I think that Kristie mentioned in an earlier post that Mikaela is doing much better developmentally than either of us had dared to imagine. She rolls over—both from her back to her front and from her front to her back—, grasps objects well with each hand, blows raspberries, makes excellent eye contact, and the orphanage workers have told us that she also imitates sounds and words, though we haven’t seen that ourselves just yet. We didn’t know what to expect from her when we arrived here, and she has surprised us greatly. Words can’t express how thankful we are for all of the progress that she has made, and it makes us want all the more the get her home with us so that she can really blossom.

Yesterday we learned a bit more about her present medical condition. She has conjunctivitis (pink eye), and this is not the first time she has contracted it, as the doctor mentioned that Mikaela has struggled with this before. The doctor was also concerned about Mikaela’s weight. For the first nine months of her life, she gained weight consistently and well, but in the last month she has suddenly plateaued. They would have liked to have seen her gain somewhere between 400 and 500 grams last month, but she only gained about 100 grams. These two things concerned her, and so she sent us to the pharmacy to get some medication for her. We brought it with us this morning, and we are praying that the medicine for her conjunctivitis will work and that the medicines for her weight gain will allow her to gain weight again. The fact that she has continued to eat normally over the past month has us concerned that she has a parasite in her little system. This wasn’t unexpected, but it’s still not pleasant to hear, obviously.

Given all this, and the fact that we don’t know how serious is her heart condition, we were hoping that we might be successful in petitioning the court to waive the ten-day waiting period that begins immediately after our court date on June 9. That, however, looks nigh impossible. The courts in Simferopol have apparently never waived that waiting period, and they have given no indication that they would ever consider doing so. (This ten-day period gives the biological family of a child being adopted one final chance to step forward and claim him. Once these ten days are over, the child is placed officially with the adoptive family, the dismissal process from the orphanage is begun, and the child’s passport is issued, allowing the family to go back to Kyiv to complete the adoption and go home.) This was discouraging to us, as we long to get Mikaela home as soon as possible. I imagine that every adoptive family can relate to this desire; we make no claim to be unique in this regard. We are continuing to pray, however, that God would move in the hearts of whatever person(s) whose responsibility it is to waive that waiting period. He has done things that seemed more impossible than this, including within the past week-and-a-half. If, however, He intends for us to remain here through those ten days, then we are content with that. Even more than we are praying that we won’t have to wait those ten days, we are praying that He will conform our hearts and minds to His will, and that we will delight in what He has planned for us. If there is one thing that we have learned in our time here, it is that we cannot know His reasons for His doing what He does, and that our chief duty is to trust in the Lord who is good. We can look to no one else than Him, nor can we rely on any plans—especially not our own—other than His.

Before signing off, I want to post a couple of pictures. The first few are from yesterday’s visit, with some from this morning at the end. Thanks for all of your prayers, and to God be the glory!