One day and counting!!!

(To the right: Luda and girls from orphanage, and Galina with her teacher and classmates)

Hello Everyone!

Well, we have one more day left in our ten day waiting process. The ball drops on Friday morning and we will be off to all of the different places to gather all of the documents and head to Zaporozhzha. We spent the first part of the morning getting all of our documents together for our visit with the Passport Office tomorrow here in Berdyansk. Anya has been keeping us on task with itineraries and checklists everyday from Kyiv, thank God for her!

Today we had coffee with Misha, Luda, and their son, Paul, in our hotel room as they were handing off packages for us to take back to the US for them. Afterwards, it was off to the market again. Even if you just go to look, it really does feel good to get outside for a bit. We have learned not to speak too much out there. Otherwise, the vendors go ahead and tell their friends that the Americans are there, and sure enough, our prices seem to magically increase, sometimes by as much as double. There are some really good vendors though. They like trying to speak English to us, while we do our best to butcher their language. It’s OK!

(Below: Dan and girls near a kiosk)



We had a good day with the girls. They really enjoy seeing our taxi driver, Grisha. He has become our primary mode of transportation for most places here outside of walking distance. We had more English lessons today, trying to learn the basics. We basically thought of the things we always have to tell Jacob to do and tried to teach the girls. It went pretty well. I think they are looking forward to going to Kyiv on Saturday and seeing Anya again. Julie and I definitely are. We can’t wait to see all our friends there and to be one step closer to being home.

We have enjoyed the wonderful and supportive emails from people back home. It is such a blessing to have friends and family like we do. Thank you all for your support. We can’t wait to get home to be with our family again. We continue to ask for prayer and favor from God for a safe and expeditious return to the States as the time approaches where one thing can hold you up for days (AKA a Ukrainian notary).

God Bless,
Dan and Julie