We had our court date this afternoon. All went well. The judge asked Ricky and I several questions. The prosecutor asked questions as well. They asked the older 2 children questions. It took about an hour and a half. Everyone present had to get up state their name, position, date of birth, before we began. There was a person from the orphanage there, one from what we would call child services, the prosecutor, the judge, 2 witnesses and one I don't know who she was she never spoke, Masha, Ricky and I and the 3 children. We were glad we did not bring the other 4 children. The room was small. They had to bring in chairs for the witnesses. There would have been no room for 4 more children.
We ate M&M's, Haley's favorite, bannans, Troy's favorite, those sweet corn puff things, Anna's favorite with cookies, a Russian drink and sandwiches (sausage on buttered bread). This was their lunch. The rest of us had eaten chicken soup hours before.
Time slipped away. We rushed to cook and eat dinner. Little Anna was late getting back to the internot. She took 2 bannans to eat with her. Haley had spent the afternoon on the phone calling her friends to let them know how it went. The boys went out to play soccer. Ricky took the 2 younger girls to play on the playground. Masha, Rachel and I went to look, again, for the glass that was broken to try to replace it. I'm about ready to give up on finding it and just offer the landlord money. There is a "you break you buy policy here".
We all have been discussing the day. We have been talking about what we have learned. What our plans are for the next few days and how we will accomplish them.
Yesterday, I spent hours trying to figure out what class gets what toys or candy. We plan to take them to the orphanage tomorrow or Sunday. We plan to have an Easter egg hunt with the younger children Sunday. Yes, I flew here with plastic eggs. I probably did not bring enough. Heather has filled them with jelly beans. They do not hunt eggs here. The orphanage has had and Easter egg hunt before. We decided to boil and decorate some too. We hope the children will want to eat them.
So a good day. Court over. Now 10 days of waiting. Then after that we go to their birth city to get paperwork, work on passports and after another week or so we will get to come home. Looking at it now the soonest we could be home is in 2 weeks. We are hearing things will go slow here in Poltava and they will take a week here. There is at least 2 or 3 days work to do in Kiev. We will keep praying and see. That adds up to 3 weeks of waiting and work.
I was able to honestly tell the judge that when we started working with the hosted children we had no plans to adopt. But after meeting them and spending time with the children, we began praying about adoption. It has been almost 2 years since we met Troy. It has been 18 months since I met the girls. They have all changed. It is sad we missed out on that time with them. We could not do anything to get them faster. Nothing was in our control. We waited. We will be waiting again, for weeks. I am glad for this waiting period we can spend time with them.
James 4:4 You do not have, because you do not ask God.
We did ask God. We asked for His timing and His plan. We are now several steps closer to having the children. We ask God again for His plan and timing. Our plans and timing are just not that important.
Ricky is trying to a flight to come home as soon as possible. He has to do paperwork in Kiev before he can leave. There are no flights on Tuesday. He is trying to arrange a flight on Wednesday. He is having a hard time leaving us.
I am so thrilled Masha is with us. She is a great interpreter. Most of all she is a great friend. She has made this whole process much easier. I am blessed to know she will be with me as Ricky is leaving. God's provision is perfect.
On this Good Friday: Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus author and perfecter of our faith. His sacrific was so great. His love for us amazing. Easter blessings to all.
