If something is worth doing it probably won't be easy. As much as Jesus called to us to take His yoke upon ourselves is straightforward, the path of discipleship isn't always easy to follow. Many of Christ's instructions contain elements of difficulty. For instance widows and orphans: James 1:27 – “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” Will it be easy to do this? No. It may be God just calling you to pray for these, or to help a missionary working with them, or could God be calling you to pray about adopting one of these less fortunate than you? The only way to know for sure is to seek after God, in how He wants you to help. There are many ways to help the less fortunate.

I truly feel God has placed the Yankova family into our lives (Kristina’s & Alyona’s extended family). We mentioned in a previous post about the generational curses that have been on this family; and we know Jesus will break these through our intervention in the girls’ lives. Will it be easy? Assuredly not. Will it be worth doing? Absolutely, yes. Anything that God has His hand in will ultimately turn out for good.

Tim left from Odessa at 10:40 Wednesday night to head back to the States. He took the train to Kiev so that he could go and fill out his share of the paperwork for me to be able to finish everything else here. We already miss him a lot. That night, when we went to go to bed, Alyona and I had watched a movie, then when I went to turn out the lights, she looked up and me and said, “Alyona misses Papa. Where is he?” She did not understand why Papa had to leave. She of course has no idea why he had to go back to go to work. I am not sure what kind of work her biological father did, even if he did work, so this will be adjustment for her to get use to. Then, when Mama gets home, she has to go back to work, too.

Tim left Kiev Friday morning. He has a two and one-half hour flight to Munich, Germany, and a three hour layover, then a nine hour flight to Charlotte, NC, followed by a four hour layover. He will arrive home in Jackson tonight at 8:45pm CDT, which will be 4:45am (Ukraine). I am sure he will be very tired, but how good to be able to sleep in our own bed tonight. I am very jealous! (Note: Once he got to Charlotte he learned his last flight was delayed, first for two and one-half hours, then for another hour, so now he’s not going to get into Jackson until almost 1:00am!!)

Since he left, Alyona and I have been out for a couple walks. We went to the store for the first time all by ourselves. We made cookies this morning for the first time as mother and daughter. I so wish Kristina was here with us. We will have to do a lot of making up when we get home. I am not sure what else the next few days has in store for us, but I know we will venture out to church on Sunday. Also, there is a real interesting looking old cemetery I would like to check out, so we will take the bus to go do that. I will also need to go to the market to buy things for the girls’ “Gotcha Parties”. I think Alyona would like to make some cookies to take to the parties, too. We will stay busy for at least a few days. Also, I am getting some much needed rest, as I am sure that once our feet hit the States we will be moving nonstop! Alyona's birthday is June 2nd. I am planning on doing a combined party for her and my mom, as my mom’s birthday is June 4th. I know we will have lots of pool parties this summer; and of course just getting use to being a new family will be work. I can't wait, though, to see how God works in and through our lives.

I am sure I won't post now for a few days as we are in the waiting period and won't have much to say.

Lynn