etc.  We got soaked but we had great fun.  Once again, a lady that lives in an apartment upstairs came to the window and just sat smiling as she watched us all play.  It's great to see other people smile, especially children!

Playing in the rain with Vicka and Tolya

My good friend Dima (who lives here in Kiev) called today and we are going to try and attend worship services at his church tomorrow morning.  We are excited to attend his church again.  We both miss worshiping the Lord with a body of believers.  We will have to track down a taxi and give them the address so hopefully this will work out.

After getting a bath, I settled in to cook dinner.  The frying pan is becoming so important to me that I am considering giving it a name.  I actually pet... er... polished on it and talked to it a little before putting it in the dish rack.  :-).  The sliced up potatoes, or "home fries", along with the chicken mcnugget things were pretty good so we can add one more meal to our repitoire.  We are now have spaghetti, fried potatoes, fried eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken mcnugget things on our menu so things are shaping up pretty good.  But still, I would sorely like to have a basket of warm chips, some queso and some fajita chiken quesidillas from Habanero's about now.  Vicka was looking through some pictures from her time in America the other day and came across some pictures of us eating ribs at Dreamland and she said "Yum, Yum, Yum".  A slab with some 'nanna puddin' would be pretty good right now too... okay... subject change :-)

Once again, our bible study time today occurred at night.  Tonight, Angelia and I read Psalm 47 as praise & worship.  The Psalm begins by telling us to "clap our hands" and "Shout to God with great joy".  It goes on to tell us many times to "sing praises" to God.  Psalm 47 goes on to affirm that "God is King over all the earth" ,that "God reigns over all the nations", that "God sits on His holy throne" and that "God is highly exalted".   I have so much to be thankful for and full of joy about.  Joy is the theme of a Christ centered life.  With Christ, your salvation is secure, you have power over sin and darkness, you have freedom to live a life dedicated to loving and serving others.  As it is written, "with God, all things are possible".  How can that not bring joy to a believer?  How I wish that I and all other believers would allow joy to permeate our actions and our demeanor.  Scripture tells us that Christ expect that our "joy will be complete".  Now that I reflect on the day, I think that I saw a glimpse of the kind of joy that scripture talks about when I saw the children react to the rain.  As the rain fell, they lifted up their hands, closed their eyes and smiled as the water poured down and then they began to dance and play.  I think all of us could take a lesson from them on how to react when the rains come.  My prayer tonight is that my joy will be complete in Christ, my Savior, and that I will put more effort to singing His praises with songs of great joy!

Goodnight from Kiev, Ukraine!