Daddy's Last Day

Today was bittersweet. It was Ken's last day at the orphanage because he is going home on Sunday. He needs  to get back to work and seminary. I am sad that he is leaving but I cannot wait till we are all back together again in a few short weeks. I am also excited that my mom is flying in to help out for the rest of the time we are here. That will be helpful when Ken is not here! We had to go to Kiev today (which is two hours away) to sign some paperwork. His flight leaves on Sunday so he was going to stay and visit Luke as many times as he could before he left. Well our amazing translator remembered Wednesday night that we needed to sign some forms at the US Embassy in Kiev before Ken left so I could take Luke out of the country and get a visa without him. Whew!! That was a close one! I am so thankful for her!!  So Wednesday night we requested an appointment at the Embassy and we got a reply yesterday saying that our appointment was today. The Lord is so good! Did you know that the Embassy is closed on all US and Ukrainian holidays, the weekends and the last Friday of every month? So we were so excited that the last Friday of the month was LAST Friday and not this one (April 1)!

We were able to squeeze one last visit in with Luke today before we left for Kiev (I will be back Monday). We could only visit for 45 minutes but it was better than nothing! He is so precious.

In front of the orphanage

The front door

That is the gate we will be driving through when Luke leaves the orphanage for good!!

Looking out to "freedom"

Ten more days, Luke!!

When we got to Kiev, we dropped our stuff off and headed straight for the Embassy. We barely made it on time to our appointment because traffic was terrible. Fridays are a short working day for the people here, they only work half of the day.  I think we should do this in the States. :) So their rush hour was when we were trying to get to the Embassy. Great. We made it to the appointment five minutes before the end because of traffic and we had to fill out paperwork. That was really close. I was going to take pictures outside to show you but apparently you are not allowed. Oh well. :)

This afternoon in Kiev we were able to meet up with some good friends of ours from back home. We started our adoption process around the same time and we are here in Ukraine together. They will  have their appointment on Monday, April 4th. Yay!! We are so excited for them!! Please pray for the Thieneman's  as they go to their appointment at 3:00pm (8:00am EST) on Monday.

Tonight we all (Thieneman's, our translator, and us) went to town and tried to see the circus that is in town. When we got down there all of the tickets were sold out. Sad day! So we bought tickets and will go there tomorrow night. We then headed  to dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant. It was really good homemade food. We had a great time catching up and speaking English! They are a lot of fun.

Ken and I with the Thieneman's

In adoption news:

• It is day two of our ten day waiting period. We only have ten more days until we can take him out of the orphanage!! That's right you heard me. You are thinking, "wait...shouldn't you only have 8 days left?" Well we cannot take him out on the weekend and the ten days are over on a Saturday. So we have to wait until Tuesday the 12th (offices are closed on the 11th).  I cannot wait!! 
• Ken will head out on Sunday and the Babushka (my mom) will fly in the same day. Please pray for them as they travel. 
• Please pray for the Thieneman's as they go to their court appointment on Monday at 3pm (8am Eastern).