SDA Appointment

Thank you for your prayers! Our meeting at the SDA went off without a hitch. As best we can figure it, the English translator must have been off today because they let Oles translate for us. Actually, I was able to use a lot of my Russian telling her how we met Katya, explaining scenes from the photograph album from last summer. Masha seemed very interested. She talked about Tanya, but said that Tanya was not available yet and that Katya just became available yesterday. Interestingly, she also mentioned that since Katya really wants to be with her family (us) and we so badly want to be with her, she wants it to happen as soon as possible so we can all be together. God is so good!
After our meeting, which went ochen fast, Oles had to get some documents copied. While snow sifted down through the trees, Tim and I enjoyed strolling through the outdoor stalls on Andriyivsky uzviz (the street that winds up to St. Andrew’s catherdral, which is exactly to the left of the SDA office. I saw so much that I wanted to buy—especially an adorable matryoshka doll of Cheburashka, but we decided to wait to see if we have any money left at the end of this adventure. The vendors are so eager to sell us something; it really seems that they are more desperate than last time. We saw the babushkas sweeping the snow of the sidewalks with their twig brooms. Too cool!
When Oles was finished, we toured St. Sophia’s cathedral and museum. The oldest church in all of Eastern Europe: unfortunately, St. Sophia is more of a museum and no long used for services. The mosaics made me want to try to do this! The combinations of colors and the feeling of praise elicited from these art works is awe-inspiring (for me—I doubt either Tim or Oles were quite as impressed—Tim just countered that he was impressed with the 9th century mosaic floor).
Well, that is all for now. We are off to the post office, some shopping, a visit back to Volodymyr Cathedral and dinner with Karen Springs and Oles (Indeeskom—yum!) It would appear from this vantage point that the next hurdle (and prayer request) will be with the authorities in Shorc, where Katya was born. There is a possibility that they would make us wait to adopt Katya until Tanya becomes available because of the law regarding separating siblings in the same orphanage. So I’ll end as I started: Thanks for your prayers.

Oh - Barak Obama is big news here - on the same plane as the Beattles and Vladimir Putin (as you can see from the picture here).

Charlene