James is at the keyboard for today's post.
Today is Labor Day back in the USA. In Ukraine it is the Day of Knowledge, or the day that all the children return to school. It is treated as a holiday of sorts with parents seeing their children off to school and enjoying special programs to start off the academic year. In my opinion, it is a pretty good idea to celebrate the start of school with parents, teachers, and students in a holiday atmosphere. A good way to start the next year of learning for the kids.
To be completely honest, today started out to be difficult for us. Yesterday, my feet did not agree with the shoes that I wore to church. Usually, this is not a big deal. However, since we walked a little over a mile each direction, my feet decided to inform me of their discomfort by creating a rather large blister which promptly burst. Needless to say that any form of walking has been rather uncomfortable for me today which kept us in the hotel room instead of heading out to visit some of the wonders of Kiev. I am very grateful to Mary for her patience with my foolish choice of footwear. The blister has healed throughout the day so tomorrow should provide more opportunities to get out and around while we have spare time waiting for paperwork.
We contacted our facilitator this morning to find out how things were going. She said the paperwork has been submitted and we are waiting for the bureaucratic machinery to do its work. Her best guess was that we would know more on Wednesday. So, more waiting.
Of course, when you have a lot of time on your hands with nowhere to go, you can only find so much distraction and your thoughts tend to reflect on what you are trying to do. With the adoption process slowed to a crawl for us and the experience of past weeks weighing on our minds, a rather somber mood hung around through much of the day. Thankfully, we also had time to review some of the messages sent by friends and family while we have been on this journey. So many times, those comments have lifted our spirits. Thank you!
Today, Mary and I read an article that my sister recommended a few days back. We had not had an opportunity to read it yet. It was a sermon given by one of the Apostles of our church many years ago entitled "Cast Not Away Your Confidence." Link ( https://www.lds.org/ensign/print/2000/03/cast-not-away-therefore-your-confidence?lang=eng&clang=eng ) Sincere gratitude to my sister for sending this link. The somber mood lifted with this timely reminder of the Lord's strength and purpose. We do not know where this adoption journey will lead. We do not know if it will end the way we expect or hope. We do know it is a journey that we must take with faith and confidence in His purpose. And so we will take it.
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