The highlight of our day was the two hours we had with our girl! She showed us around the orphanage property which used to be a camp. There is outdoor exercise equipment, a basketball court of dirt, a soccer field of dirt, a place to ride bicycles but no bicycles that we saw, an empty above ground metal pool, a small outdoor theatre, a medical station, several buildings for school of different ages , two buildings where the children eat, and several buildings of rooms for children. Tomorrow she will show us her room and introduce us to more of her friends. Once it got too cold to be outside we came inside to talk and get to know each other better. Her English is already very good. She understands a lot and is able to speak a little to us. We are very impressed! We were also amazed at her skill in art. I asked if any art work on a wall was hers because I knew she liked drawing and being creative. She showed us her beautiful abstract painting. She is quite talented! School went long for her today so she missed lunch in order to spend time with us. We gave her some fruit and pretzels for a snack and after eating some she gave the pretzels to a friend who came and asked for something to eat.

Tomorrow the paperwork in this region should be completed and our coordinator/translator will take the train back to Kiev to submit everything to the Ministry of Social Policy. She told us today that we may not hear about a court date for up to ten business days. She will submit the paperwork on Friday because they only accept it certain days of the week. We met the lawyer and enjoyed talking with him tonight. He has some power in getting a quicker court date so we pray God will use him to get court as soon as possible.

We are looking forward to spending more time with our sweet girl tomorrow. We are praying we will be allowed to take her out of the orphanage to do some shopping and maybe give her a delicious lunch at our hotel. The hotel owner's wife and daughter do the cooking here and it is delicious. We know she would enjoy a home cooked authentic Ukrainian meal instead of missing lunch or having orphanage food.

The hardest part of our day was seeing so many orphans and wondering what they were thinking as they saw us talking and laughing. Many children stopped to ask our girl questions about us and we could not help but think about who would come for all the others. One older girl who looked to be around 14 years old stood off to the side watching us sadly for awhile. Most children desire to have a forever family and I cannot imagine how hard it is for children to see one child chosen and wonder why they have not been chosen. Our hearts break for the many children who may never get their forever family. As we spoke to our children on FaceTime we talked about how much we miss each other but they know they are loved and we will be back home together as a family. They never have to wonder about being loved nor do they have to worry about not having a forever family.

Another sad story is the couple who came to the orphanage to adopt a specific boy and found out they cannot because the boy is not available for adoption at this time. There were problems with his documents so we are unsure if or when he might be able to be adopted. We told the couple we would be praying for them which we have and will continue. As you think of them, please pray for comfort, peace, strength, and guidance that only God can give them during this terribly difficult time. We praise the Lord that He has saved us from that devastation. That could have been us coming to Ukraine to find out our first host daughter changed her mind or it could have been us if God had our dossier approved in July or August when we first wanted and our girl would not have been available. (We found out the exact date she became available for international adoption was August 20, only 10 days after our first host daughter aged out.) God has truly taken care of all the details and we are so grateful to Him. He has shown us once again that He will take care of everything. We needed that reassurance after being told worst case scenario of how long everything could still take. We are choosing to trust Him and take things one day at a time. He knows the desires of our heart to be home as a complete family in time for Christmas! He can make it happen if it is His will.

"O Lord God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O Lord and your faithfulness surrounds you." (Psalm 89:8)