Eye of the Storm

We are now officially in the waiting stage. Today (Thursday) is day 3 out of 10. After that we apply for new birth certificates and passports and maybe something else. It is possible that they still have the old passports or something like that here in Zhytomyr. If so, apparently it could save us several days - maybe even more when you consider weekends getting in the way. I don't really understand it except that it may mean we will go home a few days sooner than later. So I hope it is true! We will not know until it happens (this is becoming a familiar theme).

So our schedule lately goes like this.:

Wake up around 8:30 in the morning - I know we are such slackers but we stay up late because we just can't go to sleep - it still feels like the middle of the afternoon. Oh and we are completely hooked on watching 24 - this from two people who never watch tv. It's bad. We have fallen hard...

So, then we get ready, eat breakfast (usually a boiled egg and toast), do some bible study and reading and return a few emails.

Around noon we leave to eat lunch - which sometimes is a slow process. We stop at a market and grab a few things that Katya has requested. We take her some food and entertainment, hang out for an hour or two and then head to get coffee and on to the orphanage.

At the orphanage we just follow Nastya around to whatever the afternoon class of the day is taking place (soccer, dance, music, or homework time). We talk to her during all this because it is fairly laid back in the afternoon. For example if a child doesn't feel like p.e. then he or she just doesn't show up or just watches the other kids. This would never fly in America but I guess in the orphanage there is no one really to enforce involvement. So after some time with Nastya, we call a taxi and return to the city. We eat dinner, return to our apartment, blog (like now), email, skype, and watch 24.

Hard life huh?!?

Which leads me to the 'eye of the storm'. Before getting here I think things were about as crazy as they have ever been in our lives. Just for an idea, we hosted the girls for a month - during which Zach's grandpa died, my sister and parents traveled to Ethiopia to adopt my nephew and we kept my niece for a few weeks; we moved our business office; we moved much of our household items (we are kind of in between houses now); before moving our things we completely remodeled our new home and developed the land around our new home, including Zach putting in the septic pretty much himself; my Dad had a heart attack days before we left; the kids started school; and if there were other major events I honestly have blocked them out!! So then we arrive in Ukraine and the first week or so was pretty busy. But now for at least 10 days we are alone with time to talk, take walks, eat out, watch movies, pray, read, make plans for when we get home, and just love on tons of kids. Of course we miss our children at home and the rest of our family, but I would be lying if I didn't say that this is truly a vacation for us and we are loving most every minute.

Shortly after we arrived here, Zach and I were talking and he said, "You know our lives are like a hurricane lately but right now we are in the eye of the storm and it is sure peaceful - although deceptive!" It feels very strange, having come out of an incredibly busy time and about to go into unchartered terrirtory with two new children and homeschooling them, to have such a quiet few weeks. We fear that we may be getting a bit spoiled! But we just know that it is God's grace to give us this time to refresh, to enjoy one another, and to prepare our hearts for the next chapter in this exciting journey. It will definitely be the hardest but we are not afraid. After all God has carried us through so far, we have no doubt that He will continue to do so, one day at a time.

Update on Katya: Thank you all so much for the encouraging comments and prayers. Melanie thank you for the encouragement about sometimes being right where you need to be even when it seems otherwise. You know we have been praying that God would help prepare her heart to leave and maybe this is what she needed. Just to clarify, she says daily that she wants to go to America and is so happy about it all, but there is definitely going to be a loss (especially for her) when she leaves her country, culture, language, friends, and caregivers. As far as her health - she is still fine today and we hope she will be back by Saturday or Sunday. We have had some nice alone time with her in the waiting room of the hospital at least! Our hands are just about dried out and starting to crack from all the Purell we keep using!! No paranoi here!