Hey all,

We got up about 6:30. I got a hot bath, read the Word for about an hour (I'm reading through the Psalms, a salve for my soul, Proverbs, and continuing my trek through Kings. I finished Samuel before I left). We had omelets with ham (sorry Ken) and cheese and toast (even though they think it's bad for our digestion...yes, I'm serious). You can eat bread, even dry, crusty, old bread...but call it toast and it messes up your digestion. :o)

Since I'm suddenly on the subject of "old wives tales"...we had heard that Ukrainians believe that if a female sits on the cold pavement, then they will become sterile. Well, on Wednesday we had to sign a whole bunch of papers and George met us on the street (since we were out shopping for shoes for the boys and hats), I sat on a marble wall and signed. Then I got up so Mary could sit down. George said, "Maybe I'll just hold. It's dangerous for a woman to sit down in the cold." I turned away and bit my lips...I wanted to BUST OUT LAUGHING (but somehow, that would seem rude). I wonder what things I believe that have no basis in fact. I've been trying to figure some out. I do still find myself thinking that if my hair is wet and I go out in the cold, that I will catch a cold. I KNOW this not to be true, but still it sometimes changes my behavior. How often do false beliefs about God cause me to act in ways that make Him just sigh and shake His head?? Belief rules the day. God, teach me more about You today than I have ever known.

We're off to Romaniv this morning. We will go by ourselves (with our driver Valentine, of course). We need to deliver the sopeonas to Alla, the Inspector and to the Assistant Director at the institution. We haven't been to see Micah since Tuesday, so we're glad to see him and we are glad for a break in the monotony. :-)

Some things no one told us...

• How bad it would hurt to leave our kids at home for 6 weeks. We knew it would be hard, but we were SO EXCITED to come and meet the boys and bring them home that we didn't consider how it would feel to leave. The day we left I felt like I was going to a funeral, not a celebration. We are VERY homesick and we've been here only 13 days.
• How hard it is to play with the kids in the small room with only a couple of toys.  It’s kind of like trying to play with your child in the waiting room of a doctor’s office.  :-)  We love seeing them and spending time with them…but it will be so much EASIER at home!! 
• The deep feeling of connection that we would have almost immediately.  As though they were our own, by birth.  Wow.  It must be how God thinks of me.  Double WOW!
• How much I would appreciate the inspectors, directors, and care givers.  It’s not that expected to hate them or anything, but once you get here and see them and experience their life (only an hour at a time), there is a deep appreciation for what they do.  They are limited in resources, one-on-one time with the kids, maybe even know-how, but the really care about these kids.  It’s so easy to place the blame for the situation of kids on them…since they are the only ones we know…the parents, after all, are nowhere to be found.  God, bless these dear ones who are taking care of your children.  Heap blessings on them that will overflow onto the precious children in their care.
• How LONG the days are.  :-)  We are thankful that we get to break our days up by visiting Romaniv and seeing Micah!

We are back from Romaniv…can you guess where we are now?  Palermo!  The pizzeria!  :-)

We had a very sweet time with Micah.  When he came running down the hall to the room where we were waiting, he just lit up and said “mama”, “papa”.  He wanted me to get out the computer and start “Miss Patty Cake” and wanted mama to get out the banana that he was just sure we had brought.  Which of course we had!

So we watched Miss Patty Cake, ate a banana, played ball, spit, wiped the spit off the window, spit, wiped the spit off the computer, spit, wiped the spit off our clothes…  did I mention that Micah has some sort of salivary problem where the saliva builds up and then he doesn’t want it in his mouth anymore.  So he either spits it out, or wipes it with a kleenex.  I suspect that they don’t chase him around and hand him kleenexs all day so he has gotten used to just spitting it out.  Ugh.

Today, we did the time out thing.  I would say no, sit him down and turn off Miss Patty Cake.  (only for 15-20 seconds).  Would you believe that by the time we left today (after only an hour) he was just letting the saliva go into his hand (not spitting) and then would wait for us to give him a kleenex to wipe it with?  Wow…that’s progress!

