Disappointing Monday

This is Long.
On Saturday Mom and I set off fairly early in the morning to go to the market. We had gone to a large market on Thursday with the help of Ira, so on this last Saturday we decided to try to find that large market again. One of the main streets in Kiev next to Independence Square is a 8 lane highway with stores on either side of it. On Saturday and Sunday they close the street to all automobiles, that way people can cross it with out having to go thru the underground walkways. We had only been walking a short distance around the square when I saw a market on the other side of the street. Lo and behold it was a full fledge market. We found everythng we needed and did not have to walk that far. We also found a lady selling umbrellas, of course it was raining but not to bad. We just hanged around the apartment for the rest of the day because of the rain.

On Sunday, we did bible study with Jacob, continue our study of the book of Judges, listen to a sermon by Ken Weliever (preacher where Mom worships) and partook of the Lord's Supper. Greogory got us tickets to a circus for that afternoon. It was very good. We saw all sorts of animals even lions, tigers and bears. We then came home to finish packing and get to bed early because the next morning at 2:00am, yes at 2:00am we had to be up and ready to go to the orphanage.

Monday- Heading to the Orphanage

Ira meet us outside of our apartment at 2:00am, with a minivan as I was told from the day before. Well when I get outsdie the so called minivan is really a 16 passenger van used for their bus system here. Ira's husband Slavic and another man were our drivers today. I was able to get a good 4-5 hours of sleep last night but mother and Richard did not do as well. It takes about 8 hours to get to the region of Kharkiv where the orphanage is located. Jacob was able to go back to sleep once we got going. The roads here are very rough and bumpy so much so that I sat next to Jacob so we would not fall off his seat. When I say rough, I would compare the roads to driving down the train tracks back home. Not all of the roads are in this bad of condition but when you have to travel 300 miles, averaging around 55 mph, and more than half of that distance on two lane roads you are ready to take a break. I was praying the tires would hold out. We arrived in the small town all in one piece, around 10:00am, near the orphanage, which is around 50 miles from Kharkiv to get the permission paper to visit the "little girl". Ira went into the Inspectors office to get the paper work and did not come back out for almost 2 hours. After we had been waiting for a while Gregory called to let us know that the older sisters of the "little girl" wanted to adopt her. They had been notified that we were interested in adopting the "little girl" but they wanted her to stay here in that area. It is very frustating since they had only visited her a couple of times since she had been placed at the orphanage and had not proceeded with the adoption themselves. Since they had not proceeded with the adoption for the last few years the "little girl" had been placed on the avaliable list at the SDA to be adopted internationaly. The Inspector requested that the "Older Sister, who is married" come by 1:00pm to sign papers to petition for adoption. The sister did come by and sign the papers, we also had to get a paper stating we had voided this adoption. So then we headed back to Kiev (by now it is 2:30pm). We got back to our old apartment around 11:00pm and we are all very tired. Ira will be talking to the SDA tomorrow to get us another appointment to view more profiles of children. She said that since this was not our fault that we should get another appointment fairly quickly and we should also be able to see newer files of children. We should know by tomorrow when our appointment is. Thank you for all of your comments. It is very supportive. Please keep us in your prayers.