Relief!

Relief

Just a few days back

Tickets

We are starting to think about tickets. We will need to purchase them at least a week in advance of leaving. Keiv, and the journey there, then paperwork at the American Embassy will take at least three days. Right now we are at the point where (follow this) the application--- for the application is being made for changes in the birth certificates. The real application can not be made until the....

Yesterday, behind the scenes.

The Pass Ports are done in Kiev, or so I was told today. Although the photos and application are done here in Zaporosia, the printing of the passport is carried out in the capital city. Tomorrow someone is going to hand carry our two girl's passports four hundred kilometers so we can give them to the girls. Official documents in hand the government official will then award the girls to Susan and my custody and we can “begin” to take them home.

Yesterday at the Orphanage

How did it look where we were standing?

We were visiting and everyone was outside. We had talked with the girls but they were not right with us when THE! call came. “passports will be here at three o'clock Friday”

I call Alessia over and tell her. She was just relieved. We tell her again. Yes we will get pass ports on Friday “Tomorrow”. Alessia gets her sister over and we tell them again. The pass ports will come tomorrow. They are happy. But the word relief keeps coming back to me. I think they are both saying, “this is really going to happen!”

We miss the next two buses as we make plans for tomorrow. It is going to be a full day starting with an eight thirty AM pick up and going (and waiting) all day. If all goes well, around four PM, the girls will walk out of their orphanage for the final time. When we board the van and are driven away, they will not ever have to return.

Overview

I thank you to all the people at the orphanage. They have kept our girls safe for the last three almost four years since the passing of their mother. I can not praise them enough. The girls have told us of teachers who care for them and the Baptist missionaries (different than in the states) who I see every day spending time with the children. I watch the Director and I am convinced she knows not only the name, but also the strengths and faults of each of her children. Today I watched her as she spoke in a “scold” to one of the teen boys. I can see and am convinced behind her words he knows she cares about him.

What is it that even in the environment where children receive care and love they still long for someone they can call their own Mom and Dad? I do not know and I do not think the answer can be found but I can see in the eyes of each of the children. They are looking for their Mom and Dad to come through the gate.