Here’s some pics from today, but don’t forget to keep reading at the bottom for some VERY EXCITING NEWS!

Waiting patiently for the banana and Miss Patty Cake.  (really…he WAS patient…amazing)

“Papa…what have I told you about that camera!!!?”

Here comes banana.  He said banana today.  It was kind of nananana.  He wasn’t sure how many nana’s there was supposed to be.  So cute!!

Oh…joy.  Pure joy.

He LOVES Miss Patty Cake.  He clapped and played along today.  He said “BUBBLE” today every time the bubbles came on the screen.  So smart!

Loves his mama.

This pics are from last nights’ visit with Matthew.  I didn’t post last night.  I was tired and in a bit of a weird funk…so here they are today.

This is Parker.

This is Parker and Matthew.  Matthew loves Parker.  He listens and rocks himself and giggles.  Not once each visit, not twice, but dozens of times.  He must have some pretty fabulous abs!

He got out Mary’s water bottle last night.  He didn’t know it was for drinking.  He sloshed it and just laughed and laughed.  He really enjoyed himself.  I was glad for a little variety in our visit!  He also played with a kleenex package.  He liked the crinkle of it.

He also looked through the water bottle.  You know that makes a cool magnifying glass.  He was very amused and curious.  He’s a very smart kid (especially for someone with very deep mental delay…**he said oozing with sarcasim**)

“Et tu, Matthew?”  When he’s tired of the camera, this is what I get.  He just turns around.  These boys have a conspiracy against my camera!!

And now back to today…

On our way to see Micah, we stopped by the Inspector’s office to deliver the “invitation” to court.  Alla wasn’t in the office so one of her assistants asked if we could sit down and wait.  Of course we did.  I warned Mary that they might offer us coffee and she would just have to choke it down (that would have been interesting).  They offered us coffee OR tea…so, phew…safe.  I had coffee, Mary tea and they passed around the box of chocolates.  We had one with our beverage.  It was mighty fine.  The assistant studied English in school so we chatted about some surface stuff (family, pets, weather, children).  It was hard for her.  But she speaks FAR BETTER English than we do Ukrainian or Russian.  :-)

We were in a bit of a hurry to get to Micah because Valentine (our driver) had to get back to Novograd to go to the dentist.  So they retrieved her from her meeting when she saw me looking at my watch.  She REALLY wanted to see us, we were told.  These ladies have been SO AMAZING!  This was the place that we were told we might not get permission.  Then that it might be months before we got it.  Then that they would let us have him, but we would have to have court there and it might be months, then when they realized that it really might be months, they said to please move the court to Novograd so we could complete it quickly.  Bless them.  They have thanked us repeatedly.  Today, the assistant said that God would “remunerate” us for what we were doing.  Her way of saying that God would bless us because we were adopting Micah.

Alla came in and was all smiles.  She said she wanted to thank us again for what we were doing and that we would always be in their hearts and they would never forget us.  She presented us with this gift…

They took this picture the day we met Micah (Misha) and had it framed.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  It took my breath away.  We have gotten many gifts from many kind people in Ukraine over the years, but this will remain our most cherished.  They said they wanted us to never forget them and always think of them when we saw this.  No worries, ladies.  You will FOREVER be in our hearts too.  What amazing people.

AMAZING NEWS COMING UP IN A MOMENT…

Mary at Palermo…  yep…this is what we do…  :-)

Okay…here’s the news…
We were told that we would have court next Friday (that’s 7 days from today!!) IF our papers were approved by SDA in time.  Well guess what?  Our facilitator called us from Kiev at about 12:45 today and said that our papers were good and the SDA was satisfied with them and were approved.  WOW!!!  Praise God!!  We have seen His hand, experienced His power and been blessed way beyond measure!!!  We Bless Your Name God!!!  We would Bless Your Name regardless…  We love You.  We adore You.  We worship You.

Blessings to all.  Grace and Peace.

Till tonight.  :-)