Made it to Odessa

Yesterday was a whirlwind, but we made it to Odessa as the passport office was closing at 6:00 p.m.  It started off by being picked up at 8:45 a.m. by a woman from Odessa who knew no English and her son who knew a little English.  They were hired by my facilitators to get the documents we needed and get me to Odessa.  We went to court and waited for the judge to show up to sign off on our documents, then drove to the Social Worker (who made the woman working with me run down the street to make photocopies...don't get me started about the inefficiencies of this country:).  We then drove about an hour to John's birth town and waited a long time there to get his birth certificate.  After that we drove very fast back to the orphanage where they were supposed to have all of John's documents ready.  Unfortunately, nothing was prepared so papers had to be filled out, copies made, etc.  We waited for two hours for the documents to be prepared. Finally, I was able to walk out the doors of the orphange with John - Yipee!!!!  Then we sped to Odessa and made it to the passport agency just as it was closing-thank you Lord!!!  John had never remembered driving in a car so he was silent most of the way to Odessa, just staring out the window.  He did point out the red and green traffic lights, which I assume he'd learned about at the orphanage.  He knew that red meant stop and green meant go.  Thankfully, a couple from the U.S. who are missionaries in Odessa, invited us to spend the night with them.  What a huge blessing that was!  We got dropped off at their awesome 100 year old apartment where they had dinner sitting on the table for us.  Their three girls, aged 10, 9, and 6 entertained John and spoke to him in Russian whenever necessary.  I was so happy they could help John  transition from the orphanage to the real world.  John slept like a rock and we got up this morning to breakfast and plenty of toys to play with.  We will go pick up his passport at 11:00 a.m. and then drive to Kiev where we will stay with Karen Springs who just officially opened her hospitality ministry, where American families can stay while they are adopting here.  I'm thrilled that we will be staying with her.  Please continue to pray for the last days of this process.  John still needs his physical exam and to get his visa, which means lots more paperwork!  Thankfully, all the things that Paul needed to sign and get notarized arrived in Kiev on Monday. We're almost finished and I'm so happy that I'm getting closer to going home!