Monday, July 17

We were back in Kyiv today – it was nice to wake up in our “own” apartment. After spending a good part of the morning writing an update for the blogpage, covering the weekend’s events in Bila Tserkva, we found out that the “unlimited access for 30 days” that we purchased for the internet a few days before, had already expired! So that unexpected surprise was a little discouraging, as not only does it present us with some challenges in keeping our blogpage up to date, but also from responding to e-mails. Thanks to those of you who have been making comments on our blogpage, and also to those of you who have been writing us e-mails. We will do the best we can to stay up to date and in touch! We pray that this little “technical difficulty” can be taken care of in the next day or two.

The afternoon and early evening were spent visiting with Lucy, Scott’s “Ukrainian mother.” It was a very nice visit – and true to form, Lucy not only prepared much more food than we were able to eat, but also arranged to pick up some eye drops from the local pharmacy to help Scott who has been suffering through some pretty severe allergies over the past week. It was very nice to catch up on what has been happening in Lucy’s life, and for Katherine and Abbie to see the place where Scott first stayed when he came to Ukraine fourteen years ago.

Abbie fell asleep on the way home – she is pretty much back on her sleeping schedule. If we are not home, when the time for a nap or sleep comes, she has been falling asleep in Scott’s arms as we walk. We mostly travel through Kyiv on the Metro system (subway), and the trains run deep beneath the city in many places. Abbie loves going on the “trains,” and even with the excitement of seeing many people, interesting advertisements, and lots of noise, she started to “droop” on the way home tonight, and fell asleep as we ascended the escalator at our Metro station – which travels about twice as fast as escalators in the US, and takes well over a minute for us to ride to the top!

Lucy suggested that in addition to making contact with orphanages that we might consider contacting “boarding schools” in Ukraine, as well. These boarding schools are for kids who have been taken from the care of their parents, and the parental rights have been terminated – much like the foster care system in the US. We were unaware that there was a separate system here, and Lucy has agreed to help us make some initial contacts, so we will be looking into that as well. We are excited to see where God will lead us in regards to making contacts with these boarding schools, and with other organizations, as well, with the ultimate goal of helping to facilitate cooperation between these groups, and the local churches here. Please pray about the scheduling of these meetings, as July and August are months where many will take extended vacations in Ukraine. Please pray also that these meetings may be fruitful, and that we can be an encouragement to those with whom we meet.

Thanks again for reading,

The Broadways