And THEN you know what happened???

We had a great day today. We woke up to the sun shining (it hasn't since we got here) and we had plans to visit with Sasha all day. We did the Kiev Shuffle (marshutka, metro, switch over to other line metro, marshutka and walk) and got to her house right about lunch time. She served us lunch and then asked us if we wanted to go to a big store like Wal-Mart. SURE. Why not? We walked for about 25 minutes and came across two stores - one called Epicenter and one called Metro. Epicenter is like a Home Depot/Lowe's - we didn't go in because we weren't looking to build anything (we kinda TIRED of building with the speed remodeling we did before we left). We went in to Metro. It is more like Sam's Club/Costco than Wal-Mart. You have to have a card to get in (although Sasha says it doesn't cost anything) and it really was like Sam's. They had Christmas stuff out (even the giant inflatable trees and Santa's) and everything you could think of like curling irons, electric teapots, shower stalls (like jacuzzi type with 6 shower heads) and fresh fruit and meant - uh, did I mention it was like Sam's? Most interesting thing I found? Lychee nut - fresh on the stem. (ok - it's a Japanese fruit and I love them but in the US you can usually find them canned except every once in a blue moon when Meijer's has them fresh). Here they had them still on the stem, about 12 -15 fruits and...the equivalent cost of about $25...!!! We did NOT buy them. Sasha wondered if perhaps they were gold on the inside. Outrageous price - but who would have thought you would find them in Kiev! So we had a good time looking around and found a couple of girls handing out samples in "cute" outfits and Tom said TAKE A PICTURE...so I made him get IN the picture but if you look, you can see...it looks like....Sam's Club!

We went back to Sasha's and had dinner (we eat a LOT here) and had torte (fantastic - nothing is the US to even compare it to) and had a great time of conversation. Aside from just being able to hang out with Randy and Janis and feel like we are at home in their home, this was the most relaxed and enjoyable time we had. It felt like we were 10 years younger and we just enjoyed out time hanging out with Sasha again. We made plans to go to Andreiski Spus (St. Andrew's Descent I believe) tomorrow (to see the one church we never got to see 11 years ago).

Oh, and did I mention that Kostya called while we were there and talking about the whole adoption process with Sasha and talking about God being in control and wondering about it all? Well, HE DID. He said "Lois, I have good news - you have an appointment at the AC on Monday at 11:30." WOW! How did you do that? Thursday it is "eeehhhh...nothing is going on this week." and Friday it is "uh, Lois and Tom, really - nothing is going on until next week - everyone is gone..." and today it is "Monday at 11!" We are very excited.

Sooo - time to switch gears in the prayer department. We need prayer that THIS time it will be a good appointment and it will be a good referral - no surprises, no tearing through the book to have everything taken back - we want success this time. I can not imagine what would happen if we got a second appointment, a bad referral and then asked for another - it would not be good. So pray that this all works out for us. Kostya said, "You are good people and God is smiling on you." Well, we are God's people - and today we not only felt the sun, we felt the SON! It was a GOOD day!