12 Hours, $200 and One Form!

Hi folks-
We have some unexpected and welcomed downtime this Friday morning. Our translator is out doing paperwork and we are waiting for her call to tell us we are needed. The last two days have been rough. After arriving in V's town after a 14 hour train ride and 3 hour taxi ride and having gotten very little sleep, we went straight to our first appointment at a government office. Information seems to be very tightly controlled here so we received very little information about where we were going or what exactly we were doing. Just "follow....sit here....sign this....come along....walk faster." To say the least my American sense of freedom, dignity and fair play was stretched to the limit. Thankfully the second day, communication was much better. But the problem of the day was getting our first document notarized. This is the document that tells Ukraine that we were given info about V's background and health and that we desire to adopt him. We can't do anything else without this form. Well, we drove around from place to place for most of the morning trying to find a notary. There are no telephone directories here so you can't call ahead. (Want a business opportunity? Come to Ukraine and publish a telephone directory!) When we arrived at each place we found that the notary was either on vacation or unwilling to process the form. So, in the end we had to take a cab on a six hour round trip to another city, spend at least $200 on taxi fare and food just to get one form notarized. A process that took about 1 hour when we finally found someone to do it. It was a stretching experience but Beth and I both felt God sustaining and humbling us. In fact on the way back we saw a full rainbow stretching over the golden fields...felt like the pillar of fire going before us. Please pray for our patience as Beth and I are challenged by different circumstances. There is a lot we could complain about But we are reminded to be thankful in all circumstances. We are thankful for many things: safety, health (Beth has been holding up well even with all the traveling, though her back hurts today), a small but decent apartment, good food (lots of fresh fruit in Ukraine!) In the end it will be worth it to be able to bring V back with us and give him the opportunity to grow and learn about the LORD.