Bumps and blessings

We found out that Joshua's passport did not arrive with Lily's today at the passport office as promised....which presents a major bump in the road.

They contacted the US Embassy and they said that they could bring the paperwork and one visa in Thursday morning and then bring Joshua's passport on Monday and they will complete everything for the 2 visas Monday. A friend of Irina our translator will pick up and mail the passport to us, so Irina will be able to go with John and the kids to Kiev.

So, they won't be able to come home on the weekend as we'd hoped, but we are thankful that they will still be able to get done on Monday (if they'd required his passport to start the 2 day process, they would have had to push their flights out another day) and that Irina can stay with them, which will help immeasureably as they travel with the little ones.

When they went to get the bus tickets (with aircondition) they were sold out, and after seeing the options they thought they would have to take the most expensive train (around 500 dollars) but when they went to buy them, the lady said that other seats on the cheaper air conditioned train would be opening up if they waited a little bit ...and they did! This cost about a third the price of the other train, and half the price of the bus they were going to take. That was a blessing to my already discouraged husband and reminder that God was working things out for good.

THey will travel from midnight to early morning to Kiev, be picked up by our friend Yuri to go back to the guest house they stayed in on our first trip. Our facilitator Anatoly will take them to get medical exams and then to the Embassy Thursday morning. Then they will have 3 days to wait...hopefully they will be restful and I know the girls would like to sightsee a little bit and see our friend Taras there too and get a sourvineer.

I was so hoping they'd get home early -especially for John to have a day or two in the weekend to rest before returning to work-- but I will try to focus on the positive...and count our blessings....

John and the kids are all healthy and have not even needed to use the nebulizer or emergency asthma medicine or antibiotics...

The translator is with them, and people we know in Kiev, like Yuri and Taras and Anatoly will be there to help them....

The children are out and they are getting very close to coming home to a family....

The Embassy could have required them to come back Tuesday but they are working with us so they can still fly home Tuesday morning to arrive Tuesday night around 8:00 pm!

The kids here are doing well and for the moment everyone is healthy....

I will have 3 extra days to pack and organize before everyone is home....

For all these things, I give thanks to God, who is ultimately in control and who is loving and good.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whom does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."
Psalm 121:1

(we've been memorizing this psalm and it is so precious to hear our 3 year-old Elsie say this verse) Its been a good reminder for us to put our trust in God during this challenging time for our family.