Multiple Miracles!!!

Awesome God, Awesome Results!

Wow, a day of awe! We truly experienced a day full of God’s awesome moving of people to do his will whether they wanted to or not. Our facilitator and CBN staff said this has never been done before! So many steps, in so many cities, even for one child would be a miracle. But leave it to God!

We started the day by splitting up. Dan and Luda, translator #2, headed to the court to pick up the decrees at 8:05. Julie went to the orphanage to get Luda, our 14 year old daughter, to go to the notary (we were looking forward to that!), to pick up the girls’ old passports which we had to have to get new ones.

Picking up the court decrees was quick. So, Dan and Luda headed to the Zags to get Luda’s new birth certificate here in Berdyansk. This lady didn’t seem to agree at first this would be done quickly! After Luda talked to her and explained we were trying to get up to Zaporozhzha, she told them to take a walk and come back for it. Mean while, Julie arrived at the orphanage and the director was not in! The staff didn’t know when she would return, and they were locked in her office. However, within 10 minutes she returned and we headed out. We called Natasha (our translator #8) to meet us at the notary.

At first, the notary was not as helpful when yesterday she agreed for us to come at 8:30 (it was 9:00). She finally decided after 30 minutes to write and notarize Luda’s statement agreeing to come to America, but only after Natasha said she had a different notary we could go to (notary fees are some of the most expensive fees in Ukraine and she didn’t want to lose the business). She gave us a 1 ½ hour time line. At 9:40 Luda and Dan arrived at the notary with birth certificate #1!

At 10:00 we decided again to split up. Luda headed with Grisha to Vasylivka to start Nastia and Galina’s new birth certificates. However when she called to inform the lady she was on her way, she told Luda she was heading to Zaporozhzha for the day and wouldn’t return until Monday! Again, Luda explained our schedule. The lady agreed to stay and wait!! 11:50 Luda arrived at the office.

At 10:45, Dan, Julie, Luda, and Natasha finish at the notary and head to the hotel to pack lunch and get our cab. 11:20 Dan and Julie take Luda back to the orphanage with Grisha’s dad’s taxi and head to Vasylivka to meet up with Luda and Grisha. We arrive at 12:50 and Luda was still waiting. At 1:15 we get birth cert. #2 and #3!! We head across the plaza to get copies of them and have them notarized. What a difference experience at a notary in a small town. We were in and out in 20 minutes and she was not even in the office! They called her to come and complete our copies.

At 2:35 we pulled into the Regional Authentication office. We needed to have our 3 birth certificates verified for the embassy to verify we are the girls’ parents. Again, she was not in the office and it was not their usual day to see people so no one knew when she would return. Finally, the secretary agreed for us to leave our documents and we headed to the passport office.

At 3:05 we arrived at the passport office to turn in our new birth certificates and court decree. The lady hardly spoke to Luda and Luda had to ask if we should wait or go. The lady said I will check which didn’t seem hopeful to Luda. 15 minutes later the lady emerged and told us to continue to wait. When she returned from another office, Luda asked if we could go to the bank to pay authentication fees and return after the Registrar’s office. She said “yes” and told Luda she worked until 5 and for us to return before then.

After paying our bank fees, we arrived back at the Registrar’s office at 3:45 and she still was not in. Finally, the registrar’s arrived at 4:15 and we had our documents
by 4:25 and were off again back to the passport office. By 4:40 we had 3 new passports and had completed many days worth of documentation by the hand of God using many willing and unwilling parties!! We passed out many boxes of candy today but didn’t have to pay a single unofficial fee to anyone. (Again, another move of God)

Tonight, our girls will spend their last night at the orphanage. This must be a thrilling, sad, and anxious feeling for them. We will meet with the orphanage director tomorrow morning and head back to Kyiv in the evening. We believe God moved in such an immense way today to show us again how he is in control and will be with us in the future. Scripture for the day: But you will not leave or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Isaiah 52:12

God bless,
Dan and Julie