Comments should work for everyone now.

We've been here almost 4 weeks now, and the time seems to be going fast.  We haven't heard yet about our next appointment at the adoption center but may hear Monday.  Today is  Constitution Day in Ukraine, another national holiday.  My earlier postings indicated this as being on Monday.  Monday was actually  Orthodox Trinity Day -  Triytsya in Ukrainian.  You may equate it to the old Wht Monday that was known in some churches in years past as the Monday following Pentecost Sunday.  Western Protestants and Catholics observed Pentecost about 5 weeks ago,   I'm sorry for the confusion.  

We Americans celebrate Independence Day next week!   This year for us the 4th will be quite different indeed!  We may be on a train for Kerch or here in Kyiv. 

I found a setting that should make commenting easier.  The default setting allowed 'registered users' to the site or blog to comment.  If we start getting too many spam bot comments or others we may have to pull back.  

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragements along the way, we are not traveling this road alone! 

Day of Rest

We don't have anything we have to do today for the adoption. For me it is a much needed day of rest. We have good wifi so Darwin is working. For him, having a good connection and his laptop is a good day. Here is an entry from my journal.

Today in Jesus Calling it says; "Rest with me a while. You have journeyed up a steep and rugged path in recent days. The way ahead is shrouded in uncertainty. Neither look behind you nor before you. Instead focus your attention on me, your constant companion. Trust that I will equip you fully for whatever awaits you on your journey.....I am with you, watching over you wherever you go."
Gen 28:15
15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”
(NLTSB)
Had we known that Anya and then Yana were going to say no to adoption I am not sure if we would have come. I feel a real sense of peace about Oleg. I think God has led us to him. All we can do on this journey is keep our eyes on God and follow Him. He will continue to give us strength and rest when we need it. Today I need rest. God hasn't necessarily promised us that we will adopt a child. He has promised to guide us when we seek Him. We will continue to seek Him and follow where He leads us.

Our Day at Bakhckysarai

We had an afternoon of sightseeing with another family from Louisville KY who is in the process of adopting a 15 year old girl.  They were permitted to bring her along for the day.  We drove from Simferopol to the old city of Bakhckysarai (Gardens Palace  in Crimean Tartar).  The city is between Simferopol and Sevastopol on the Black Sea coast. 

 The Tartar's are one of 3 people groups in the Crimean.  Ethnic Russians are the largest, Ethnic Ukrainians are second, and  the Tartar's are the smallest in number but large enough to be seen.  Many small mosques are there. We walked around the palace built by the Khan's (Girey's not Ghengas),  from the 14th to 16th Centuries.  There is a fountain inside the palace which was made famous by an Alexander Pushkin poem called the Fountain of Bakhckysarai, this fountain was named the Fountain of Tears by the ruling Khan at the time after the death of one in his harem.  The pictures above are of the palace.  We did not go inside. 

We saw a Russian Orthodox monastery and church building, very ornately designed. Being it was a national holiday, many people walked through the building. Normally they enforce a stringent dress code. On this day the women still were required to wear scarves and the men to remove their hats (see 1 Corinthians 11 for the reasons).  Below the church was a large compound in the valley where the monks lived and make their livelihood, roosters could be heard in the background. 

We hiked up about a mile into the mountain and went into the Chufut-Kale (Jewish Fortress in Crimean Tartar).  During the time that the Khan's were in power the Jewish settlers lived in the cliffs in dug out caves. They were tolerated and allowed to remain.  Archaeologists disagree whether the settlement began in the 6th or 10th Century.

The hill maybe 800 feet up. 

Here we are, this is about half way up the climb. I went ahead and took the pictures of the caves and sumit. 

Entrance to the Chufut-Kale, Jewish Fortress

Some of the caves dug out by the Jews as they hid here from persecution by the Khan's. 

Roger from Kentucky trying out a bed

The table is one of the few non stone artifacts up there. 

Small School used in the 1800's, plaques dedicated to the Tsars are on one wall. 

