So documents MUST be prepared this week.  We are pushing the appropriate people as hard as possible but acting in love and gentleness.

Thanks for your prayers!

Blessed be the Name of the Lord

God was watching out for me to get me to the hotel.  I did a stupid thing and just got on the bus.  The lady at the information desk at the airport said take bus 175…so I did.  I very quickly realized that the stops had nothing to do with hotels.   It was just a city bus.   And there was no way to know what hotels were at what stop.  Just normal city stops.  I rode for about 10 minutes and the lady in front of me asked if I spoke Polish.  I said no, English.  She turned back around.  :-)

She was lost too.  She went up and asked a young couple where something was and they told her.  So then I though since they had helped her, she might help me!  So I took a chance and asked her, in Russian, if she spoke Russian.  She said no, but that she could understand it.  Not sure how that happens, except that Polish crosses over between 30-50% with Ukrainian.  Anyway, I asked her if she knew where the Holiday Inn Warsaw was.  She said no but maybe that couple would.  

Ugh…  They were going to get irritated at people asking them all these questions I thought.  I went over to them and asked if they spoke Russian.  She answered “a little”  in English.  YES!  They spoke English.  They said they had no idea where it was.  I said thanks and started to walk back to my spot and they said wait.  He pulled out a smart phone and did a quick google search and found it on the map.  They tried to point out where it might be behind some buildings.  But they weren’t exactly sure the directions.  Then they said… you should get off with us because the next stop would be too far.  We were at their stop… so off we went.  They pointed where they thought it was, bid me a good weekend and said good luck.  :-)  What was on the corner where I got off?  A STARBUCKS!!!!!  I was so happy.  I knew that someone in there was bound to speak English and since it might be close to the hotel, they might know where it was.  And, oh yeah, I could get a latte.  :-)  And was it good!  The cashier spoke to me first in English so I instantly relaxed and asked about the hotel.  He said, “Oh yes.  It’s very close.”  He pointed out some buildings it was behind and told me a street name.

So I strolled off with my wonderful latte and went in the general direction where it might be.  I saw the street name and found the hotel.  Phew!  Tomorrow, I have to figure out where to catch the bus back to the airport, but that’s for tomorrow!

If I hadn’t talked to that woman, and then that couple at just that moment, I would have stayed on the bus and wouldn’t have found the hotel.  But as Corrie Ten Boom says, “There are no IFS in God’s Kingdom!”  SO thankful that he watches out for me so closely.  Home tomorrow and Mary flies to Amsterdam.  Pray that she can find a cheaper ticket.  She is trying to find something right now.

Bless the LORD, O my soul. And ALL that is within me bless His holy name!

It’s like my vision compared to God’s. I see with limited vision only what is around me and only what is happening right now. I can’t see the whole picture. I can’t see tomorrow…much less eternity. When I think about today in that light, I feel a bit ashamed of my feelings, emotions and fears. With my somewhat clouded vision…it’s easy to panic.

When did I decide to take a trip to Poland? About 2 hours ago.

We have been trying to get documents together for our permanent residency. Of course, we are waiting on other people for what we need. We have everything that we can provide.

Yesterday, the man that is helping us thought he was going to work things our with our passports. You see, Monday marks 90 days that we have lived in Ukraine. Without visas, we can only stay in Ukarine for 90 days…then we have to cross the border and come back. We can do this ONE time without visas. After that, we have to either have visas or our residency status. To get visas, we would have to go back to the USA. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

For the last 6-8 weeks we have been told that it should be no problem. Well, we found out this morning that it was a problem. So he said he would try again Monday and there was a good chance it would work out. Let me just say that in America if someone told me “it should work out” I would consider the odds pretty good. In Ukraine, that means “forget it.”

So my mind went into high gear. Here were our options…

Take the whole family across the border in Poland and come back. Why didn’t we do that? It sounds so easy. Yeah, except our car’s papers are for 9 seats. We have 10 people who ride in the van when everyone is with us. They wouldn’t let us cross the border because of the discrepancy. In Ukraine, it’s no big deal. Here, nine seats means that about 20 people can get in. I’m not kinding.

