This Was No Ordinary Groundhog Day

Wow, what a beautiful day! This morning started out by going to visit with the boys. They wrestled, walked in our shoes and played with the ball. Just before we left they were getting ready to go outside and play since the sun finally came out. All the kids were excited. Tola picked us up and off we went to our wonderful day of sight seeing in Bila Tservka.

Every street he tried to turn down was blocked off by the police due to a bike race going on in the main part of the city. We took back roads to get to a huge park. It was absolutely beautiful. There were big trees, beautiful waterfalls, and swans. The picture of Tola under the sign is him pointing towards New York. All the wedding parties come here to have their pictures made. The walking trails go everywhere. They even give you a map to help you find your way around. Only problem is we could not read it so we just followed our tour guide Tola.

There was an amphitheater, I stood at one end and James at the other. I could whisper I love you and he could hear me. It was so cool. We stood there like little kids talking back and forth. There were also numerous statues and we had no idea who or what most were but Tola did his best to explain everything to us.There is a picture of James grabbing the Chinese guys beard. Supposedly this is for good luck but we don't believe in luck. We just grabbed his beard for the fun of it. As we walked down by the river it dawned on us that something was looking very familar about the area across from us. It was our hotel Dubrava. We had no idea that we were directly across the river from this beautiful park. It took us a few hours to go thru the park and we had a great time.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story and more pictures tomorrow.

FWC- We pray you have a blessed day of worship.

In His Love,

Penny, James, Luke and Micah

Little Men Trying to Fill Some Big Shoes

Happy Friday Everyone! One week and we pick up our boys. It will be here before you know it. Today the boys spent time wearing Mama and Papa's shoes. They were falling all over the place and giggling. A giggle in any language is the same (sweet to Mama and Papa's ears). They played with the flashlights for a little while. Luke kept getting his feelings hurt and kept crying because Micah has the one that was a little brighter. Also, Luke will not eat a banana with a bruise on it. He refused to eat his today because of a few bruises so Micah ate both. Micah could do a commercial for Life cereal. He'll eat anything.

We had a hard time trying to get the flashlight away from Micah when we left. I put it in my pocket and he kept searching all my pockets and even tried getting in my purse. He is a determined little boy.

The best news of the day. Rick and Melissa are official parents of Roma whose name will be Elijah, Alona who will be Annaleise, and Vysa who will be Jeremiah. The court was touch and go and they even had to call us and ask us to pray due to 2 key people not showing up for court but their facilitator came thru and the Judge awarded them custody. They are so excited. Thank you for all your prayers and lifting them up last night.

We have another big prayer request for the prayer warriors. Another couple that is here from Alabama and are in a different region were told they would not get a court date until October 17th! They sent out urgent emails and put out a message asking everyone to intercede for them that they will be able to get a court date sooner. They are going to go and meet with the judge to request a sooner date. They got here several days before we did so they are so ready to come home.

Today while waiting for a taxi at the orphanage a cat came up and was looking for some love. Sometimes we feel God sends animals to us like little angels to always lift our spirits. Mom- look real close at this cat. Doesn't he look just like Garth? We had some flavored marshmallows in our bag so I started feeding the cat one. He loved it. Now the other cat in one of the pictures is a wooden statue. I told James not to feed it. ha ha just kidding

This afternoon we went to the outdoor market. James tried to take a picture and they would not let him. The ladies were there selling chicken, pigs feet and this time there was a skinned rabbit and it still had the furry feet. That would bring a whole new meaning to lucky rabbit's foot. It looked very unlucky! We were able to get the boys each a jacket. There is one guy that sells 2nd hand clothes real cheap so we got 2 jackets for $16.00. I thought I had found me a jacket (that actually fit) when I asked the lady how much grivna she showed me a 3 and a 0 with her hand. I said dah (yes) let me try it on. Well what we thought was 30 grivna actually turned out to be 300. That's 60.00 USD so we did not get it. I think I can survive another 2 weeks.

We met back up with Rick and Melissa and had pizza for dinner. It was so delicious. We told Tola our driver nyet borsh at Dubrava. Which meant no soup at our hotel tonight. We have arranged for Tola to take us sight seeing tomorrow after we leave the orphanage. He has agreed to take 100 grivna to take us sightseeing. That's 20 USD and we will split it with Rick and Melissa. We want to get some pictures around town to give everyone a better idea of how the city looks.

Kathy- you keep us in stitches. We can just picture Pastor changing those breaks. We can't wait to get back to church and see everyone.

Pray we have hot water tomorrow. We did not have any today so we had to go European. That's means no bath to you and me. It came back on a little while ago so we got a shower really quick. Although, I'm not sure how clean the water really is but at least it was warm.

We had a full day of sunshine today. Yahoo! We love you and thank each one for your prayers and comments.

In His Love,

Penny, James, Luke and Micah

Another Groundhog Day!

Well it's another groundhog day here in Bila Tservka. Not much going on today. It was rainy and cold so we did not go outside and play. I think Melissa said we have had 10 straight days of rain. Can you imagine the sun not shining for 10 days. This is the rainy season for Ukraine and they were needing rain so they are very thankful. Don't get me wrong we are thankful for rain but when you have 2 boys full of energy you look forward to going out to play.

