Facing the Nikopol finale!

As I am getting ready this morning, I am extremely excited in knowing that this is our last full day in Nikopol, because tomorrow we will be leaving here for Kiev. It is surreal and yet very refreshing to know that after tonight I will no longer have to walk away from my daughter knowing she is falling asleep in an orphanage. Personally, I am ecstatic to leave Nikopol because I have fallen into a routine that is drab and mundane due to my limitations. Truly the only exciting things I have going for me is I get to go see my sweet Ayla Marina everyday and I get to skype back home to my lovely wife Kate and beautiful baby girl Chandler. For the most part I walk about 30 minutes in the cold, and rain sometimes, stopping off at the supermarket Billa to pick up 3 pork meatballs, a Fanta, and some candy for her groupa. I hang out with all of the kids, spending a good bit of my time with my daughter and picking her up to hold her, then head back to the apartment around 5, stopping off at one of two resturants, Palermo's for pizza or Cafe Penguin for palmeni. Yesterday I made my own Ukrainian salad at home from crab, corn, salt, pepper and mayonnaise just to break the cycle.

Yesterday was a fun filled day, I got to the orphanage around 10:30 and at 11 they held a orphanage wide Fiesta, singing, dancing, acting, then afterward they all went upstairs to the indoor play area and had tons of food that the kids were able to buy with the paper money they earned from working and participating. They had music, everyone was dancing, some of the food was really good, some not so much, they sold second hand clothes/purses/dresses/shoes for really cheap to the kids.  You know it is not a true Ukrainian party until a group of all boys end up wearing the heels and dresses they bought over their clothes. Akward, yet very funny.

Tomorrow we will say goodbye to all of the caregivers that have taken great care of Ayla for the last 2 and a half years, to all the kids who have become her family, to the instructors who have cultivated her gifts in singing and dance, to all the people who run the orphanage and make it a great place for a child that has no family feel like they belong. I pray for all the kids in Ayla Marina's group that they will experience love and the hope of the Gospel very soon, that they will family will be restored or renewed through adoption. I pray for Marianna, Olya, Anastia, Amalia, Katya, Dasha, Leina, Julia, Dianna, Zenya, Dennis, Sasha, and Angelo. They are truly great kids and a couple of them will be adopted soon by Spanish families but the others are left wondering if the next 8 years will entail them being raised by caregivers in the only home they have ever known.


Praying for safe travels to Dnipropetrovsk tomorrow, praying our Embassy and medical visits go through without delay, praying that our travels to Amsterdam/Memphis/Monroe will all pass by quickly, and praying that when I tuck my children into bed on Oct 16 that the peace of God and the hope of the gospel will begin to live through our family. I love you Lord, I love you Kate, and I love my precious daughters Ayla and Chandler. After 9 years and now three weeks apart, we will soon be a family of four, 5 days! All praise, honor, and glory to the one who deserves it, thank you Abba Father.

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