Sunday April 6

Happy Sunday everybody,


This has been a quiet weekend. I’ll even go as far as saying that it was pretty stress free. Although we still do not know what is going to transpire during Monday’s meeting with the SDA, Shirley and I are more relaxed and at peace with ourselves than we’ve been in a long time.


The weather was peculiar and Ohio-ish this weekend. It started off sunny, warm and very spring like. For the first time I saw people rollerblading through the streets of Kiev. I even saw what looked like a handful of young sunbathers although I kinda felt sorry for them. As paste-white as their skin was, my guess is that they’d probably be on fire with sunburn by nightfall (that’s OK, I did the same thing during my younger years). Shortly thereafter the thunderheads rolled in. First the rain started and then came the lightning and thunder. In no time the city sounded as if it was being pounded by artillery. We took shelter in our apartment but noticed that despite the weather the natives moved freely about outside. So we opted to venture out as well.


We took a walk to the nearby St. Vladimir Church (notice the black sky in the background). Our guide book indicated that the Church held daily services at 8am and 5pm. We got there right around the start of the afternoon service. The Church itself is beautiful on the outside and very spacious on the inside. The Church interior is splashed with Orthodox iconography; on all walls as well as the ceilings high above. Orthodox iconography is beautiful and plays a dual purpose. In addition to being decorative artwork they also have a story to tell, usually passages from Scripture. During the majority of Christian history, laypeople were illiterate and unable to read or write. Seeing a highly detailed icon of a Scriptural passage (The Good Samaritan, Jesus’ Baptism, The Resurrection, etc) would be like reading the details of the Bible passage itself. Since today virtually all of us can read and write, we can’t really relate to the early Christian experience. In ancient times, the only methods of Bible Study were either to have an educated somebody read to them, or else to study Christian icons on the walls of the early Churches. The latter was by far more common.


As we approached the St. Vladimir Church, a procession of Church Hierarchs walked by while chanting hymns. It made me think that we chose to go to the Church during some kind of a visitation; possibly a Ukrainian Bishop. The Clerics in the procession were dressed to kill. I was doubtful that the vestments that I saw them wearing were the same ones they'd wear for a normal Church service. The interior was full of people. I tried to get a picture inside the Church but it was pretty dark in there; the interior was mostly lit only by candle light. We lit our candles and stayed for a good part of the Church service. It was very relaxing and refocusing; its always a good thing to step back on occasion and refocus our priorities.


On our way home we walked through the nearby Botanical Gardens. At this time of the year it looked more or less dead and devoid of life although green is beginning to return at ground level. I am sure that come summertime there will be green everywhere. You can see the walkways and paths through the entire area. The Botanical Garden is huge - larger than Shevchenko Park which is just up the street. I’d recommend The Botanical Gardens as another place to bring kids when their legs need stretching. Or if you want a nice peaceful walk on your own.


As may of you know, we will be attending a meeting tomorrow where we’ll be discussing our situation with the SDA. As I mentioned earlier in this post, we don’t know what is going to happen but regardless of the outcome Shirley and I have decided to be at peace with the result. Saturday marked our fifth week here in Ukraine and we are still no closer to completing an adoption than we were when we arrived in Kiev on March 1. It has been an eye-opening experience and not one that I would recommend. If nothing else, it makes me appreciate the USA; that big, beautiful country that my Greek peasant family came to call home nearly a century ago. I have been abroad several times and no matter where I travel, I always appreciate "home" that much more when come back. Ours is the best country in the world!! Granted it is not perfect -no kingdom on Earth is - and any earthly kingdom that professes to be perfect should be avoided. But show me anyplace better than America! Lets put it this way, you may think you're SHOWING me a better place, but you'll never convince me of it.


Thanks again to everyone for reading our blog. Thanks for posting comments and sending emails. Thanks for the phone calls. Not sure when I'll be able to post again but keep checking in and I'll get something out here eventually. God bless......



Steve