So we thought about Mary and I going and having Sveta stay at the house with the kids. Why didn’t we do that? It is 7-8 hours TO the border (if a Ukrainian is driving…I was told might be up to 10 hours since I drive the speed limit). Then there is at least a 2 hour wait to cross into Poland IF they are not busy. Then there is at least a two our wait to get back in to Ukraine IF they are not busy and then up to ten hours home. You do the math. That couldn’t happen. AND we felt strongly that we should not leave the country together with the kids at home. What IF something happened and they wouldn’t let us back in. We decided divide and conquer was the best way. Worst case, they won’t let ONE of us in and the other is with the kids. Then we figure out what to do.

So here’s what we decided. I would fly out today and come back in the morning. I chose Poland because it was the cheapest (but cheap is relative when you are buying a ticket for a trip the same day). I can’t explain how excrutiating it was to outlay that money from an ever dwindling coffer. It was hard. It was an act of faith. So I will overnight in Poland (Warsaw) and head back home tomorrow afternoon. Just in time for church tomorrow evening. Mary will stay home and try to find a cheaper ticket this evening. As bad as mine was…her’s for some reason is proving to be MUCH worse. Not sure why except that it is Sunday-Monday. Not really sure why.

So I return to Kyiv about 30 minutes before she will leave. That way if something goes wrong and I don’t get back in, she can abort the mission and we will drop back and make a new plan.

Then, we simply MUST get the documents we need turned in this week. We also found out today that the lady who will help us fast track our documents is going to have a baby soon and must finish process before…she will be out on leave for several months.

Today…I have to admit that fear gripped my heart. What if… How could this be happening… What is God thinking… Where is He… Yeah…shameful to admit that, but it is what it is. Here’s the answers to the questions.

Yeah…what if? What if God has a plan that we don’t know about today? What’s the worst that will happen? We will keep trusting Him and following HIm down the path wherver it leads. What if? We will follow the One that has the plan and the power.

How could this be happening? Simple…it fits into God’s plan. He knows the plans He has made. They are not to harm us. Period. Might the road get rougher and more difficult? Well, sure. But if it’s in His hand…isn’t it still the best place to be?

What is God thinking? He’s thinking that He desires that none should perish and all should come to repentance. He’s thinking that all things will work together for good for those who love HIm and are called according to His purposes. He wait…that’s us.

Where is He? Same place He has always been. At the helm of this ship we call life. And our lives are just PART of the journey. Just a small part of the big picture…of eternity. How vain to think that He will do everything that we want and make our lives easy just because we moved to Ukraine. What about the belivers around the world who will die today because of their faith? We are just trying to get paperwork done. Seriously…weigh this against eternity and there’s no contest.

It’s so easy to not look beyond ourselves. But suddenly something happens and we see that there is so much out there beyond our little bubble. Something small (in the scheme of things) happens and we set off the alarm bells. Guess what? There are simply no alarm bells in heaven.

This journey we are on (both life in general and this part of our lives as it relates to moving to Ukraine) is not about us. It’s not even about the beautiful people of Ukraine. It’s about a God who is reaching through eternity to share His love, forgiveness, and Salvation.

We do appreciate your prayers in this time. Not that you pray that it will be easy. But that we will have the strength to stand and the faith to trust and the perseverence to walk.

We bless the name of the Lord. Blessed be His glorious Name.

Tomorrow we are attending a picnic – cookout – at an orphanage in Kyiv.  It’s a privately run orphanage and we are looking forward to spending some time with the kids.  We were there a couple of months ago to visit the kids.  

We are also going to try to find a swing set that we can afford.  The kids live outside in the good weather and we really need something for them to play on.  We are hoping we can find something in our budget.  Things here are so expensive…everything…  Frankly, we don’t know how people survive here and how they clothe and feed themselves sometimes.

