Can't Connect the Dots

I have been in Berdyansk for 7 days and I have gotten no where. I came here, as many of you know, to take Marina home as a foreign exchange student. When we left Berdyansk in January with Yana and left Marina in the arms of the orphanage director crying, the director asked us to look at taking Marina as a foreign exchange student. After a 2 hour battle with the director of the SDA, with Lawyer in hand, the director says, why don't you take her as a foreign exchange student. We get to the U.S. Embassy and they tell us to take her as a foreign exchange student. They assured us that it has been done, rarely, but there were cases that orphan children went as foreign exchange students. The embassy gives us a list of what to do and what we need. We venture home with hope of having Marina home with us within 2 months. Everything we need falls into place perfectly. We use our contacts in Berdyansk to help us with the passport to make this all happen and we get resistance from the director of the orphanage. We continue on thinking that we can overcome this by being here personally and talking to her. That is why I am here. A simple task has turned into another Ukrainian nightmare.

First, I arrive at the orphanage with less then an hour sleep in 2 days. My lawyer announces that she is only staying in Berdyansk for the day and is leaving that night. Our agreement was that she would stay for 2 days. That put me at the orphanage a day before I was prepared to go. The Lawyer shows up totally unprepared to present a case. We arrive at the orphanage, un-
known to us, 1 hour after the police and the inspectors had been there, because someone filed an abuse charge against the orphanage. We did not find this out until the next day. I am sitting infront of the director who is stressed, and upset. She is saying things that totally catch me off guard. I went back to the motel so upset, defeated, angry, hurt, and needless to say tired. I went to bed at 6:30 p.m., woke up at 2:00 a.m. and prayed and petitioned God. I went back to sleep and woke up fresh the next day. I decided to pick up Marina for the weekend and deal with everything on Monday. When I went to ask permission to have Marina, the director was as sweet as can be and says that she wants me to take Marina home on a student visa, I just have to show her how it is done.

I start making calls. On Monday the answers start to come in. I hire a new local lawyer here in Berdyansk, he is sharp and knows his people. We put all the pieces together. The SDA says, they are not in business of student exchange, they are in business of adoption, call the ministry of education. We call them, we call the embassy. The embassy says the privacy act prevents them from giving out information. After two days of chancing a dream there are lots of dots, but they do not connect. There is no law that says an orphan child can not be adopted. In fact the law says that an orphan child is a citizen of Ukraine and has the same rights as any other citizen. There is nothing in writting that an orphan child can go. There is in writting that an orphan child can get a visa for medical reasons and the orphan child can have a travel visa, but nothing written about student visa. No one is saying no, no one is willing to take responsibility. That puts all responsibility on the director of the orphanage. Her fear is the government coming in and removing her from her job. Wow.

I have spent hours with the Lord, praying, reading scripture, and crying. I don't see what He is seeing. I look at God and I have peace, I look out my window on the 11th floor of the Berdyansk Hotel and I become over whelmed with fear. Marina is old enough now to have alot of liberties at the orphanage. She has watched all her friends be adopted, her friends now are hardened girls. I won't go into detail on what I see that is influencing her, because I fill up with fear. I know that God sees all of this and more. I know that His love for Marina is far greater then I could ever love her. I reviewed scripture that ease fear, worry, grace, mercy, love. orphans, care, miracles, mountains, valleys, and praise. I am numb. In one hour I go back to the orphanage with the lawyer and he will try to convince the director to let Marina go to the United States with me for 11 months. I am hopeless.

I heard God say one thing, I heard two things;
you, O God, are strong
you, O Lord, are loving.

Thank you for your prayers. I never have needed them more then right now.