In some ways, this is a difficult update to write, because the past few days have been something of an emotional roller-coaster. We are now only 5 days away from leaving for Ukraine, so emotions are very high right now. We have been able to make some preparations to the girls’ bedroom and and we have Mikaela’s carseat installed in our minivan and ready for her. We were a bit concerned about moving Josiah to the backseat, since he would be so far away from us, and we were afraid he would be lonely and frustrated. To our surprise, he loves it. Since he now sits behind Gabriela, and she is still rear-facing, the two of them can see each other and talk as we drive. The result is that both of them are even more cheerful and pleasant in the car than they were before. We have also bought most of our travel essentials, and even have some of our bags about half-packed. This has been exciting, and encouraging.

On a more discouraging note, we are still short of the funds that we need to complete this adoption, and we had really hoped that God would have provided everything by this point. We both still feel very confident that God will provide everything we need, and we expect that a miracle will happen soon, since we only have 5 days left. We hope that very soon we will be able to write a post telling all about that miracle.

Please don’t stop praying for us. Of course we ask you to pray that God will provide all the remaining funds in the next five days, and that He will keep Mikaela safe while she waits for us. We also ask that you will pray about our safety for the six weeks that we are gone. Violent crime is VERY rare in Ukraine, and we are very thankful for that, but petty crime is very common, and we are afraid that we will be prime targets since it will be clear that we are American. Also, disease and parasites are common in Ukraine, and we don’t want for any of us to get sick (especially the children). Also pray that we will not be discouraged as we wait for God to act. We want to give God all the glory as He works in this adoption. We want to set a good example for our children, and we want God to increase our faith and bring us closer to Him and to each other during this whole process.

Thank you for your prayers and your encouragement.