I would so appreciate your prayers

This shot of St. Andrew's shows just a corner of one of the vendor's stalls (bottom left.) There is a lovely view of the city from the deck of this church. We didn't go inside this time.This view of St. Andrew's shows how close the church is to the SDA building (on right)

This was a beautiful tree we saw in our travels--same tree above and below at different points in the light-sequence

This is the entry-way to the funicular which is a tram-like mode of transportation up the hill to St. Michael's

Kevin bought me this lovely dried flower arrangement and a stuffed cow--in celebration of Ukraine's upcoming Year of the Cow.

Sorry not to have any exciting updates on our adoption. Yesterday our translator called to say that both she and her husband were sick at home. She did mention that the inspector was still working on her own paperwork so that particular paperwork would not be taken to the court as we'd hoped-actually no paperwork can be submitted to court until it is all complete. We were supposed to be ready by 9 am today so we could go visit with Steven (it is hard to remember to call him that . . . smile) and then do paperwork followed by helping make gingerbread houses at their friend's house. Well, Nastya called saying that both she and her daughter are sick today. Bless her heart--you can tell she is frustrated with not being able to do the things she needs to do. But Alexi was working on getting our stuff submitted to the court. It's now 1:15 so I'm assuming we aren't going anywhere today.

I keep reminding myself that God knows all about these delays and that they do not take him by surprise. You know though that we've been told that courts close for the year on Friday, Dec 26 and we've heard that many government offices don't open again until at least mid-January. There is just no way I want to hang around here until then. I knew we'd probably have to come back for a 2nd trip but of course was hoping to get court the first trip so our 2nd trip could be quite short and sweet (otherwise there's the mandatory 10-day wait after court) Honestly, being gone from my family when it doesn't seem like we're accomplishing much here anyway is getting to me--and the fact that Christmas is just 2 days away is adding to my kind of gloomy outlook. It's hard to be this honest in front of the whole world--because I really like to think I'm pretty tough and together--but I know I really need your prayers. The fact that we haven't been getting any mail from home also makes me feel very disconnected from my kids, family and church. Our inbox has received about 3 Reece's Rainbow digests in the last two days so that gives me hope that it might be working again.

Enough gloom. Yesterday Kevin and I went on a shopping trip. We started right down on Independence Square and then made our roundabout walking way to Andrevisky Street (I have no idea how to say it correctly little alone spell it, but you who have been to Kiev know what I mean) Thankfully we remembered to take hand and foot warmers--lovely. This is so cool . . . remember last time we were here I missed the opportunity to buy a set of nesting dolls that I REALLY wanted and hadn't been able to find the seller when I went back to make the purchase??? Well, we found him again and you can be sure I didn't make the same mistake twice. There is so much pride in this particular man's work and he puts so much detail into the dolls he makes-clothing style, hairstyle, instruments, foods, animals, etc. I have actually prayed for this man several times over the intervening months and am just in awe.

We have continued to see a big fluctuation in the comparative value of the dollar and the grievna. We have exchanged as low as 6:1 and last time was 7:1. We missed out at the 9+:1. The rapidly changing market makes it weird when you're purchasing something because of course you're trying to do the math in your head to see the relative cost in dollars.