Friday, March 18, 2011

We started the day with this frame of mind: Psalm 100:4 Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. We recounted the many things we are thankful for today:

A great team of people working for orphaned children in Ukraine.
That Lucas gets to be part of this expeditition.
Internet access for both laptops (finally) and the ability to continue personal and business communication.
Smooth transition for all of us with little or no jet-lag.
Quick settling into lodging and life in a foreign country.
Finding a new routine that encompasses our daily disciplines.
Those that came last year and the insight they shared.
Grace for the challenges of international adoption.
Faith.
The voices in prayer adding their petitions daily.
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That's how the day began and the rest of the day was even more amazing:

• A concert at the orphanage.
• Official re-naming of Oleksandr Koshevyy.
• A high level family meeting entertaining 8 more adoptions.
• The impact of new admissions - a sibling group of 3.

If we don't get to all of the these tonight we will in the next few days. The clock striketh midnight and at least one of us needs our beauty sleep.......

Today we were invited to the orphanage for a special production of we-don't-know-what-because-we-don't-understand-Russian. All 25 of the children performed with the help of a teacher and a director - complete with costumes, singing, dancing and narrative.

The purpose of the event was to prepare a fundraising video by the owners of Moscow company. Those 2 plus a management team of 10 came to visit the orphanage, film the video and bless the children with toys and a computer.

The staff of the orphanage were on their top game. The Moscow company owners brought their best contributions. The children were completely themselves - displaying their gifts to act, dance, narrate, support. They were unified in one other goal - to help and encourage each other.

Stay tuned. We have precious video footage and will try to send tomorrow - uploading on this network is taking too long for tonight.......