Nothing much new, but a BIG prayer request

We had a quiet Saturday. I start each morning with my devotions and prayer - it makes all the difference in my day. For the first week after we arrived, that wasn't how I began my day. To be honest, I think that was the reason for my meltdown last weekend. I was forgetting the most important thing - God. Once I got my priorities back in order, I was at peace again knowing that God sustains me in this journey. It doesn't matter that I can't see what will happen in the future. It doesn't matter that I can't plan for/anticipate every need that our sweet daughter will have. What matters is that I trust God. He brought us to this point in our lives. He knew that she needed us as much as we wanted her. He knows what the future holds. And even when I am weak, His strength is made perfect in my weakness. What a comforting thought. I don't have to be strong all of the time. I can lean on God and He will lift me up. He will give me what I need to care for our daughter. I am so thankful for that reassurance!

It was quite cold here today - know for everyone back home in Minnesota, I am not even going to pretend that weather here is anything close to the blizzard that you are having right now. Cold here is mid 30's and pretty gloomy. I will take this over the 1-2 feet of snow and below zero temps that are predicted there. But, it was cold enough that we had another day inside.

Little one was just finishing her bath and getting dressed when we arrived. This gave me a few minutes to love on the other kids in her groupa. They are so sweet. Two little girls and one little boy were so happy to play with me - giving me their toys to look at. I just wanted to scoop them all up and hug them tight. I resisted since I wasn't sure that it would be acceptable. As Mark mentioned, another family was there visiting a little boy. They were a Ukrainian family and the little guy was about 18 months old. Their son (around 12 yrs) was with them. It made for a pretty cramped visiting room today. Lots of time spending drawing. We usually bring some food with for little one so she gets used to the idea that we provide for her in that way. She loved the apple and pear slices we brought. Yesterday at the market, we also found a Ukraine version of Cheerios and so brought a small container of those. BIG HIT!! Little one was eating those at the end of our visit - she really didn't want to go back to her groupa, wanted to stay and have some more of her treats.

Had my first real success in trying to cook with foods here. I made a really yummy lemon chicken soup for dinner tonight. Enough for leftovers tomorrow which will be nice.

Olga plans to arrive tomorrow afternoon in anticipation of our Monday morning court date. This is where my BIG prayer request comes in. The standard is for a 10 day waiting period after court. This is to allow time to contest the adoption if anyone wishes. From what we understand, this waiting period is never waived here in our region. However, Olga is willing to ask the judge to waive the waiting period anyway. So... I am asking you to join us in praying for a miracle. Please pray that the judge's heart will be moved to either waive the 10 day waiting period entirely or even just shorten the waiting period to 5 or 7 days. If this happened, it is possible that we could be home before Christmas. From a human perspective, this seems impossible. But, we have a God who specializes in making the impossible happen - a God who delights in surprising us with miracles. My devotion this morning said "ask and you shall receive." Would you ask on our behalf, share our prayer request with anyone/everyone you know and ask them to pray for this waiver to happen? We appreciate it so much!