Holiday Weekend in Simferopol

We have had WI-FI issues at this apartment, many other blogs wrote about this that the service is offered but  unreliable.  I'm posting this via our Ukraine MTS Android phone hotspot.  Our friend Eric in Poltava had arranged phones for us and they've been critical at times. Not sure how people did this without them!

We've had 2 setbacks but are not discouraged, only a little disappointment.  The 2nd one seemed more certain, but we come away less impacted than the first time.  God's plans are perfect and He alone knows the future of all of us. Our faith and past experiences with God tell us that all will be for the best in the end of this. We have one more referral left here, and must travel back to Kiev to petition for an appointment, have the appointment, and then receive our referral to go visit the child - Pat wrote about Oleg who was mentioned by the official in Kiev at our last referral appointment, if we needed a third one.  She'll be delighted when we ask her to visit him!   We may be in Kiev over a week.

Monday is Constitution Day in Ukraine (ours is Sept 17 in the US) and as a holiday we'll wait for Tuesday.  Our Crimea facilitator has been busy as another family from Louisville KY is here to adopt a child they met previously.  They had 8 of their own, and are adopting their 2nd - this will make 10 for them!  On Monday we will have an excursion somewhere with them. No details of yet, this being Sunday morning here.


 The local Crimea facilitator has been very helpful to us.  Both ours from Kiev and her here are wonderful to work with, they have real passion for seeing kids adopted from Ukraine.  Our facilitator needed to go back to Kiev to help a Kentucky mission team come down to Simferopol.  She'll do 3 overnight train trips in 6 days!

Everyone we've met with and worked with here - aside from the school director in Kremenchuk has been so helpful!

Now for some pictures!:

The Crimean is also known for its vineyards, the climate is a bit like that of California with its seaside and mountain ranges nearby. 

Mountain roads, the speeds are in Kph here. 

The seacoast near the summer camp.  Ukrainian families as well as  Crimean orphans spend the summers here. 

Scene nearing the sea

Queen Catherine's Head, (Catherine the Great, a German who ruled Russia and Ukraine,  2nd queen of Ukraine. 

Approaching the coast requires a passage through a low mountain range. 

Black Sea boardwalk

Front side of an old Russian Oven, the restaurant was firing it up for a lamb roast later on. 

A Russian Oven with  "Ivan the Fool" from the Leo Tolstoy short story.  A famous tale in Russia and Ukraine