Today Micah got us in trouble again with his screaming and squealing. The Asst Director just walked in and handed us the key to her office. We're afraid she is going to start thinking we are trying to get him to scream so we can go play there. The boys always have a great time playing. They love the turtle computer and the rocking horse. Today Micah found a small flashlight in the backpack and so we had to find one for Luke. Thank goodness my travelon purse has a little on that snaps on the inside. They like anything that lights up. We only spent about an hour since our taxi was late.

After the orphanage we went to the supermarket to pick up a few things. They were putting out hot pizza pastries so of course we had to get them. They take pastry and melt cheese and either mushrooms, red peppers or ham on them. It's a nice change from mystery meat. James found a bottle of ketchup for the mystery meat. We will try anything to doctor it up. I found a jar of pickles that had the dill and garlic in them. Mom it's the closest thing I have had to Billy Ray's homemade pickles in a long time. We found popcorn already popped. We have not opened it yet. Hopefully it will be good. Isn't it amazing the little things that give us comfort and can make our day. God is so good.

Don't forget to pray for Rick and Melissa. They have their hearing tomorrow. We have no doubt everything will be fine. We are planning on going to celebrate tomorrow evening with a night out on the town. A trip to the local pizza parlor and the outdoor market. This time we will try to get pictures of the market.

Martha- Congratulations! Tell your daughter we are praying that she has a healthy baby and we know one grandma that will spoil that baby rotten.

Kathy- We are so glad you get chatty. We can't wait to see what words of encouragement God will give you for the day. Tell Pastor we did get his blog and tell Miss Margie we have been getting hers also.

We are down to 1 week from tomorrow and we can pick up our boys. Please be in prayer that the courts will have our documents completed by that day so there will be no delays in picking up the boys. Also pray that we have no roadblocks when we go to get their birth certificates. In this country one piece of paper can add days to your stay so we are praying against that in the Name of Jesus!

Love and Blessings to everyone,

Penny, James, Luke and Micah

Happy Birthday Rick!

Happy Birthday Rick! Today is Rick's Birthday and we celebrated at dinner with a cake and mystery meat. We sang Happy Birthday and shared in Rick's chocolate cake that Melissa bought. Now this was no ordinary cake as none of them are here in Ukraine. Let me advise those of you that come here to visit or to adopt. Most cakes you buy here have some type of liquor in them. Also, if Ukrainians find out you are celebrating something they want to celebrate with you. There was one gentleman that gave Rick his wafer cookie and then offered him some vodka. Another man turned around and we think he was saying I'm in! Russian tradition is that they drink in 3's. They were making hand gestures as to say that Rick would sleep well tonight. I bet he would. The older man seen in the picture left to go get something and told Rick to wait. Rick kept saying nyet vodka. We finally made it out of there without hurting their feelings. I bet this is a birthday Rick will never forget.

Notice in the pictures that James has rejoined the goat club. I think he looks a lot better. Also, there is a picture of me pushing the buttons in our elevator. The elevator holds about 3 people tops but we have been able to fit 4 in there.

We finally got a picture of the little puppy. She is getting so fat from everyone feeding her. She is very unique in that she has 6 toes on both back feet. Every morning when we go out to catch our taxi we play and pet her. It reminds me of home. I miss our babies so much.

We were able to get a picture of the Ukraine flag at our hotel. Ben is going to find us one when we get back to Kiev so we can hang it in the boys room when we get home. We keep trying to get pictures of some of the birds here that are very colorful and unique but by the time we get the camera they are gone.

Chris G- notice the picture of the 2 women. James said he will put you on a flight to pick out a wife. Just kidding these are 2 of the ladies that work in the dinning hall and they are very sweet.

Today was a great day at the orphanage. Not long after we were there and Micah starting his squealing, the Asst. Director came and took us to her office again. I believe they had some more guest and were trying to hide us but nevertheless we always have a great time in there. Remember, this is where all the good toys are. Micah was acutally very well behaved today. He started putting all the magnetic numbers and letters on a board and would bring them to Mama so I could clap and say bravo (which in Russian means good job). Notice how he loves to wear James' hat. Everytime James wears one he will take it off and wear the entire time we are there.

Luke is beginning to ask for juice by saying "juice" and he loves gum so much that he will say it in the Russian name but then says "please". Grandma's make sure we have plenty of sugarfree bubble gum when we get home.

Well we are counting down. Only 9 days left before we pick up the boys. We can't wait, time seems to be dragging by but it will be here before you know it. Today we were both very homesick. Not depressed just homesick. I think mine hit after we went to lunch and the only thing on the table I wanted to eat were grapes. Then Mom called and I really got homesick. I think it is all the groundhog days. We are planning on going to the market and maybe visit the boys twice tomorrow. We are hoping the weather is clearing up so we can go back to the open market. We have a few more things we need to get for the boys. maybe this time we will get some pictures. Saturday we are going to get our favorite driver (Tola) to take us site seeing so we can get some more pictures of the area.

Linda- hopefully we will be coming home around the 8th or sooner.

Love and Blessings!

Penny, James, Luke and Micah