Day 19

Wow..I can't believe we have been here 19 days.  In someway, it has gone quickly and in other ways it has gone very slowly.  We are having a great experience and as others have pointed out in our blog comments, it is a much better experience than other people have had while here.  I am just going to take the blessing from God and not try to reason it out!!   Jeff and I worked very very hard in the months preceding our trip and I am happy to take this gift from our Lord of a nice place to wait for our adoption to be completed.

Our facilitator told us we will get to see Z today!!  I am so excited...not sure exactly what time.  He is suppose be here in town after 6 pm.  We may only get a few minutes with him, but I don't care.  I can't wait to see his cute smile!!  I am also very eager to see brother and sister reunited.  As I mentioned Z remembers his sister, but L does not remember him at all.  It was also be interesting to see how L responds to sharing our attention.  She has had us all to herself whenever we visit.  We usually take her outside to play with us and she doesn't even have to share us very long with her group.  When we are with her group, she can get a bit possessive at times.  However, that is a wild bunch so they don't pay any attention.  I hope she will be happy to be with her brother and not mind sharing our attention.  From what I can tell from our visits, L is going to be our sassy one!!  Of course we haven't spent much time with Z, but he is a very quiet mannered child.  Guess we will find out soon!

During a process such as this, it is important for us as the parents of adopted children to learn about our children's birth country.  In years to come, they may have questions or want to know more.  So this morning we went on a little sightseeing to a small ancient Greek colony near the town we are staying.  We weren't able to understand what the tour guide was saying , but our English speaking friend Natalie did her best to translate for us.  There were stone houses and churches that are only the base now.  We went into what I am guessing were tombs.  In one building they had head stones, roof "tiles" in which the maker carved his name.  There were a set of stones that containing writing.  Natalie said that when a law was agreed upon they wrote it in the stone.  It made us think of the scripture in Hebrews chapter 8.
 ¹⁰This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
      after that time, declares the Lord.
   I will put my laws in their minds
      and write them on their hearts.
   I will be their God,
      and they will be my people.
 ¹¹No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
      or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
   because they will all know me,
      from the least of them to the greatest. 


During our trip today, we met a very sweet teenager, Bogdan, from Western Ukraine who spoke beautiful English.  He apologized and told us that his English was primitive.  In all reality, he spoke better English than anyone we have met here other than the fellow from Uganda.    Bogdan began studying English in his first year of school and has completed his 9th year.  He is a very smart young man.  His father is a doctor and his mother a psychologist.  His mother was there and she smiled proudly as her son spoke English with almost no accent! 

Ukraine is a truly beautiful country.  We pray we can bring Z and L here again when they get older so they can love their country of birth.

This is at the entrance of the town we visited today.  It is called Olivia. 

 View of the Black Sea

 Tombstones

 Not certain what this is, but we thought the writing looked Egyptian.  See the pyramid with the eye at the bottom right.

These were 3 homes at one point.

This is a catacomb of sorts.  We went inside.

 This is our friend Natalie with the black hat.  She is making a wish on the altar from the churches that use to be here.   The guide said the people use to bring their animal sacrifices to this altar.

 Jeff digging for a treasure.  We found a piece of a handle to a jar, perhaps...