Thank you again for your prayers about our Kherson trip! It really did go well. Even though there were many hard moments, there were many highlights, too. Please continue to pray for wisdom in future plans.

And then chicken pox... Our three younger children have it now, so it's kind of overtaking our life. Please pray for endurance and quick healing. I'll be very glad to have this behind us!

This first half of this trip to Kherson was quite hard and quite good. We could really tell that people are praying for us. We're staying for another week now. Please continue to pray!

Please pray for our family's health. Jaan is just recovering from chicken pox, and it would be so nice if no one else comes down with it before we get home! Will and I can't get chicken pox, but we're both quite tired, so please pray for our strength and health, too.

We're leaving tomorrow to travel to Kherson.

Also, I wanted to tell about an answer to prayer: it may be funny to pray about computer problems, but God definitely cares about what is worrying us, and there was one that was worrying me terribly. I updated software for the Ambleside Online forum that I administrate on Monday, and it wasn't working right after that. It seemed like an impossible mess to me, and I wasn't getting answers from the people who usually know how to solve those technical problems. On the second day that the problem continued, I asked people to pray, and I prayed a whole lot myself. And then I was able to find and fix the problem! Praise the Lord!

Our prayer requests this week are pretty much the same as last week.

You can also pray for Will, as the lovely spring seems to be making his allergies even worse than usual.

Thank you for praying!

We had a great Easter! At the last minute we also got to visit a village church with an Easter program for them, too.

After lots of last minute rushing around to pull it together, Will actually went to a training session put on in Khmelnitsky by Agape, the mission that he had been trying to get in touch with. Our whole family is also going to Kherson May 24-30 for a special program they're doing.

I am meeting with someone almost daily for counseling and even Bible study. This is the first time that she has ever been open to that! It is very draining emotionally, though.

We've been busy with music school end-of-year busyness. Please pray for Jaan and all of us and his teachers in the midst of it. Jaan still has one more recital, and then he'll pretty much be done for the year.

We're still stuck on getting through to people about meeting up. It's crazy how hard it can be to get in touch with people.

Easter is just two weeks away. Please pray for the preparations in our home and church.

Please continue to pray that Will can get in touch with the head of the ministry we would like for him to visit. Will caught him briefly between two international trips, but obviously this man is very busy and they have not been able to set anything up yet.

We did have a wonderful visit with Anna! It was just too short. Like I said before, you can continue to pray for her travels.

Please pray that we'll be able to get in touch with people about visiting their ministry soon. We finally found out that the one man Will had been writing to was out of the country, so that's why we weren't getting answers. He's back now....

Honestly, I don't know what to ask you to pray for specifically. It's been a quiet week here. (So nice!)

Will's sister will be here next weekend. You can pray for her ongoing travels and for us to have a wonderful time with her.

Bogdan has made it through the past four nights without crying or nursing! But he's still getting up way too early for the way our family works.

We're an inch away from being done with our reregistration! Thank you for all your prayers. The only last step is that we're waiting for the head of regional immigration to come back from Kiev, to add his signature. As a special bonus, Will and I got to go to Zaporozhya by ourselves last week to sign papers.

Bogdan is still off and on with sleep. It's really weird. But he's a big two-year-old now! We're so thankful for him.

I got a break from the emotional situation I was in, because the person involved went away for a week. She's back now, so please keep praying.

We are starting our family preparations for Easter. Please pray that our hearts and minds would be especially turned towards Jesus in this time.

We are still waiting to hear anything about our documents.

The family that was adopting made it home with their new son! Please keep praying for all of them as they settle in and start their new life together. There are several more adoptions in progress that we're especially excited about now, too: cases where we've met the children or where they're in our region now.

Bogdan is back on his crazy insomnia streak. Please pray for sleep! He's keeping all of us up most nights.

I (Phyllis) have been putting a lot of time and emotional energy into counseling and supporting someone through some very heavy issues. Please pray for wisdom and strength for me.

Be praying that Will will be able to make a trip to visit Agape ministries, an organization that we are interested in possibly working with.

