Ukraine... 9 days and waiting.

Greetings!
Still waiting.... We had a glimmer of hope today but no word yet. Elton John got turned down from Ukraine today...We haven't yet. Maybe they spent all their time crafting their denial for him and now they can help us out with a girl :). We visited an Orthodox church complex today including a catacombs filled with dead Orthodox priests and icons...very interesting. And then went to the Russian/German war of 1941-1945 monuments (seems like someone is missing, wonder what Gen. Patton would think of that)
We saw up close the 'mother motherland' statue, very cool. The kids are doing so good and willing to try new things (there are lots of new things to experience). We tried the metro system by ourselves today which we did well. Nothing is in English here so it hard to decipher. Though I learned from my friend Robert that the language is based on Greek so now I look at it differently and i am now picking it up much quicker at least in written form like the metro. The kids are picking up words as well.
Waiting...waiting. We did some school today so it was good to have some normal time.
Hope all is well...
Mark

Waiting...sightseeing....

Greetings all!

The weather has been awesome here so we have been able to venture out a little each day. Usually to the market. Yesterday we went to see Saint Sophia Orthodox church, St. Andrews Orthodox, and an Orthodox monastery. We also got to climb a bell tower and ran into a couple from New Orleans (currently in Germany). So few people speak English is was good to converse in our own language. We went to a different Mcdonalds and also got ice cream (try ordering a Mcflurry to a Ukrainain). We have been a here a week and feels like we are burning time. We are learning patience unpatiently.
We are praying for good news on Monday.
mark

Ukraine for Katarina

Greetings!
We continue to be in wait mode. We ventured out some today and saw a couple of sights and then visited a friend who lives in Kiev. We had dinner, wonderful conversation, and the kids got to play. A big first for the kids, their first taxi ride (2X) and a Ukrainian taxi at that...driving here is more like the Indy 500 and demolition derby (with horns) mixed together. They have more than their quota of Lexus's, benz, and beemers. Thankful we have internet now and are able to feel more connected. Thanks Jason! We are hoping to hear soon.
Mark

Safely in Ukraine...waiting

Greetings all!

We made it safe in Ukraine. Most of you get our e-mail so I won't be redundant. We are anxious yet cautious. We probably have never felt more out of control in our life.
SDA, language, culture, and no child the first day....
It is very humbling...
I will try to upload a picture or two...
Mark

Chick-fil-a Results

We are excited to post that we received a check for $410.28 from Chick-fil-a toward
our adoption! Thank you to everyone who supported us in coming out or praying for us!
Every bit of money gets us closer to our goal! For bringing home 1 child, we have reached our goal!!! We are just a little short of our goal for bringing home 2 children! We take comfort in knowing that God knows how many children we will bring home, and will provide everything we need! He has provided every emotional and financial need to this point. We have no reason to doubt Him now!
May God bless all of you for your support and prayers for us as we are on this journey!
We are sooo close now! We are nervous and excited all at the same time. God is good and faithful!

The Coop was Full! Chick-fil-A Adoption night was a HUGE success!!

Greetings all!

What an moooooving night! There was a moment when I looked up from making balloons and all I saw was people, lots and lots of people. The parking lot was so full that people either went through drive thru or parked @ Chipotle. We are so appreciative and humbled by everyone's generosity. It was truly marvelous to see so many come along side our journey of adoption. We heard that in one hour they did $1,300.
Thank you to all who came and sent their well wishes. We feel truly blessed!
The Goins Gang

Chick-fil-a

Just wanted you all to know that if you needed a flyer for Chick-fil-a, just
email us and we'll send you one. We are having a hard time posting one on our blog!
Sorry!. . .back to packing!

Come Join us at Chick-fil-a

Please mark your calendars and join us this Tuesday, August 25th, 5:00-8:00pm. We will be having a celebration party at Chick-fil-a. Chick-fil-a will give us 20% of their profits for our adoption. All you have to do is present them with a card (which we will post as soon as we receive it) between 5pm & 8pm at the 86th Street Chick-fil-a.
We will have a person making animal balloons for the kids, and possibly a magician.
Look for the card to print out on our next post!

We Have a Date!!

We are so excited to tell you that we have an appointment date with The State Department of Adoption!! Our date is September 7th. We will leave September 4th, and plan to arrive in Kiev on the 5th! We sure weren't expecting things to go this quickly!
The kids are sooo excited! Mark had the kids doing more of our "Ukrainian training" tonight. "Ukrainian training" is walking with bricks in our backpacks for a minimum of 25 minutes! Ethan is quizzing us on our Russian; and with Johnna from America World Adoption Agency keeping us posted on all the paperwork we need to travel,we are good to go! We would appreciate your continued prayers as we seek God's wisdom and protection.
God has been so good to guide us every step so far, we know He will continue to go before us! If you are able to do so we are still accepting tax deductible donations @
http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html through paypal.

We are truly amazed at this journey God has us on! Thank you for sharing it with us!

Make a Donation through PayPal

Greetings all!

We have been so encouraged by the events of the previous week. Our information being formally submitted, getting a grant from "Show Hope", learning we may get a date to travel by the end of this month which would put us there around the end of Sept, we made over $1,700 at our garage sale. You can now donate on line at paypal. Here is the the web link:
http://www.lifesongfororphans.org
Click on "Make a donation" and in the description box, type "for Katarina Goins, account #726". There will be a fee taken out for the transition

We figure we need around $8,000.
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

Mark and Diane Goins

Garage Sale Report

Greetings!

We have had a successful weekend of our Garage Sale. I can't begin to count how many people and families have helped this week.thanks to all!!! We have raised almost 1600 in the past 2 days.
We have more items to sell on Craigs list and ebay that were donated as well. We are finished with our sales for the summer and now wait for notice for when we are to travel. Thank you for hearing our story, the Lord's story of Redemption.

Submission Day!

Well, today was the day that our dossier was submitted to the State Department of Adoption in Kiev. We received a phone call that we needed to change 1 document, and send an additional document (a copy of the first 2 pages of our 1040 tax form).
We made a rush to have the documents notarized, apostilled, and scanned. We also sent the originals to Ukraine. Not what we had planned for today (as we are getting ready for our garage sale this weekend), but this was fixable!
We continue to rely on God for His wisdom and provision!
He is faithful!
The Goins Gang