Back in Ukraine

Hello everyone. For those who don't already know, I am safely back in Ukraine. I caught an early morning bus to Odessa from Chisinau and once again, a friendly neighborhood border guard pulled me off of the bus while we were going through the Ukrainian checkpoint. He asks me the same question as the officer did when I left Ukraine: "Are you aware of how long you can stay in Ukraine at a time?"    "Yes," I said, "90 days! But I have a visa."     "No, you don't have any visa," the guard insisted.     "Yes, it's right in there, and it's active."     So he flips through the pages to find my current, ACTIVE, visa. He takes it over to the desk, stamps it, then hands it back to me. "My bad," he said, "Please return to your bus."

The rest of the trip was uneventful. I had a three hour layover in Odessa and decided to take a stroll downtown. It was cold out, and being that I had no scarf or toque or heavy jacket for that matter, I kinda froze. So for lunch I stopped in at a lovely restaurant called "Kompot". There I had a big steamy bowl of borsch soup and some chicken with noodles. How tasty! On the bus ride from Odessa to Krivoy Rog, I was on a double-decker bus with a full second floor. It was nice! Every town we drove through, all the people craned their necks or pointed at such a bus. It was cool. Thank you so much to all who were praying for a safe trip! Without your prayers I don't know what would have happened! :)

One bit of news I have is that I will need to soon renew my passport, and therefore apply for a new visa in Ukraine by January 7. So, this month I will be going to Kiev for a new passport, and then after New Year's, if all goes well, I will be traveling to Moscow, Russia to process my visa there...and to sight-see of course!! I've always wanted to see Russia, and what better time than to visit in the cold of winter! True Russia! :) Please pray that my application for documents, etc will go smoothly.

Another bit of news: as of the other day, there are currently 2 families from Pennsylvania here adopting kids from one of the orphanages we work with!! Praise God! In the next 2 months, there will be several more! God is so good!!