Day 14 - Timing is Everything

Hello to all of our friends and family in the States.  We miss you all and thank you for continuing to keep up with how things are going for us.  We appreciate all of the encouragment and, most importantly, the prayers that y'all send our way. 

I didn't get to bed until about 1:00 a.m. last night and 7:30 a.m. came too early.  I admit, I was pretty grouchy when I got up.  When you add to this the fact that I had no caffeinated drinks this morning (a.k.a. "Pepsi Light") then you can imagine I was not my normal, cheerful self.  :-)  Thankfully, my wife is very patient and understanding and tolerates my occasional grouchiness.   In the midst of this grouchy moment, we had made plans to attend church services with my friend Dima.  Our plan was to grab a taxi outside the apartment, show them the address for the church which was on my cell phone, and get there by 9:45 a.m.  Well, I had to make sure this taxi thing was possible before going through getting ready, etc. and when I walked outside, there were no taxis.  Now, during the week, there would be several sitting right outside our apartment but not today.  Thankfully, when I called my friend Dima, he was willing and able to help us by calling a taxi to come pick us up.  Sometimes, we have to battle through the darkness around us to reach the light and I'm thankful that we were able to overcome challenges and attend church services.  Thankfully, I was my normal cheery self by the time we got into the taxi.  (Thanks Holy Spirit!)

The kids were able to attend church with us today.  This same church visited the orphanage where the kids live on August 7, 2010 for a three day vacation bible school type event.  Several people at the church recongnized Vicka and Tolya and vice versa.  It was nice to see people be excited to see the kids and recall their time together in early August.  God is good and He is at work in immeasurable ways.

The music worship included the song "How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin.  I love this song and enjoy singing it at our home church.  Singing it in English while everyone else was singing in Ukrainian was very uplifting.  The sermon was from the last chapter of the Gospel of John.   This chapter describes the difference between working with God's presence versus without Him.  Also, we learn that believers who meet the person of the risen Christ still have a choice to make in what we decide to do afterwards.  At the beginning of the chapter, Peter returned to doing what he did before meeting Christ (this was, fishing) and some of the other disciples just followed His example.  All of us have someone that looks up to us in some way.  It could be our children, a co-worker, a fellow believer, a friend, etc.  Considering this, do you as a believer in Christ influence others towards Him?  Or, are you indifferent to how you influence them?  Or, by your actions do you lead them away from Christ?  We see from the last portions of the chapter that Jesus sought out the disciples and their meeting with the physically resurrected Christ had an immediate impact.  As we know from the book of Acts, Peter would later continue Christ's command for Him to be a "fisher of men" and, as a single example of many, 3,000 people accepted Christ at Penetcost.  What a great worship service and message we had today.

Also during the service, we met another American family who was in Kiev finalizing the adoption of their two children.  They were from an area outside Chicago and they were hoping to head home on Thursday. 

We came back to the apartment and decided to cook us and the kids some hot dogs for lunch.  I found we were out of ketchup.  While Angelia started cooking, I make a quick ... well not so quick... trip down the highest mountain in our solar system.  I'm not losing weight but I am developing superior leg strength!  :-)  One interesting fact about our lunch today.  We bought these hot dogs because they looked similar to the ones in America.  Someone in Ukraine has learned the importance of packaging a product because when they were opened, each individual hot dog was covered in a pink, plastic film to give them the appearance of American wieners.  In reality, these suckers were white as milk.  Thankfully, the chemical reaction between the "whiteness" and the oil they were being fried in resulted in a nice, brown, crispy shell.  And, the bread we put them into is actually used to remove teeth in 3rd world countries.  None the less, the end result was a pretty tasty lunch.  I am worried that if we stop supplying the kids with "Cheesy Cheese Pringles" (for Vicka) and Ketchup (for Tolya), they might full out revolt.  I am buying every can of Pringles that I pass and when the ketchup gets to half a bag (and yes, I said bag which is how it is packaged here), the fear causes me to run down the mountain.  I don't run back up because it hurts too much!

Now, we don't watch much tv because we don't understand the channel headings and we don't want to turn to a channel that would be inappropriate for the children or us.  But, we were able to watch a movie today as a family group.  There is nothing like watching the movie "Convoy" (circa 1978) in Ukraine language.  The kids were engrossed by the action and the superior plot.  Nothing keeps your kids entertained like a bunch of renegade truck drivers trying to put it to "da man".  Unfortunately, we don't know if there was foul language being used (because of TV station being in Ukrainian) but I suspect there was.  I was glad the police prevailed so that our children know that it's best to abide by the law.

Grilled cheese sandwiches and fried taters wrapped up our evening.

As I am typing this, I must say, the washing machine in this apartment is one amazing piece of equipment.  The fact that it thouroughly cleanses our laundry during the 2.5 hour cycle pales in comparison to the ability it's spin cycles have to reach G-forces unattainable by modern aircraft.  How our clothes don't come out either ripped to shreds or completely dry is a mystery to me.  I may have to try and record the audio of this thing hitting top speed because it is surely a sight and sound to behold!  This is one bad mama-jamma!

Tomorrow, I head up to the region with our facilitator to file some documents and hopefully get a court date established.  Ang will have to fend for herself but she will be able to hang with the kids.  Please help us by praying that we will recieve a court date in the later part of this week and that our process will continue to go along at a fast pace to a successful completion.

Just one other important reflection on today.  God is working in many, many ways to create a beautiful tapestry that shows His love for His children.  As I mentioned earlier, Dima's church visited the orphanage where our children live in early August.  Today, some of the people at church saw Vicka and Tolya and were excited to know we were trying to become a family.  They really became emotional because they said they had been praying to God that He would find families for all the children at that orphanage.  To see two of those children walk into their own church a few weeks later with parents trying to adopt them was an example to them and us that God hears and answers the prayers of those that love Him.  I encourage all of you tonight to read Luke 11:1-13 and be encouraged to pray to our Father in Heaven!

Thanks for all your love, prayers and support for us as we continue the adoption process!