We continue to study hard at language and continue to make small steps forward.

We got to our lesson early yesterday and there was another student there that has been studying for over six years.  He spoke quickly and confidently.  Kind of made us feel bad to be honest.  I hope to get to that level one day.  Of course he’s been studying a long time…  The thought of waiting that long to speak so well is a bit frustrating.  That seems like such a long time.  Praying for quicker understanding and ability.  But we shall see…

Thanks for your prayers about our documents.  

Blessed Be the Name of the Lord.

We have worked with the young lady we hired before and she will be a great help to our ministry here. 

It helps us and it helps her family with a little bit of money.  We’re pretty excited!

Today was language.  Oy.  Actually, it went pretty well and I felt good about my use of language today.  But wow…there is SO much to learn.

THE POST OFFICE

Last Friday we got a notice in our mail box that we had a package.  We weren’t home and they didn’t leave it.  I’m not really sure why because it would have easily fit in the mail box.  Anyway…I got brave this morning and decided to take the paper and my passport and go pick it up.

The address of which post office I needed to go to was clearly stamped on the paper so I went.  I got to the window (after figuring out which was for mail and not for paying bills, or paying for long distance phone calls, etc).  The lady spoke very VERY fast.  I asked her to repeat it and clearly she realized I was not Ukrainian.  She was nice, but LOUD.  :-)  She told me she didn’t have the package.  Also, I thought I heard her say that I needed to go to the second floor and then she started pointing this way and that.  Then I wasn’t sure if maybe she meant to go to the central post office (a few blocks away) and go to the second floor there.  

Well, I couldn’t find stairs at the post office I was at so off I went.  I got to the other post office (with no confidence that I would leave with my package) and got to a window where there was a very nice lady.  She knew ZERO English, but we did okay.  She told me to go the post office on Gagarin.  I told her I had just been there and that they told me the package was not there.  I wasn’t completely sure that’s what I had been told in exact context, but hey…my Russian is limited.  She asked me where I had gone.  I told her the address I went to and she nodded and then got on the phone and told whoever she talked to that I said they said they didn’t have the package.  Well, they DID have the package.  So back I went.  And this time with a name of the lady who could help me!

I went to a different window (so as not to be a frustration to the lady I had talked to before–and since I said she said the package wasn’t there…  :-)  ).  I tried a different question this time and asked her where I could go to pick up this package.  She told me 2nd floor (aha…I had heard correctly) and she did a lot of pointing.

So I looked for stairs and then left building and walked around.  There was what I would consider a service entrance and I decided to give it a try.  Sure enough there were stairs inside.  There were no lights on (but that’s not unusual in Ukraine… I mean why have lights on in stairways when there is a tiny window somewhere up high letting in a pinhole of light?) but I took off up the stairs.   There were 3 doors at the top of the stairs.  Suddenly, I saw the word package on the sign on the door and realized I was in the right place.  I went in and the lady was very nice.  But in my gut I knew what was coming.  Sure enough…she asked me the question… “Who told you the package wasn’t here.”  Obviously she knew she had not seen me in there and since that was where you were to go to get packages…what in the world was I talking about??!!  She giggled so I knew all was well.  I just explained in my broken Russian that I had been in the wrong place on the 1st floor.  She just chuckled, checked my passport and handed over the packages.   We had TWO!  One took about 6 weeks to get here and one took 2.  Go figure.  Both mailed from Moore.  Both first class USPS.  

One was some neat magazines for the kids.  The other was from Micah’s Sunday School teachers at FBC Moore.  He was SO EXCITED to get it.  He loved the movie, the Bible stories and has been carrying around the photograph album all day.  Looking at it over and over and he told us he wanted to go and see them.  :-(  He showed our friends Yuri & Sveta the pictures and was so excited!!!  Thank you friends for sending these treasures from America!

That’s today’s story…  stay tuned.

