Thursday, January 18

It has been a lot of fun doing this blog. It was all Kim's idea, but I've really enjoyed it because it has allowed us to keep in touch with everyone back home. Not only have we chronicled our journey in Ukraine, but we have received lots of encouragement from all of you. Did you ever try to figure out who was writing each blog? Kim probably typed 55% and Chris typed 45%, but it would have been hard to figure out who typed each one because we normally added to each other's blog. For example, Kim would add some emotional statements to my blog. She is out right now walking Alex around because he was getting bored with the computer.

We were able to get Alex from the orphanage on Tuesday afternoon, but as this entire trip has gone, our plans changed about every hour since our last blog. We had to go to another town to get the birth certificate. They were closed on Monday. The passport guy took longer than expected. The passport office was closed on Wednesday. Long story short - we missed our train on Tuesday, and we are still in Lugansk. Fortunately, we just got Alex's passport, so now we are good to make our train today! We will have to rush our time in Kiev when we arrive in the morning, but I think we will still be able to make our flight on Saturday!

Before I hand off the blog to Kim (who is now back because Alex wants me to carry him around), I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Shaw Industries for helping support our trip finacially and to Kip Allen for letting me take so much time off from work. Thanks so much!

This is Kim now, Alex is wanting to be carried around all the time, which is good, except my back can only handle so much. He has already put on some weight just since we have been here bringing him food! It is so great to have him with us. We were a little nervous about him having a hard time leaving the orphanage because he is so structuree and organized, and we knew change might be hard. We also didn't know if he had any idea what was happening/going to happen to him. Monday, though, we spent some time talking to and interviewing his teacher on our camcorder about his life in the orphanage. She said he had told her he was going on a train and a plane with his mama and papa and that he was very excited. In fact, when we did go to pick him up Tuesday he about ran out the door. He was also very excited to ride in the car (machina). If he even hears the word machina he starts getting ready to go for a car ride. Everything is so exciting to him, and that is so fun for us.

His first night with us went well - he did have a few times he cried and talked about going back to his class (orphanage), but only that first night. He also has a cold and is not sleeping well, and so with all three of us in a small bed we all aren't sleeping well. Hopefully he will get better soon. We have really had a great time with him, though. We know so far he has a trait from both of us. He is extremely organized and likes everything in its place- which everyone knows is Chris. He also can not get enough to drink- he wants to drink water and juice all the time, and he has that in common with me. We can't wait until he learns more english so we can communicate better. He talks all the time. We can't wait to get home! Hopefully it will all work out so we can leave Saturday. We have Alex and that is the important thing, but I'm sure everyone understands how ready we are to be back home!

Humorous thoughts for the day:
This entire time in Lugansk the blog site has been showing up in German. We are in a city where everyone speaks Russian, and we speak English, and for some reason we cannot change the blog site from German. We can still type in English, but all the things to click on are in German, and so is the spellcheck. We can't wait to get back to where things are normal....

Journal entry (Chris) 1/9/07

I've got time on my hands so I'd like to reflect on how I've grown spiritually this month in Ukraine. The first thing that comes to mind is how big God is. I've not been through that many trials in my life, but reflecting back on this one, I just have this feeling that God is so BIG- so much bigger than me and my experience here and this adoption. I have this sense that God is in complete control much more so than I've felt in the past. I have gone through some things that were contrary to what I would choose, or how I think things should have gone, and I don't think I will ever understand exactly why Kim and I had to go through it all. I feel like Job (one of the best books ever written) asking God why He had to go through his trial and God didn't answer him either. God only answered Job with other questions, like "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?" and "Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn it's place?" as if to say, "You can't even begin to get your hands around understanding me; I'm that big." And even though I don't know why we've gone through some of the things we have gone through, I do feel much closer to Him (I'm sure one reason for going through them). I have such a peace that He is in control. I can't put it into words, but God seems closer to me (than in the humdrum life back home).

One understanding of God that I've long struggled with is asking God for help. We did this constantly on this trip. Does it help to keep repeating the same prayer request over and over?Does it help to request it at all? A lot of our requests were not answered the way we prayed. So maybe our requests were not in line with what was best for us. All I know is it forced us to go to Him and depend on Him. He likes to work in places only He can help. We were powerless most of this trip. Maybe that's why I feel so close to Him. It is also interesting to me that I'm going through this trial where so many things have gone wrong and prayers "unanswered," and yet I feel clos to God and have a stronger sense of who He is than I did before. I don't think He is giving me the answers as much as letting me wrestle with the questions, and in doing this He is bringing me into a stronger relationship with Him. He's so BIG that I don't think I could comprehend all the answeres anyway. This is just something that comes to mind when I think about my experiences over the last 30 days.