Things are moving

Dear Family & Friends,

I heard from Jim yesterday afternoon and he sounds great. Yesterday was a very full day of traveling to several towns to accomplish what they needed to. At 8 am yesterday they packed into Andre's car (Albina's husband) and they headed over to the town of Lidizjan--apparently the roads were pretty slick and down to only one lane.

They arrived at the birth certificate office to find our pastor-friend, Sasha, whom we had met the week before! Jim said that Sasha knew they were going to be there but he hadn't asked him to come, but Sasha came anyway to help make sure that everything went smoothly obtaining Roma's birth certificate.--very thoughtful. While at the office Jim had to state Roma's name at birth and when he said his last name (Likhenchenko) Sasha's eyes widened--yes, he knew Roma's birthfather!! Amazing!!! Jim was floored and couldn't believe it...he was able to learn a little bit more about Roma's birthparents (which will mean much to Roma when he gets older) and found out how they are doing...his birthfather is a well-known plumbing, heating, HVAC guy in the town and very well respected! He and his wife (birthmom) were married when they had Roma and are just a little younger than Jim and I. Sasha said that they are very sweet people and have had a lot of heartache in their life as they did have another child, a baby girl, who lived for a short while after birth but died. Jim asked Sasha to tell Roma's father about us and that their son is being adopted by a "good American family"...Sasha said he would do that. Jim also encouraged Sasha to share the Gospel with them as Jesus is the only hope of this life--especially as they have had much suffering and are in need of the Good News. Simply amazing...Jim said that all of the birth certificate hoo-ha could have taken 2 days but they were able to have it all done in a matter of hours--answered prayer!

After the birth certificate office they had to travel all the way to Vinnytsa to have the birth certificate authenticated...then after that they had to travel to Nemirov to have copies of the birth certificate notarized. (Apparently the notary in Nemirov is related to someone either at the courthouse or orphanage and she knew all about us and was more than happy to help--another answered prayer!) They finally arrived back in Tulchyn at 6 pm--enough time to go and see Roma!

Jim said that Roma was sooooo excited to see them last night...he was probably wondering where they were! They arrived just in time to "hear" him get his bath/shower--more like hose down! Jim said that they allowed him and Matt to wait outside the bathroom door while he got "clean"--Roma screamed and cried as they hosed him off...the worker told Jim that the water was very cold (I'd scream too!)...Jim said that they really didn't clean him b/c he still had remnants of his dinner on his face when he came out! Nonetheless they really enjoyed playing w/him and he w/them...it was great...won't be long now before they can take him out of there.

Now, there is still a lot of paperwork that has to be done and officials who have to "officialize" things...Today they have to take the authenticated birth certificate over to the Tulchyn police station (I am not exactly sure why as we did not have to do this last year in Kherson)...they told Svetlana that if the passport office called from Vinnytsa that they would expedite whatever it is that they have to do w/the documents and that would mean that today they could go and apply for the passport! This would be fantastic and great...Please pray to this end! (f they don't get all that they need by tomorrow it will be a setback b/c the weekend will be here and everything is closed. It would also mean that Jim most likely would have to change his tickets to a later date and come home alone, as Matt has to come back by the 17th. If we think too much about it all we get anxious, so we are trusting God and asking Him to make the paths clear and make a way where there doesn't seem to be one.)

Please pray for the passport officials to be merciful and that God would put it on their hearts to complete the paperwork and process his passport in one day...pray that the Lord's favor would continue to go before them in all things.

Pray for Roma as his whole world is about to change...if they do get his passport today or tomororw they could be traveling to Kiev as early as Friday or Saturday! It will be a HUGE change for him and he will have many fears. Pray for all that is about to take place...

All of us here at home are fine...just getting things ready for Daddy and Roman and counting down the days. Nicholas has an ear infection and Kaitlyn has had an increase in asthma but overall we are fine. God is carrying us in this time of separation...He is faithful!

Thank you for praying and holding us up in prayer before the Lord...we love you!
Love,
Karen & Jim (and Matt too!)