Day of Preparation

As we anticipate another weekend here in Kherson, we are so blessed. All the added time with Maxim during the wait is enabling us to know him better so our hearts are as "knit together" as possible before the journey home that really is just around the corner.

We continue to find new things around town we'd never noticed before, such as the huge indoor/outdoor market west of the Internet cafe. We thought we'd already discovered it but it's really so much bigger than we knew. A true maze of large and tiny stalls. In this huge city, we only know of one store that would count as a sort of western style department store. The true department stores, it turns out, are the markets such as we saw yesterday. Every kind of imaginable edible and supposedly edible item is sold in the large building in the center of the market. I bought some beautiful leaf lettuce, tomatoes and onions. Just basics. A young lady walked up to us and gave Maxim a gorgeous big apple and complimented what a good boy he is. He thoroughly enjoyed some sections of that later in the day (the rest he wanted us to put away for later). Outside the food building, we found stalls selling wallpaper, lighting, coats, shoes, toys, socks/stockings, leather and fur hats, decorative molded Styrofoam used to embellish the outside of buildings (Daniel would be better able to explain how they do this and it lasts, but it looks very nice), etc. We found some nice gifts to take home to our other children. The exchange rate is continually going up in our favor (9.20 last I looked which means for every $100, we receive 920 rivna), which is encouraging for us while we're here, yet reminds us how desperate the situation is for local people. They are struggling.

Now, as we're into Friday, we are in "getting ready for Sabbath" mode. Maxim will be with us as we begin Sabbath at sundown tonight. Last Friday, I could hear someone in our building blowing the traditional set of blasts on a shofar and I so wished we could figure out who they are. It was a sweet sound. This afternoon, I will clean well in the flat, prepare a special meal to make the evening a different and delightful, we'll play music over Daniel's laptop, and tomorrow will be more quiet than the average day here, reading and discussing scripture, praying and just enjoying each other's company. And, of course, in the evening, we'll celebrate at a local restaurant with the other family joyfully completing the adoption of their new son. What a perfect way that will be to finish the end of a day set aside to honor the One Who has adopted us.

We have just three more days after tomorrow and we can pick up the judge's decree and the start the mad dash for the last required items. Our desire is to head for Kiev together as soon as possible after we have the new birth certificate, as I have mentioned before, and it's tricky as we going into the holiday time which effects what offices are open at what time. There should not be any trouble getting the birth certificate picked up and the passport initiated rather quickly. The challenge will be more in getting to Kiev as quick as possible after getting the birth certificate (in the Crimea), receiving the completed passport smoothly in Kiev and accomplishing required medical and Embassy appointments without any wasted days between. Not necessarily easy tasks in the first place, let alone with Christmas and New Year's sprinkled in the middle of it all.


Please don't stop praying. I look at the weekly Sabbath as a reminder of Who our rest is in, and I'm so thankful that it points us back to Him over and over. We are here in Ukraine, yet ultimately held in His hand. This gives preparing for Sabbath and for heading home with Maxim a level of peace like no other, and we know the source can only be the Heavenly Father, through Christ Himself. I am so thankful for His restoring that peace to my mind and heart as we finish this process in the next couple of weeks. I know there will be more tests, yet also where to turn for refreshing and strength.

PS Dear Daniel had mixed up a couple of details about Brina and Joel and the music program they're a part of. Joel is in Concert Band (trumpet) and Brina is in Advanced Orchestra and the Fiddle Class as well. Don't they look sharped all dressed up for the concert earlier this week (see last post)?