Working while we wait

While we are waiting for the problems with Issac's birth certificate to be resolved, Josiah, Isaac, and I have had the opportunity to help Nasledie Heritage Foundation get their property ready to begin their summer of camps for the area orphanages.  Since we don't possess a lot of skill in the area of construction, there's not a lot we can help them with.  But there are some small jobs we've been able to do…

On Wednesday we washed 75 bowls, cups and spoons and put them in knapsacks for the boys who will be at camp next week.  Each child gets a knapsack with their dishes and is responsible to keep track of them and wash them after every meal.

We also put together 10 dressers to be used by the workers and staff in the office building.  Although we couldn't read the directions, there were pictures so eventually we figured it out.  This was a great project for the boys.

On Thursday we finished up dressers and then worked on covering all the tables that have been built out of rough plywood with plastic covers.  Finding a staple gun that worked and some staples proved to be the biggest challenge with this job.

Camp is slowly but surely beginning to take shape.  The first group of campers come on Monday.  It will be boys camp the first week so they will be able to assist with some unfinished details.  Here are some photos of the camp...

The showers, toilets and sinks.  Water comes from that large blue tank above.

Sleeping quarters.  20 tents like these will house 10 campers each.

The meeting hall.  This tent is much smaller than Slavik had hoped so he is working on a plan to make a bigger meeting hall.

The dining hall.  Today we will try to cover all the tables in this area.

 Our Ukrainian lunch…borscht, beet salad, rice with sausage.  Yummy!

Luda, Slavik's mother.  A wonderful chef.  She gave Isaac a lecture our first day there about what a wonderful thing God had done in giving him a family and he better not waste this opportunity.  I asked Laura if I could get her number so I can call her when he needs to be disciplined :)

There is a funny story about these cookies…Laura likes to make cookies for the workers each day if she has time.  She and I thought this was something I could help with.  So on Wednesday I worked on making oatmeal M&M cookies.  Laura was on the phone when I started mixing the dough, but I figured I could find all the ingredients.  Well, everything went great, until I was all done baking and we tried one of the cookies.  They were awful!  We couldn't even swallow one bite!  It tasted like eating the ocean.  Apparently, they sell the salt in 5 pounds bags that looks just like the 5 pound bags of sugar at home.  Instead of 1 cup of sugar, I used 1 cup of salt!  

Unfortunately, that's not the only mistake I've made here in Ukraine.  Thinking I would help out, I used Laura's vacuum while she was at a meeting last night, not knowing that you must use a transformer with it since it's from the States.  Needless to say, she no longer has a working vacuum :(

Please pray with us about the birth certificate.  The problem is a little different than we were first told.  The birth certificate that was newly created for Isaac in Balta in February is not valid.  Svetlana thought this birth certificate was sufficient so when we were at court last month, we did not request a new birth certificate to be created for him.  This petition must be in the court decree.  In order to get a new court decree which has this petition in it we must refuse the original court decree.  We tried to do this with the minister of justice on Tuesday when we picked up Isaac from the orphanage.  They did not know how to refuse a court decree because this has never been done.  There is no paperwork for this sort of thing. So for two days nothing has happened.  Finally, late in the afternoon yesterday, Svetlana talked to the minister of justice who agreed to write a letter to the court explaining the problem and requesting the judge to make an exception and use the current birth certificate.  Today Svetlana will take this letter to court and apply for a judge. We will go back in the lottery system to be assigned a new judge.  Please pray that God would give us a judge who will be sympathetic to our case and accept the current birth certificate so that we can move on and begin the passport paperwork.

Until then we will enjoy this time together and do the work God lays out for us each day.