Saturday, March 7, 2009

Women's Day Eve...  

Greetings all!


We are in Brovary (a small suburb northeast of Kiev). We're taking some rest and relaxation here this week while we wait for our 10-day waiting period to pass. We have had a very unstructured day today. We’ve had one meal, lots of talking, watched several Agatha Christie Poirot videos. We all three love those and have enjoyed seeing them. (Imagine finding someone in Ukraine who loves Agatha Christie stories as much as we do!) It’s now just after 7:00 p.m. here. We’re just sitting here talking about how great God is and sharing experiences with Him. It’s been such a good day. We haven’t been out today either. It’s foggy (like can’t see across the street foggy) and very damp and cold. Can you believe it’s damp and cold? :-)

So yesterday was such a wonderful day. It still seems like a dream that that part of the journey is over and the boys belong to us. They are Malones. I can’t express what God has done and how grateful we are for what He has allowed us to be a part of. It was just a very special day that I will never forget. It will be on the same list as the births of our other 5 children. I wish there were words.

We left Novograd by taxi at about 5:40 p.m. last night with the Loux’s. When they taxi came to pick us up, the Loux’s had already packed all their stuff they were taking with them in the trunk (they were packed to head to USA so they needed to take several things with them). We came out the door and Victor (the driver) got this strange look on his face and looked at our duffel bag (okay…it’s a big duffel bag), then he looked at the trunk and back and forth. It was quite comical. Then Tracie opened her door and got out and said “Oh my…” I wish I had a picture of the look on her face. It was so funny (to me at least). So we got it all in the trunk except my backpack and John’s guitar. We just held that stuff and we survived. It took us about 4 hours to get to Brovary. Guess how much it cost by taxi? A little under $100. We tipped him an additional 100 hrivna ($8 dollars) and you’d have thought we had given him a bar of gold. Since he spoke Russian, we didn’t really converse much with him on the trip. But Jamie had a wonderful dinner of pot roast, potatoes, carrots, bread, salad (we actually had vegetables!!!), brownies and carrot cake. Oh my…the smells when we opened the front door. We nearly melted to the floor.

We had a great time eating dinner together and not to mention the dinner was wonderful. But…we didn’t start eating until 10:00 p.m. Yikes! We finished dinner a little after 11:00 p.m. Victor stayed to eat with us before heading back to Novograd. We had a great time hearing about him and then he asked to know about us. So we told him about the Malones and the Loux’s. He seemed astonished and confused that we were here doing what we are doing. He said he was glad and that he “agreed” with it. In other words, he was thankful. He was genuinely interested in our lives as we were his. He said he hoped to see us again when we come back to Novograd and asked us to call him as he would be pleased to drive us. I should mention that his rides in town cost only 8 hrivna (that’s $1 per ride). Ummm…how do they survive? I’ll never know. We always tip the drivers.

After dinner, John & Tracie tried to sleep a bit and the Malones and Jamie cleaned up downstairs and watched a movie. We wanted to stay up and see them off at 3:00am. We went to bed right after they left. I read for about an hour (ugh) because by the time I got upstairs I was wide awake. Then, of course I woke up at the normal time (actually a little later at 7:30 a.m.). Since I couldn’t go back to sleep I got into the Word and read for a while then read some in a book I’m reading. It was cold so I snuggled under the blankets next to the lovely Mrs. Malone and enjoyed reading in the dead quiet. The ladies stirred about 10:30 and the slow, relaxing day started!

We are planning to go to New Life Church in the morning. We went there 3 weeks ago and really loved it and experienced God. We’ll stay in town tomorrow with Jamie. I’ll be taking them out to lunch for “women’s day” and we’ll do some shopping. I hope to go to the apple store and see about a card for my Mac to connect to the internet. If it’s CHEAP!! :-) Maybe it’ll be on CLEARANCE!! :-)

We are so glad that the Loux’s got to go home for the 10 day wait. They’ve been away from home for over 5 weeks already and they really wanted to get home to see the kids so we were glad they got to go. It was hard to say goodbye to them though. We’re planning on seeing them again when they return and we should be on about the same time schedule to go home. They should be getting home in about 8 more hours. Ouch. What a trip!

We’ve made so many connections with people in the last 3 weeks. I can’t wait to see how God continues to cultivate those relationships and what He will do in the future through those relationships. Andre & Tanya, Valentine, George, Sergey, Natalia, the workers at the orphanages, Alla, Valentina, Ludmilla, Victor, Vova, Marina, Vida…and more. Praise God for how He brings people together and then continues to connect the dots.

We hope to go to bed at a regular time tonight. Regular for me is 9:00… That’s only an hour from now so maybe not that, but hopefully close!

Tomorrow is Women’s Day. It’s to celebrate all women. It’s a national holiday and is a BIG DEAL. It’s kind of like our Thanksgiving as far as national importance goes. It should be interesting. I’ll report tomorrow if I survive the ground swell of estrogen.

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1 comments: to “ Women's Day Eve...

  • orphans4me
    March 7, 2009 at 11:41 PM  

    God bless you guys! I am so glad that court really happened after hearing about the jurors. Congrats on your new sons. I hope you have some relaxing days and that your paperwork after the wait goes smoothly. I can't imagine taking care of 20 kids.
    Joy