Gotcha Day...almost

I had to make my first official mommy decision regarding Blake today...and it was a tough one.  It was a decision in which my head was saying one thing and my heart another...my heart wanted to break him out of the orphanage today FOREVER and keep him with us all weekend...but my head said I should leave him in the place he is most comfortable and cared for at this time, until we are ready to leave this region.  You see, we cannot fly out of here until Monday morning so we are waiting out the weekend in Lugansk--where I know my way around, feel most comfortable, and apartment rent is much cheaper.  So my heart was desiring nothing more than to spend the weekend with the little guy in my arms, showing him the sights of his hometown, beginning to create a bond. 

But, if we had busted him out of there today and he were to get sick we would have no place to take him--as the orphanage has no right to provide for him anymore and because of the court decree he is considered a partial US citizen...so...we would have been in a bad situation had he gotten sick.  In addition, our apartment does not have an extra bed and no one could come up with a playpen for us to use..so we would have gotten creative with sleeping arrangements.  So, I finally elected to leave him there until Sunday...I know, it stinks, but I feel it was in the best interest of Blake.

In other news, we were able to acquire the passport this morning, despite the registration office being closed today...how does that happen??  Thanks to a lot of prayers.  A few people went beyond the call of duty and helped us out.  Praise God!  In addition, the director of the bank we needed to use to close out Blake's government bank account was in meetings all day and was going to attempt to teach another bank representative how to do this process--which usually takes 2 hours.  Well, we went over the lunch hour, and lo and behold, the director of the bank was able to get away from her meetings to help us out! We were in and out of there in 1 hour!!!  Can I get an AMEN!  My mom and I walked away from there amazed and in awe of the answer to the prayers today.  We were completely humbled.  So thank you again.

We also took some time this afternoon to restock the diaper supply at the orphanage, as well as purchase some more tights that each of the children wear under their clothing (Ukrainian tradition).  And we personally delivered some handmade afghans for the baby room by a loving woman in Oklahoma.  The staff was so grateful and appreciative of this donation, as they are always needing diapers, as you can imagine.  We actually already signed Blake out of the orphanage today, we went over his schedule with the assistant director, discussed what types of foods he eats, how his food is prepared, etc.  That was great to know.  Again, we are so blessed by the care of his orphanage. 

In addition, another prayer request is that Sarah Basile and baby Mila (and Mike) are heading home tomorrow.  Praise God.  They are at the end of their journey and it feels so amazing to have even shared half of the joy and excitement with them. Jump over and congratulate their family and encourage them in this last leg of this journey.  Please keep them in your prayers as well.

So these pictures will have to do for now...2 more days and he's out of there!!

 

What we have left to do...Monday morning we will fly to Kiev and have our U.S. embassy interview and medical appointment.  If we pass those both, we will be issued our Visa Tuesday afternoon, and fly home Wednesday morning.  Please keep all of these steps in your prayers.  We learned this week that the Visa department's printing services have been broken down all week so they have been telling people to come back next week to finish--so pray that the department is up and running consistently and that we are able to acquire our Visa by Tuesday afternoon.  Thank you for all of the prayers thus far, we are almost there!