. . . One . . .

"I'm okay to go," Jodie foster said quietly, sitting in the space pod that would soon whisk her across the universe. Mission control kept asking her if she was okay so she started repeating it over and over as the sound of the machine grew louder and louder. "Okay to go . . okay to go . . .okay to go . . "

Last minute scrambling to get a few more things packed for the kids: balloons, candy, books. Yesterday a lady from the Longmont newspaper called wanting to do a story on the families that are adopting from Ukraine in our area. "Yes!!" An hour just talking away about the last four years with our Boulder County fost/adopt experiences. Shared the story of my great grandpa whom I'm so proud of that had an orphanage in Ukraine. I showed her pictures. Praying Jesus will bless the story. (Its okay Kari) A raccoon visiting our garage left us a present. My fault, forgot to close the door. Cover the beds so they will be fresh when the girls come home. Give the plants I moved last summer some extra water. The dry winter kills here. Pack my crochet hook so I have something to do there. I hope I can find a yarn shop. (Poor Ukraine, someone should warn them a woman with too much time on her hands is coming with a crochet hook). Talk to Mom and give her all the phone numbers for everyone. Find out a good friend has cancer. Think about making lunch for tomorrow. Pack some more yarn. Wait for Rolan to come home. I get to be with him on this trip. I love that idea.

I'm okay to go, okay to go.

. . .Three . . .

Four years of pursuing kids. Training, paperwork, prayers. To our three foster kids and 2 foreign orphan kids for a summer, our little church has been more than gracious. We didn't drag Crestview through our dreams and passions, they put their arm around us and walked with us.

They gave us a shower to fill our closets with needed clothes and toys. The foster kids came with little or nothing and left with full suitcases. Hand me downs and gift cards to Target came for unmentionables and play clothes. Orphan kids also came at Rolan's and my invitation without asking our church's support, and again Crestview Church showered us with clothes and toys, knowing Ro and I would give all away to be left with nothing for the next group of kids. I thought they would grow tired of it.

Sunday the 4th, they took an offering for Sasha and Nastia's Orphanage. Our little church with maybe 100 people, gave almost $1,600! Now Ro and I will be able to go and buy something needed by the orphanage, help the children and their caretakers as well as stimulate the local economy. There will be joy in Slavyansk this winter! What a great witness. Jesus sends his love Slavyansk, through his servants at Crestview Church.

I'm so proud to be part of a congregation of people who are generous and compassionate, even during times when the future is uncertain. I'm humbled by their faithfulness. I'm confident they will model Jesus for our new daughters.

. . .Four . . .

The rooms are getting cleaned up. The purple room is beautiful! Starting to pack. What a chore. Okay, maybe we really don't need 55 packets of instant oatmeal. We are going to Ukraine not the wilderness. Take the 'pepcid' out of the box since it's twice the size of the container. Grouping stuff together for ease of organization. The plastic zippered bags you get when you buy sheets and blankets are good for that. I have my medicine bag, my 'thank you' gift bags in a bag, my entertaining-and-educating-the-girls bag and my . . . okay, my suitcase full of hats. My secret fear is that they will be so geeky the kids won't want them.

Remembering what a scaredy-cat I am about everything. Really getting nervous. There was a sermon yesterday morning but I had trouble focusing on it. Not that I was making mental lists or anything. I've trained myself not to worry but the nebulous fear is still with me. The worst thing to do is allow it to paralyze me. The temptation to do nothing rears its head. Nothing. Just do what Ive been doing. I've already raised kids. Hey, life doing nothing isn't so bad! Yeah, right. I would rather suffer with difficult children than be guilty of doing nothing. You know its a trick of the enemy if it makes you ineffective for the kingdom. Not an option.
Last night, rather unexpectedly, a sudden peace came over me. It was so relaxing. I knew it meant someone was praying for us. Thank you.

. . . Eight . . .

A fire just west of here in our beautiful foothills. Could smell the burning grass as the sun set and the wind blew the smoke in our direction. 1,000 homes evacuated. Whose? Where? The hills are about 5 miles away.

