Patience

Today was a day of patience for all of us. We were to be ready to leave from Lela's today at 9:30 AM to be at the Internot at 10:30 to pick up Dina so she could drop off some documents at court. We arrived at the Internot on time and Viktor went in to get her. He came back with a disappointed look on his face. He told us that Dina said we were to come back at 12:30 PM and then she would be ready to go. So not knowing what to do, since yesterday we had just been shopping at the Center AND the day before that, Viktor took us to a mall that was in the area. This is where Viktor's patience kicked in as he doesn't like to shop! I asked him if he knew of a store in the mall that sold tea sets and he said, "I don't know...my wife may know but I don't know." I was hoping, maybe, there would be a directory of some sort he could take us to look at, but we ended up going up an escalator, walking around each floor trying to find a shop which might have something of which I was looking. We ended up finding nothing much but clothing stores at this mall and besides, everything looked expensive. We left and went back to the Internot as it was close to our 12:30 pick-up time for Dina. We arrived, and once again Viktor went in. While he was inside the usual group of dogs were waiting patiently by the Internot's door for someone to open it so they could go in. They aren't really suppose to go in, they just do sometimes. Well, Viktor came back and told us we needed to wait a bit. So we did and were entertained by the dogs outside. One little boy from the Internot who had come outside opened the door and allowed the dogs to go in. We all got a chuckle out of this because he had to push one of the dogs from behind as that dog didn't want to go in. Later we again noticed the door open and all the dogs were shooed out. Viktor received a call on his cell phone. It was Dina and apparently she wasn't coming. We would need to come back at 4:00 PM. Dina told Viktor for us to wait 15 minutes and she would send Natasha out. At 2:00 PM we saw Natasha come out and "boy" was she a sight for sore eyes!

We all went and ate at the famous Elvis McDonald's and wanted to get a picture of the girls next to him but it was extremely busy when we were there so we opted to do it another time (plus the look on Natasha's face was priceless, which indicated "no way" when I told her we wanted to take a picture of all of them together with Elvis.) After eating, we went to the store and picked up some things we needed at Lela's. When we got back to the Internot Dina was finally ready to go and we said goodbye to Natasha and were on our way to the court house. Viktor and Dina went in and were out quickly. We then dropped Dina off at her home. The whole process took maybe 20 minutes, yet we had to wait a whole day in order to have it accomplished. So we are growing and learning to be patient as we head toward the finish of this adoption process.

The good news is that we DO have court tomorrow...it will be at 12 noon instead of 10 AM. Galina called us tonight and said that court would probably last an hour and then she would be on her way back to Kiev. She said she is going to try and ask for the date of the 28th for the court's final decision (if they don't waive the 10 day waiting fee) so that we can get through the US Embassy processes before the holidays begin. This would work out well if we can get in the US Embassy the 29th and 30th, we then could leave for home the 31st. This is the date of our return flight which was originally booked. We wouldn't need to reschedule the return flight. The thing is we will still need to book an extra seat for Natasha. Also, to find a place to stay overnight in New York City on New Years Eve! It will be interesting to see what God has planned for us.

Thanks for your continued prayers as we are feeling a bit more rested. Hopefully, we all will be over these colds in the next few days. Galina goes back to Kiev at 6 PM so she won't be around long in chance of catching our colds. We are hoping, if we end up waiting, that we will be able to get some things done here in Odessa.

We request prayers for booked seats for the plane, doctor and other appointments needed at the US Embassy for when we need them...this would be great.

In the meantime we wait patiently for Natasha to legally become ours. She has already become ours in our hearts. It is SO difficult to send her back and not have her with us. We think she is feeling the same way as she always wants to stay longer than she is allowed. When we were out shopping on a really cold day, she didn't want to return early even though we could tell she was freezing. Michelle told us she didn't care and just wanted to stay with her Mama and Papa...bless her heart!

Pictures of the Internot dogs and Lela's sugar bowl (this is what I was trying to find at the mall. We have been using a lot of sugar for our coffee and Natasha's tea. One similar would be a nice remembrance to have at our home in recalling our time of getting to know one another while at Lela's.)