We Are Relaxing In Kiev

Hi to all of you awesome family and friends,

As most of you know, we are in Kiev right now. Derek and I needed to get some time away together so on Thursday night we left Novograd with our facilitator, Sergi, who by the way is an absolutely amazing individual. He is a true gift from the Lord to us. He has gone beyond the call of duty so many times. We took a 3 hour drive to the city where Sergi and his family live and were able to meet his wife, his 3 year old daughter and his in-laws. On Friday, Sergi drove us around to a few different famous sights. We visited Hitler's eastern-most bunker in Vinniesya Ukraine. It was an elaborate underground labrynth of control rooms, baracks, and munitions storage, complete with private living quarters and a swimming pool.

On Friday night, Sergi's in-laws invited us to their flat for dinner. They went all out, cooking many amazing Ukrainian favs for us. They stuffed us until we were practically begging them to not give us anymore food. Their hospitality was incredible and we laughed and talked a lot together (with Sergi as our interpreter). Sergi found a nice flat for us to spend the night in. It came with hot water all day and night!

This morning Sergi drove us to the train station and got us on our train bound for Kiev. When we arrived, we were greeted by a friend of Sergi's who drove us to our flat in the city. After freshning up a bit, Derek and I were then met by another facilitator named Igor. He looks nothing like an Igor.... more like a young looking "Superman." He speaks English quite well and took us to a great coffee shop where we are sitting now, enjoying great jazz music and free internet! Yahoo! Nothing like a great cup of coffee and the ability to have contact with your family members and friends. I'm looking across the table at my wonderful husband, feeling butterflies in my tummy because I just love this man of mine. I am so blessed to have him in my life (just had to slip that in)!

We are going to explore the city tomorrow and then hop on the train back to Novograd tomorrow night to prepare to go to court on Monday. We would sure appreciate your continued prayers. I'm sure court will be an interesting experience, especially because we have a judge who was wondering if we were going to harvest the body parts of the three boys we are adopting.

Hey guys - Derek here interrupting for a minute ... Yes, folks, that's actually true. Not sure what this judge is thinking, or .... drinking. Our boys only have a few body parts that even function normally! And if someone was going to be diabolical and criminal enough to harvest children's organs, they sure wouldn't go through this cost & hassle to do it! If that's what we were up to, we'd register as the stupidest criminals in the history of the world! But ... just for safe measure I've decided to NOT WEAR my Viking helmet to court Monday and I'll be sure to wipe my mouth from the wild boar I will be chewing on for lunch that day. Haaarrrgh!!!!! .... now, back to Renee ...

We REALLY miss our family back home! Sending you more love than words could express........

Blessings and hugs to all of you! We will be checking emails tomorrow up until around 12PM Ukraine time if any of you need to get in touch with us.