Bless the Name of the Lord!

Since it is not a work day today, we decided to take the kids into the city.  All of them.  We went to the National Botanical Garden.  The lilacs (I think I said violets in my last post for some reason) are in full bloom.  There are hundreds of lilacs on show at the gardens.  They were simply breathtaking.  There are several paths that take you through the beautiful flowers.  The smell was amazing.  This is probably the last week they will be in show and we are so glad we got to see them.

There was no sun, so my pictures aren’t great.  But thankfully it was cool and not raining.  There were lots of hills and pushing the strollers up those hills wasn’t easy in the cool…we might have died if it had been hot!

One interesting thing did happen.  Among the MANY people who stared at us and our kids (partly because of sheer number, partly because we are obviously American, partly because we were speaking English, partly because five of the kids have Down syndrome) an older woman came up and gave each of the kids a little package of cookies and candy.  I don’t know why she had all that in her bag, but she did.  I don’t really know if she felt sorry for them or what the reason was…but it was genuinely touching.  Wish we could have talked to her about our kids.  But, we don’t know those words yet.

Bethany & Hannah making lunch for the littles.

Posing with the Peanut Butter!

This little one is growing bigger and bigger!  Since his surgery he is really thriving!

Cute…Cute…Cute…

Our HUGE strawberry patch and our two Apricot trees.

Strawberry plant…  The blooms are so nice.

How’s that for a raspberry patch?

We have green onions and garlic coming up everywhere.  Some even mixed into strawberries.  Hmmm…

One of our cherry trees.  It’s gonna be a lot of cherries!!!  Which is great… since we love them!

Just one of the MANY irises.  This one will be breathtaking yellow in a couple of days.  I think I said lilies in my last post…but they are all irises.  Beautiful.

We have ENORMOUS, and beautiful hostas all around the yard.  Just wonderful.

Part of the grapevine.

Any guesses what this is?  It’s OKRA.

Hot peppers.

From Left to Right:  Tomatoes, Green Beans, Cucumbers

Look how green our grass is!  I got half finished mowing and ran out of gas.  Sigh.

Another of our beautiful purple irises.

So this is the entrance to the botanical gardens.  Handicapped accessible and all.  Which would you choose to take a stroller up?  The stairs or the very steep metal “ramp?” We chose the stairs.  I’m glad I’m not in a wheelchair.  These same type of ramps are throughout Ukraine where there are stairs.  Many are MUCH steeper.  And most don’t have rails on the side.

One of the spectacular views form the gardens.

Me and the love of my life.  She still turns me on and is the most important person to me — after 21 years.

The lilacs were just breathtaking.  You can’t imagine how many there are.

I don’t have any idea what this old building is, but it’s neat looking among the lilacs and foliage.

3 beautiful Malone women.

2 of the lovely Malone daughters.

One of the many lanes of lilacs in the gardens.

He wasn’t crying.  It was kind of cold.

I just love this boy — rough patches and all.  I would love to know what goes on in his head (I think).

That’s all folks.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Then back home for lunch… Then I will work for several hours and then tomorrow even we have been invited to a Victory Day cookout! More Russian language practice! Yes!!

Just look how beautiful it is here!  The skies are beautifully blue, the sun is shining, the temperature is moderate.  Just perfect.

We had a major review in language school yesterday.  It was good to spend three hours hammering away at the latest things we have learned.  We have been working on verbs of motion.  You think…how hard could that be?

Well…let me tell you.  There are verbs for…

• walking
• running
• going by vehicle
• going by water
• going by air
• going by transport
• etc…

All of these have forms for

• starting the motion
• finishing the motion
• if the motion was round trip it has a different form
• all of these separate forms have past, present, future, imperfective, perfective

Just to give you a drop in the bucket of what verbs of motion mean in Russian.  To say the least I have been taken aback by the complexity of this language.  And to say that it’s complex is rather an understatement.

