We arrived in Kyiv on Saturday afternoon & checked into our first apartment. We didn’t have anything we needed to do until Monday. At that point, we had to go to the US Embassy to apply for visas and then take the girls to medical examinations in order to get the visas the following day. We had planned to leave Kyiv on Wednesday after receiving visas on Tuesday. Well, God had other plans. We’ve seen a lot more of Kyiv than we anticipated as we have been here for just over a week. We were very nervous about our US Embassy paperwork because Jack was the only one adopting. That went fine. We never expected to have a problem with the medicals, but when Zhenya’s chest x-ray came back “abnormal” and they took a second x-ray, we started getting nervous. When they told us the news that she would have to stay 3 more days to do a “spit test” (not the official word, I know), we were so disappointed and upset. We were at the point of tears and Zhenya just held her head down. She must have been thinking we were upset with her. After realizing there would be no way around this delay, I just prayed for peace. We have known God is in control through every situation and I knew there must be some reason He wanted us to stay a little longer. I’m not sure we’ll ever know why, exactly, but I do know these extra few days alone with the girls have been very good for us as a family.
We’ve spent a lot of time together doing things here in Kyiv and just hanging out in the apartment. The girls are very excited about going home and last night, Zhenya even returned my kiss when I kissed her good night. Every night I hug & kiss the girls and tell them that I love them. Last night was the first time that I heard three little voices say “me too”. God knows what’s best for us!
Enjoy the pictures… I’ll have more to post later, but we’re headed to the airport – can’t wait to be home! Thank you for your prayers!!!
