documents for adoption

Does this look intimidating?

This is Vitaliy’s medical clearance form for adopting Paul.

I helped him by driving here and there picking up results, etc.

There are signatures from 6 doctors on this form, and the results of 2 tests (other tests were required for the doctors’ signatures).

It’s all great.

Love those stamps, too!

So official.

And now I have to do it, too.

Yup.

They informed me of this just today.

My prayer? Lord, help me be able to do it faster than Vitaliy!

Maybe it won’t be so, but . . . . maybe it will!

He sets the prisners free

Vitaliy is working as a trainer this week at an evangelism training seminar, and yesterday he was out with his trainee, and they ended up talking to one particular man.

At first, the man wasn’t very friendly, but Vitaliy has such a skilled and gentle way of being used by the Holy Spirit to help open people’s hearts so they want to hear the gospel, and this man really softened up and listened to the whole gospel presentation. He even prayed to accept God’s gift of eternal life.

(When people pray, we don’t say they repented; it’s still not visible what is happening to them, we just say they prayed a prayer of confession. Anyway . . . )

His trainee listened quietly and prayerfully to all this (as they are taught to do early in the week), but at the end of the entire conversation, he asked the man if he’d ever been in prison.

. . . ? . . . ! . . .

Ends up, he recognized the man because they had been prison mates together.

And the trainee is now a believer, and God is reaching out for the other man, too . . .

Brings tears to my eyes.

first snow

the view from our kitchen window

just beyond those buildings is our huge mall, that I’ve been avoiding lately because of whatever is going around here.

 

 

raising friends

We are raising new support right now, and we’ve made a presentation of our ministry. You can view it here, as a FaceBook album.

If the Lord burdens you to become involved in our lives and ministries, we’d love to get to know you more!

the fierce tiger in my kitchen

oh my!

skyla and i were the victims:

i just want to say that

we have the most awesome, wonderful supporters in the universe I love you–churches, people, everyone. You are a pleasure and blessing to us!

fathering the fatherless

I sat outside the head doctor’s office praying, and here’s where my thoughts went: “Lord, help this woman be in a good mood; give Vitaliy favor with her. Have her sign Vitaliy’s paper with no issues. . . . God, honor Vitaliy before this doctor; he is fathering a fatherless boy; he is imaging You by becoming a father to the fatherless. Please honor him before this doctor. . .”

My eyes were tearing up as I thought about this, that my husband is fathering. Of all the social and cultural attacks on fatherhood that go on currently and have gone on through past centuries, here is a huge proof that fatherhood is alive, strong, and thriving: A man takes an orphan and fathers him. A man takes legal, emotional, spiritual, parental responsibility of a helpless, moneyless, fatherless child.

That’s a man: a brave, courageous, fathering MAN.

We’re working towards adopting a little boy named Paul. He is two years old. About a month ago, we put the pedal to the metal to adopt him, and God’s been giving us green lights all the way. (There are so many factors swirling around, it’s too much to write out here.)

Vitaliy leaves this Sunday for a week of evangelism training, so I wanted to get all his medical tests done before that, so I can turn in all the papers to the regional govt while he’s gone.

Today Vitaliy went out to try and get his last signatures–two. We wondered if the last doctor (called “terapevt”) on the list was the same doctor to sign the final paper, but when he went to see her, she signed her line, but then said that the final signature is from the head doctor in the polyclinika–and, the terapevt informed him, the head doctor wouldn’t sign that paper unless he also had about 3 more blood tests and a cardiogram.

Vitaliy came home and we talked. We came up with a plan. He could go tomorrow and get all those tests done at a private clinic (we called them for prices), I could get the results (while he’s gone at the seminar) and take them to the head dr for her signature.

But we have also become rather experienced about this type of thing: each person (doctor, official, etc) tells you what the next person requires, then you do those things and go to the next person . . . who really doesn’t require those things and actually requires other things . . .

It’s Ukraine.

It’s not only Ukraine, I’m sure, but it’s certainly not America. There is no word for “efficiency” in this language.

So we end up just driving to the polyclinika with a plan. He’ll just go in with the papers he has, act like nothing is missing, and see what the head doctor says. If he has to get other tests done, he can then ask if I can bring the results next week and get the final signature without Vitaliy being present.

We go. And after waiting forever, he goes in. . . . I sit outside still praying. . . .

And he gets the signature. . . . .

PEOPLE, HE GOT THE SIGNATURE!!!!!

PEOPLE, HE GOT THE SIGNATURE!!!!!

PEOPLE, HE GOT THE SIGNATURE!!!!!

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God; Who made heaven and earth, The sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous; The LORD protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow; But He thwarts the way of the wicked. The LORD will reign forever, Thy God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD! Psalm 146:1-10

So here’s to all the great MEN who have fathered the fatherless. You are imaging God.

P.S. I just got our last document tonight, flown in from the States today. Just need to get it translated and off I go to the regional office to turn everything in. We still have miles to go, but . . . we’re speeding!

raising support, 3

Our 2009-2010 minstry presentation is finished! I can e-mail it to you (2Mb file) or you can view it as a photo album on my FaceBook page.

Please take time to view it. We are praying for the people that God would like to join us as supporters! Feel free to pass it on to interested friends as well. We need you

 

raising support, 2

We’re returning to the States in March and we need to raise a good chunk of new support.

In our marriage, this mostly falls to me and naturally, I lean towards stress and worry, but the Lord’s been whispering in my ear: It’s My responsibility.  I will provide.

So really, I can be full of JOY. Focus on the people, which I love to do, and don’t worry about the numbers.

Let’s do this!

Midwifery Today

In the mail today I recieved a packet with two copies of Midwifery Today’s latest magazine. My doula birth in a Ukrainian birth house story was in it, as well as two articles by Denise Thompson, a midwife who’s attended births here as well.

I’m hoping we’ll get Ukraine “on  the map” as far as birth attention. We could use a lot of positive attention in this area!