A tomb

A cellar used by the Karaite people, now nearly gone from the earth. 

Inside the Karaite cellar. Even without windows it was 10 degrees cooler inside. 

View from half way up. 

A few scenes from the top.

Back in Kiev

After a 17 hour train ride we are back in Kiev. We boarded the train at 8 pm yesterday and discovered that there was no AC. It has been hot here. We did have a window in our compartment that should have been able go down. This was an old Soviet era train car. Darwin was able to get the window down a couple inches. The bathroom on this car was very interesting. There was an old metal toilet with a lever at the bottom for flushing, using your foot. The interesting part for me was the hole in the floor of the bathroom. You could see the ground whoshing by. Really, the trip wasn't too bad. With the window open a little we even got a little cool. We were able to sleep off and on.

When we got to Kiev we got to a taxi as soon as we could so we could go to the adoption center. Our facilitator had to submit our petition to visit Oleg in Kerch. The office would be closing at 1pm for lunch and we had 30 minutes to get there. Our taxi driver wove his way through the traffic in Kiev. I told him I needed him to give me driving lessons! We made it with a couple minutes to spare!

Our hope is that we can have the appointment at the adoption center next Tuesday and go to Kerch, by train again, Wednesday night. For now we are in Kiev and are looking forward to a couple days rest.

We had a great day sightseeing the day before we left Simferopol. Darwin will post pictures. It was very interesting and beautiful.

We appreciate each of you that are following our adventures. Please keep praying, especially for the time when we meet with Oleg. Thanks!

All in a Day

Good morning! It is 8 am here, 1 am Florida time. I've been awake longer than I would like. It is amazing to me that the sun comes up at 4:30 am and most people have very sheer drapes on the windows. Yesterday we stayed around our apartment. It was a good day of rest after the busy day before. We took a walk to the grocery store so I could make soup for dinner. I make soup fairly often at home. It is interesting choosing spices here. I looked for one that had a picture of a chicken on the packet. It is hard to figure out what spices I am getting since I can't read Russian.

The apartment we are in has a clothes washer, though very small. No one has dryers. The landlord has clothes lines rigged up outside the balcony window. It was so strange for me to try to put the clothes on that line with my short arms. I was afraid that I would drop the clean clothes from our forth story window. It all worked out OK though.

The kitchen at the apartment is very small and has a very small fridge. There is a freezer, so I have ice cubes. I even let Darwin have some! The top shelf of the fridge freezes stuff. Salads are not good frozen!

Out hot water heater is a kalunka. It is a gas powered tankless water heater. It works great! When you turn on the hot water you hear the clicking and then the pilot lights. Sometimes it doesn't light right away. When it does I say "the kalunk is kalunking!"

Today we are going sightseeing. Tomorrow we get on the slow train to Kiev. It will take 17 hours to get there, in unairconditioned comfort! Thank God for battery operated fans.

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

Here We Go Again!

We just got back from visiting Yana. We took her to lunch over looking the Black Sea. It is beautiful. The beach there is rocky. People were laying on the rocks getting sun tanned. We had a good time telling her about our journey and how the Lord led us to adopt from Ukraine. I showed her more pictures, etc. After lunch we noticed Yana talking quietly to our facilitator. She does not want to be adopted! We don't know the whole story, some of the reasons she gave aren't even true. It seems that she is giving in to peer pressure from the other girls.

Another disappointment. I can understand her hesitation. She is 15. Going to America  is scary. I feel sorry for her because she would have a loving home and more opportunities. Now what? We know of a boy named Oleg. He is 14 years old. We heard about him at the adoption center. He keeps asking for a family to adopt him. The facilitator who works in this area is going to go visit him to make sure he really wants to be adopted. 

This has been quite a time! Ups and downs! We do know that God is with us. We don't know what He is doing but we do know that He has good plans for us. His plan might involve Leg, or it might not. We will trust God and walk with Him through it.

Thanks for going on this journey with us.