But trudge ahead we will!  It is so important to us.  We know God has called us to learn the language and to really press in to it for the first six months.  So press we shall.

We always wanted trees when we lived in Moore.  Now we have HUGE trees that surround our property.  We love them!  I love to listen to them sing their praises to God in the breeze.  What beautiful music they make.

You can see that we have a large yard where the kids can play.  We have a large area of concrete (allbeit not really smooth) for them to ride their riding tow and play when there is mud in the yard.  We have a large lawn where they can play.  

Speaking of the lawn…   Last week, the grass was about mid calf high and needed to be cut.  So we had two choices.  Mow it with scissors or get a lawn mower.  Let me first say that buying things here can be tricky.  Especially if you don’t speak a lot of Russian.  And what Russian we know has nothing to do with lawnmowers or words that relate to yard equipment.  At all.  

We went to our local home store (like an Ace Hardware probably) (we have stores like Lowe’s too, but they are farther away).  So we got to Booty Boom (spelled for you like it sounds in Russian).  And please…no off color comments.  I know they are racing through your mind.  So stop it.   We chose the lawn mower we wanted.  The easy thing would be to just grab one, put it on my cart and pay for it.  But no.  The mower on the shelf was THE mower we would buy.  Along came a young guy to help us and my first question to him was “Do you speak English?” (in Russian of course)  He smiled and said no, but that he would get someone who does.  I thought…hey…this may not be so bad after all.  Heh heh heh.  Silly me.  About 15 minutes later, another guy came over and said he spoke English.  Umm hmm….and I speak Russian.  Get the picture?  So after he told us he speaks English, that was the last English I heard.  We manage to communicate and ended up choosing a different mower that had a wider deck and more powerful engine and it’s a Briggs and Stratton engine — so a good choice I think.

I manage to ask for a container for gas.  And asked about oil (which happens to be the same word as for butter and cooking oil — it’s all about context).  I had to go pay for the oil first.  So off we went.  Then in a mad rush we ended up behind the store with the mower and he put the oil in (that I had paid for), added some gas and started it to show me that it works.  

Then it was back inside to find the box.  Sigh.  Up a ladder he went.  All the way to the top.  Then proceeded to jump up to get higher.  What??!  Oh yeah, this isn’t Lowe’s…where they wear safety belts.  Down came the box.  Then we filled out the warranty card.  Then we headed to the front to pay and for him to load it in our van. 

He asked if I had a discount card.  Not yet, I told him.  He showed me a computer that I would save 250UAH with it.  (You get a 7% discount with the card.)  Then I managed to understand that if I gave him 120UAH, I could get a card.  I understood it to mean that I was paying a fee to get a card of my own.  Ha ha…I had forgotten I was in Ukraine, I guess.  It turned out that I was giving HIM 120UAH and using HIS card.  After I gave him the money and he pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to me it donned on me what was happening.  (So of course after we got in the parking lot, he wanted the card back — my suspension confirmed — ugh).  

All of that to buy a lawn mower.  Buying things in the grocery store can be just as stressful.  Makes a person really miss Walmart to be sure!

But it’s our life and we are growing to love it even with it’s craziness. 

I hope you will Bless the Name of the Lord today!

When I opened the gate this morning, I found that we had a Sunday surprise.  Some of our beautiful lilies had bloomed.  I’m glad I got some pics because by the time we got home at lunch time, they had finished blooming.  Short cycle!  Glad I saw them!

You can see that everything is green now.  It’s quite beautiful here in the Spring.  It makes the winter more tolerable I guess…

We had a great time of worship this morning and had a great sermon on standing for the truth no matter what the cost — and to love in the process.  The kids had a good time in children’s worship and youth Sunday school.

We had a pretty relaxing afternoon…  I worked in the yard a tiny bit and worked on some web design stuff — actually some how-to video production to be specific.  Afternoons seem short though.  We blink and it’s gone.  

