SDA Appointment

After all our walking yesterday, we slept pretty well last night. We both woke up feeling peaceful about the appointment. We know how many of you are praying for us.

We arrived at the office with plenty of time before our appointment and waited our turn with our facilitator. Again, we felt a lot of peace and confidence that God was directing our steps.

We were ushered into an office at about 10:20. The social worker who met with us started with a few interview questions. The basic questions are usually: Why do you wish to adopt and why adopt from Ukraine? Our facilitator made sure to bring out Stan's mom's Ukrainian heritage. He talked about growing up with his favorite Ukrainian foods and hoping in the future to visit areas where his mother's family roots are.

As soon as we answered a few questions, our social worker began scurrying about, pulling binders off shelves and calling orphanages. Soon she was pulling out a few files on kids, mostly single girls. They explained there weren't many sibling groups available in the age range we were requesting. They finally found an 8 year old boy with a 6 year old sister. They both are listed with minor health conditions, located in the Lugansk region. There may be a couple of bureaucratic obstacles to adoption. After asking a few more questions, we both felt it was clear that the right decision was to request a referral to visit these two kids. We are expecting to pick up referral papers tomorrow afternoon and travel overnight to Lugansk. This region is in the far eastern area of the country, right next to Russia.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers. We truly sense God's initiative in every step of this journey. We are convinced that if these are the kids He wants for us, he'll open up the doors to make it happen. We wait in peaceful expectancy to see what He has next for us.

Getting dressed up for our appointment. It was still so warm, we decided Stan could go without the jacket!

A little Mary Kay as a final touch.

Outside the door to the State Department for Adoption office.

While we were waiting, our facilitator explained the statue that was located in front of the building. The characters are from a famous Ukrainian comedy called Chasing Two Rabbits. A nearly bankrupt young man starts courting a rich, homely looking girl. At the same time he is falling in love with a beautiful poor girl. The last scene of the comedy takes place on the steps of St Andrews Cathedral, located right next to the government offices.

As we were standing there we noticed Ukrainians coming by to take pictures with the statue or rub certain parts of it for luck.

Stan in front of St Andrews

Getting in on the action