We found out we had a couple of things that needed corrected. We had to have our CPA redo his letter of
recommendation 3X . I finally got permission to retype it myself on his letter head. He didn't mind at all. I felt bad asking him to redo it the 4th time. Then when we picked up the letter, we noticed the Notary had put that her commission expired on Jan 6, 2001. I went home and researched her on the Notary Database. Fortunetly her commission expired on January 6, 2009. I was abel to correct it with no
problem. Then I had to get a Child abuse record from our local police. The lady in there notarized her own signature. She wasn't a bit of help. So I wasn't sure what I was going to do. So I called our sheriff and asked him if I could type a letter up for him to sign and notarize. He was very kind and said "No problem". He even offered to bring by their letter head paper so I could type it up. Thank-you Lord again. Then we were finally ready to take our paperwork to Indianapolis to get Authenticated. When I got there, the papers I had typed on to be notarized, I forgot to put a place on there for her to state her county of residency. The state lady was sooo kind, she allowed the paperwork to be processed with some minor changes. If she would not have allowed this there would have been no way for me to Fed-ex a copy of our whole dossier to a family in Texes, that was traveling that very week-end, so that they could take it with them to Ukraine to start the translation. Once again the Lord was working everything out. By the end of February, all our paperwork was completed. Finally with this done I was able to send everything to Washington D.C. for the Federal Authentications. We have our own businesses and my yearend work never went as smooth as it did in Jan 2001. We could feel the Lord at work. Cathy set our travel date for April 9, 2001 and set us up with our Fascilitator and Translator. By the end of March, our agence still had not gotten their renewal, and I was starting to panic. I made a few phone calls, got myself in trouble and finally recieved it just in time to Fed-Ex it to Chicago, and back in our hands on a Saturday delivery, just 2 days before we were to leave. Is the Lord really in control? No doubt. Cathy and our head Translator told me to just RELAX. Yeh right!!
April - Departure!! Psalm 31:3. This morning went well with the children. Was very hard seeing them get on the bus. Scurring around, trying to get last minute things done. Left home @ 10:30. Had a few stops to do. Stopped by Jay's folks on the way to Chicago. My brother and sister with her little 2 year old son volunteered to take us to the airport. Arrived at the airport around 4:00. Found out we had a 20 min delay. Was supposed to leave 5:40 P.M. Check in was a breeze. No problems. Ended up waiting on the run way for a while and actually lifted off at 7:00 p.m.. We had a very smooth but long flight. No air movement. No sleep, or did we. Arrived in Warsaw 10 minutes before our next flight to Kiev. We had to catch a but that took us out to our plane. Made it on time. There was another woman that did not make her next flight from the sounds of her voice to the poor attendants on duty. Our flight to Kiev was much rougher. We both almost got sick from all the motion. Psalm 50.15. At that point, Jay was beginning to wonder "What am I doing here anyway?" We landed in Kiev just 12 hrs from the time we left Chicago. They were 7 hrs ahead of our time. So it was 2:00 P.M. there. The airport was virtually empty. Purchasing insurance, and customs was a breeze. When we walked throught the doors of the airport to meet our Fascilitator, we walked into a crowd of people all looking the whoever they came to meet. We did not see our name being held up for us to know who we were supposed to meet, so just walked on through to the back of the crowd. Yes we felt very small. Taxi drivers kept coming up to us to see if they could take us wherever we were headed and we would just say "Nyet". Even our driver asked and we said "Nyet" We didn't know who he was. We finally seen someone walking toward us that was smiling. Even though is was only about 5 minutes. Psalm 56:3. She introduced us to the patient Taxi driver.. We then felt bad about trying to turn him away. They took us to the Tourist Hotel. Our Fascilitator checked us
in and took us up to our room on the 14th floor. The room was very small, with 2 single beds, a refrigerator, small tub, and to very large windows which opened inward. They had no screens. She told us about plans for the next day and what time they would be around to pick us up. We were then left to ourselves. We decided to rest a bit, then try to find something to eat. We felt like we had this great big target on our back. We found a restraunt in the Hotel and was handed menus. 1Chor 14:2. OK, How do we read this? We told the waitress, "Engliskee" She understood and tried to talk in English. We just told her Chicken. Thought that should be safe. At this point we diffinitly felt like we went out of our minds. What in the world are we doing anyway. I just want to go back home. She brought us Chicken Kiev. It was chicken rolled up filled with butter with a broken bone stuck in the end of it and deep fried. When Jay cut into his, the butter squirted all over his pants. He was planning to wear these the first week. The peas were fresh from the can (cold), Jay had some fries. Over all it wasn't too bad. Then we decided to just go outside a watch people. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry. Seldom looking up at anyone. Mostly black or dark colors. Then we went to find the internet cafe. Then back up to our room to call it a day. Of coarse, being married, we pushed the single beds together for a bit of comfort. The beds were so swayed it didn't make a bit of difference anyway. The pillows were literally 2 1/2 foot square. But we slept well. The next morning, we found a different restraunt in the Hotel and ate a bit of breakfast. Cheeses, hard bread, (no butter), some kind of cold meat, (?), sunny side up eggs and juice of some kind. Not bad. Just different. Our team was there to pick us up at 9:05. We went a purchased some Easter Cakes on our way to the Adoption Center. When we arrived, there was virtually no one else there. We met Mrs. Kunko in the hall. She gave us a freindly smile and greeting. We waited just a few minutes before going in to talk to her. We spoke to her only breifly before showing her our small photo album. We were then taken to another room where we would be shown pictures. We told them we were looking for a boy/girl sibling group, between 3 - 6 yrs old. They then showed us a boy 7,and sister 6. Jay was ready to go. I wasn't sure, so requested to see more. They then showed us a boy 7, and sister 5. I felt drawn to these. I wanted to be sure, so we looked at 2 more groups then decided since the first 2 groups were at the same orphanage, we felt like we should go there to Kherson. Heb 11:8. We then went and bought more gifts for the Adoption Center, and to buy our train tickets. We would leave at 8:00 that night. We went back to our Hotel, took a bit of a nap and then went to McDonald's for lunch. It was very much like our McDonald's here. Then we went to the market to buy some food and drink for our train trip. We felt a bit intimidated with our communication but felt a bit better when someone tried to ask us something. I guess we don't look so much different after all. The target is starting to feel smaller. The market went well. No Thanks to the meat though. The produce looked very fresh and just beautiful. We bought what we thought was water. Ended up to be something like 7-Up. Then to buy water with gas or without gas. This kinda struck us funny. Gas, No Thank-you. We have enough. Oh well. Best get back to our room and internet cafe, pack and get ready for our next adventure.
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