1/31/2008 12:45 Kiev

A little update on our mental whereabouts:

We have definitely not been expecting the things that have gone on, but we ARE ok with them. We are hopeful for Sasha and her orphanage that this may have been the catalyst for change that was needed there and we may be able to build a healthy relationship with her director in the near future.

Today we were able to meet Joy and Sheila :) Both are in Kiev and adopting children with Down syndrome! Sheila and Randy was leaving for the train station tonight to go to the Odessa region to Ismail (sp?) to meet her two girls. Joy and Kevin are staying in Kiev because their new son, Sasha is in the Vorzel orphanage just a short drive from here. It was wonderful to meet them both and we hope to get together with Joy and Kevin again during our (hopefully) short stay in Kiev.

I know I've said it before, but it has made such a difference to us that we are able to stay with a WONDERFUL Christian family that have a beautiful and comfortable home. Today we even got brave and they explained to us how to ride the Metro!

We are enjoying our stay now and are excited as we look forward to what God has for our family.

Michelle has also been tremendously helpful both as emotional support (hey, she was awake at 4am her time when I was writing her messages!) and also with getting contact info for some people that work with the orphanage. All in all this is not the way we would have chosen it to be but it is definitely going to prove beneficial not just to Sasha and to our family, but also future families and children that will one day come to that institution. We are glad to have been a tool for that.

And... as many people say that they lose track of days when out of the country... I have to admit that ALL DAY today I thought it was Thursday. I don't have a clue why... but I was so excited tonight to learn that I'd somewhere skipped ahead and we have another Thursday tomorrow! Maybe we will get our SDA appointment this week after all!