We had an interesting experience for house church tonight.  No translator.  Zilch.  Nada.  So we did it in Russian…as best we could.  Nope…not nearly perfect.  And quite frustrating I’m sure, but it worked out and we had some good conversation – allbeit slowly.  Nonetheless, we had a good time with the Lord and each other.

Thanks for you constant prayers that our language study will move forward ever so quickly and that we will grasp it rapidly.

Enjoying our home — though there is ALWAYS something needing done.  And I mean ALWAYS.

My VERY humble garden.  Lettuce, carrots, peppers, okra, cucumbers, green beans.  You can’t see it, but the green beans and cucumbers are pushing through the dirt.  We also have a huge strawberry patch that is well established, large raspberry patch, 2 apricot trees, 1 apple tree, 1 plum tree, 2 cherry trees.

The grapes are growing well and will soon take over this entire corner.  That’s an outhouse peeking out of the corner by the way.  :-)

Not a well-house, exactly, since we don’t have a well but it’s where the city water for the different buildings all network into the main line.  The flowers are all starting to bloom and take over the  yard.  In a few weeks, the place will be full of color.

One of the flowerbeds. 

Have a great celebration of the Lord today wherever you are or whatever you are doing.  He is worthy of all we have to give him and so much more!

Bless the name of the Lord with us.

We got there and quickly figured out that we were actually going to be enjoying a lunch (shoshlik — barbecued pork ribs).  And it was a normal Ukrainian lunch.  TONS of food.  Salads, bread, cheese, sausage, juices, compote, lots of cookies, meats…  And in LARGE quantities.  

We all got sat down in the living room and in came three men we didn’t know.  One was a visiting pastor from Poland and two Ukrainian believers.  They had heard from Tolic that we were coming over and he had told them a little bit about us and they really wanted to meet us so they came.  They had MANY questions.  I spoke to them in Russian as I could and they seemed surprised.  It was kind of humorous because clearly I don’t understand much but sometimes one of them would ask a question about me to Tolic and I would answer in Russian.  It surprised them and it was kind of confidence building for us.  Not only did we understand them, but they understood us!  That was encouraging.  

Anyway, they had lots of questions about our kids, why we moved here, why we would leave America, etc.  It gave us a great opportunity to share what God is doing, what He has done, and what we think He is doing.

It was obvious that they didn’t quite understand that we had 5 kids with Down syndrome, but they were not uncomfortable with the kids.  In fact, Eliana, true to form, sat in all three laps at some point and gave hugs.  They didn’t seem to think anything out of the ordinary about it and just loved on them without reservation.

It was a great experience and we are grateful to have had it.

The lunch was delicious and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome and made sure we were all well-fed!

We got to see their very large garden —  huge amounts of strawberries, potatoes, cabbage.  We saw their chickens (10 laying hens and 1 rooster).  And no, we didn’t kill any of them and eat them for dinner — they are strictly laying hens.  We found out where we can buy ours.  We will try to get them next weekend (if I can get the hen house built before then).  After that, it will have to be July before we can get them.  And I’m not sure I want to be building a hen house in July!!!

Hannah and Eli

Yuri on left and Sveta (next to Micah) are our friends and neighbors.  They joined us for lunch.  Zahar is in the blue shirt.  He is Tolic and Olya’s son.

For some reason, Ethan got scared when we went outside to eat.  He would NOT let me put him down.  He held on for dear life.  The first few minutes of lunch he cried and cried.  Finally he settled down enough that I was able to turn him around to face the table, but still he wouldn’t let me put him down.  No idea what was wrong with him or what he was afraid of.

Hannah and Bethany at lunch.

A TERRIBLE pic of Eliana, but there she is.  And of course you can see Matthew and Micah in the background. 

Our three new friends.  The one in the middle is from Poland — he has 9 kids also, aged 22 down to 2!

We know God has brought us here.  We know He has plans for us.  But we recognize that the WHEN and the WHAT is HIS business.  Our’s is just to obey.  That we will do.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.