Will got everything turned in for our reregistration (as far was we know). Thank you for all your prayers. Now we just have to wait a little. It would be nice if they don't need anything more from us to process it.

The adoption adventures that I have been asking prayer for are continuing, so please pray for wisdom for all involved.

I'm starting to feel more rested, even if I may be the only one feeling that way so far. Bogdan was having trouble sleeping, but that seems to be passing. Hurrah!

Jaan is really doing well at music school these days, and that is such an answer to prayer. He has loved the piano part since he started there, but the rest has been a real struggle. I am just so excited to see him enjoying it all now.

Will picked up his new passport yesterday and made some progress on reregistration. That will be his focus in the upcoming week.

We had a lovely time meeting part of the family that I mentioned before when I asked for prayer for their adoption. Please keep praying; they're in the home stretch.

We've had some fussy, sickish days and long nights lately. It's nothing serious or really out of the ordinary, but please pray for rest and health in our family.

Please keep praying for the church here!

The biggest practical thing that we need prayer for right now is our documents, although everything does seem to be going fine there. When Will went to Vasilevka (what I called the "county" level) they told him that he needed a new passport, so he rushed off to Kiev and applied right away. Now we're waiting for that to come in, before we can do anything more. Pray that it will come quickly. It was very nice to find out that the lady in charge in Vasilevka seems to be nice and professional, like the one in Zaporozhya; praise God for that!

Also, please pray for peace and unity in the church here. Even though we are pulling back in our involvement, we still love the people here very much. The church is really going through a hard time now and needs lots of prayer.

Will just got back from the summit. He had a good and safe trip. Thank you for praying! You can add prayers that we'll all be able to rest up now (it was a full trip for him and some tiring nights for me here) and have opportunities to talk through anything from his time there.

I think the adoption in progress that I mentioned last week is going well. Please keep praying for them.

Coming up: Will needs to work on our reregistration now, in the week ahead.

This is insignificant, but could you please pray for me to find time to work on a few projects myself?

Document update: registration is transferring from Zaporozhya (which is like the state capitol) to Vasilevka (which is kind of the county seat?). Please pray that Will will be able to figure where and how to register us there. The lady at the "state" level is such an easy-to-work-with professional that it's going to be hard to say goodbye to her!

We're having trouble with our landlords. Or, actually they're having big trouble. This apartment is owned by a divorced couple. Please pray that they can figure things out between themselves.

Will is leaving for Kiev on Tuesday to attend the summit I had mentioned before. Please cover his travels and time there with lots of prayer. Pray that he'll make good connections with people and get insight into where we should be headed. Of course, you can pray for us at home without him, too.

Also, there's an American family adopting in our region right now. I can't give details, because their story isn't ours to tell, of course, but they're very heavy on our hearts and minds right now. Please lift them up with us.

(I think I fixed the return email address for this blog. If you're getting this by email, you should be able to reply now.)

I spoke too soon last week when I said that we were well. We've had another week of sickness; even our poor cat had a trip to the vet. But now we really are back to normal and very, very thankful for the great health that we're usually blessed with!

Will's going to Zaporozhya on Tuesday to see about reregistration.

We've decided that he'll go to the summit I mentioned before by himself, instead of our whole family trying to attend. Please pray that it will be a really good time of connecting with other people and learning.

Health is getting better around here. Thank you for praying! We're still not quite back up to 100%, though, so you can keep praying.

I can't think of anything else that's new.

How can we pray for YOU?

Updating again

Once again, I ask: is anyone still reading here? I'd like to start updating once a week again, instead of only mixing prayer requests in with my general updates elsewhere. I'm going to try for every Saturday here.

So, first, some longer-term prayer requests:

• residency renewal in March (shouldn't be any problems or fuss or travel involved, but we should still pray)
• decision making: just that we would be able to think about where to move to! and that we would be wise

I probably won't update those any time soon.

And then right now:

• praise for a wonderful Christmas season
• everyone (except me) has colds right now
• maybe going to this summit next month?

Visas

The visa laws have been changing here. Will is going to Zaporozhya on Tuesday to see what he can find out about how the changes will affect us and what we'll need to do to renew. Please be praying for us in this!