I got up about midnight and looked out the west window. I saw an orange glow. The wind blew hard and the glow brightened. I thought the fire was out! The wind had been fierce the past couple of days revealing local home owners' weak fences, sick trees, downing and scattering dead branches over lawns and streets. As I pulled the covers over my head, I wondered how long it would take the fire to reach us. 50 mile an hour wind. Would we get the evacuation call in the night? What would I take?!

House or no house, I'm taking the passports and dossier! Even if the house burns down, I'm going to go to Ukraine to get my kids!

. . .Nine . . .

(A peak inside the head of the expectant mother.)

Shopping. More sheets. Blankets. Eye shadow sampler for gifts. $1 ped kits for fun time with girls. Already have cheap polish.

Making another bulletin board. Cindy wants to sleep on the satin fabric leftovers.
Cat nesting materials never cease to amaze me.

Rub Tung oil all over the pine dresser. Two more coats 48 hours apart. Careful not to get any on the new carpet. Hmmmm, seems to bring out all the dirt didn't notice before. Oh, well, guess it gets sealed in.

Expect to be there over Valentines Day. It would be nice to bring a packet of stickers, cards, etc. to make with the girls. Glitter glue. Is that asking for it?
Does it wash out?

I made scarves for Sasha and Nastia. I think a light blue for Vika would be envied. A little satin yarn with this fuzzy stuff crocheted in.

I promised Sasha some girls play makeup when she was here and could find any. Target now has girls lip gloss the flavor of Cotton Candy (Lord, have mercy).

Line shelves in Purple room closet. I like 'Contact Paper'. Little pink flowers.

Finished another hat.

Can put all the paint cans away now. Seven?! How did I manage to open seven cans?

Dang, I'm pooped.

Like That Chicken

. . . with his head cut off. The one that's still running around. Yeah, that's me. WE LEAVE NEXT WEEK! I think I'm probably making more work for myself than I need to but it is a necessary distraction as well as an attempt to make things easier for myself when we get back. I'm just a little nervous. And you know, you wouldn't want to bring a newborn baby home to a dirty house or one that needs repair. Well, I don't want to bring my girls home to a house that needs attention either!

Trying to pay attention to the news as well. Have decided to bring the full length down coat, glove liners, one down and one fleece throw and wool sweaters instead of cotton in addition to the rest of the warm clothes already planned. In the middle of winter, Russia and Ukraine are in a dispute about the price of the precious natural gas that heats the boilers of Ukraine, as well as the rest of Europe. Russia has been suffering with the economic downturn, and well, let's just grab Europe by the throat, shall we? Russia says to self, "A little boost in price (okay, big BOLSHOY boost in price) will help Russian economy, dah!" This gas is piped through Ukraine to the rest of Europe and, hey, Ukraine wants a cut of the profits. Or a discount at least. Sounds fair. Russia says nyet. Cuts off gas to Ukraine. Ukraine is using reserve now. In a couple of weeks that gas will run out and . . . Did I mention that in High School, I was voted most likely to 'freeze to death in Arizona in July'?

I've made about 40 hats out of my leftover yarn so far. Say, does anyone happen to know the population of Ukraine?

A Family for Christmas

For those of you who are not Ukrainian adoption blog junkies, I need to tell you a little story. A little background: we have the great blessing of being part of a community of families that live reasonably close by that are all adopting from Ukraine. There are seven families (I can think of) that are in the process of or have adopted from Ukraine. We share needed information and wisdom obtained from the process and travel to the said foreign country and most importantly, we allow the children to visit each other in hopes of letting them know they are not alone here in this big alien country. There are other children here just like them.

One of our families we sent off in early November with much love and prayer. As is expected, they spent long and sometimes frustrating days in the old country waiting for impossibly slow paper work. They were there for some 45 days. It looked as if they would be there for Christmas. At the last minute, the last of the paperwork was secured (thank you US Embassy!). And on Christmas Eve, at 4:15 pm, the new family entered the main terminal at Denver International Airport. I was there, all smiles and hugs to welcome them home at last. I wasn't sure how many of our community would be there seeing it was Christmas Eve and all but eventually almost all the families came with Russian speaking children in tow. It was wonderful.

It was a child's Christmas in Colorado this year. What an awesome gift. What a beautiful memory.