Have to admit... Our God is Greater.

Have to admit, the first several days after hearing the news of the vote taking place in the Ukrainian Parliament next week, I was having a difficult time focusing on anything but the possibility of a negative outcome.  I kept trying to take every thought captive, to reflect on the truth of who God is, and trust in His plan, no matter.  But the negative thoughts and the raw feeling in the pit of my stomach persisted.  Things began to look up this past Saturday morning when Chris Tomlin serenaded me with:
There is an endless song
Echoes in my soul
I hear the music ring
And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling

How can I keep from singing Your praise
How can I ever say enough
How amazing is Your love
How can I keep from shouting Your name
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing

I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives

And I will walk with You
Knowing You'll see me through
And sing the songs You give

Charlie on the other hand, has had a sense of peace all along.  He shared with me on Sunday morning, that when praying, he had clearly heard God's voice say, "all will be fine". 
That along with the words:

Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome and power
Our God, Our God...

And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?
What can stand against?

Which we sang at church on Sunday, was just what I needed to hear to bring me back to a place of peace.

Which also turned out to be extremely timely (anyone surprised, certainly not me), because today Charlie and I were heading to Phoenix to have our Dossier apostilled and forwarded on to Ukraine (we received our I171H form this past Friday)!

But it ended up being a monumentally unsuccessful day...  Charlie and I had just driven through the wide spot in the road of Peeples Valley, when I realized I had left a dossier document on our copier at home, we turned around to retrieve it.  It was a close call, but we got back on the road, we were good to go. We arrived at the Secretary of States Office in Phoenix an hour and 45 minutes later for apostilles.  It is there we discovered Charlie's salary statement needed to go to Springfield Mo. for apostille, which I should have known, this due to our marriage license needing to go to CA for apostille (documents must be apostilled in state where notarized).  Charlie and I made the decision to go ahead and send what we had, and forward his salary statement on, in a couple days.  We then drove 20 miles to the nearest DHL shipping location (carrier recommended), Charlie suggests I check the documents one more time just to make sure we have them all.  It is then that I realize the gal at the SSO stapled two separate documents together with one apostille, good grief, we then had to drive 20 miles back for the document to be separated and apostilled... so a 20 mile return trip to DHL, and we find out our dossier will cost $180.00! to ship to Ukraine, and then another $80.00! to ship Charlie's salary statement (1 page mind you) in a couple days. Some evaluation, decision made, we will wait a few days and send everything together.  So I ask Charlie, "you think God is trying to tell us something?"  He say's, "nope it's definitely Satan, God would have just had us shot".  :]  Yep, an absolutely ridicules day, couldn't help but laugh.  Good news, we made it home safely!  So please keep those prayers coming, we're gonna need them again in another day or two... :]

We continued to laugh when we read an email we received from Konstantin, our facilitator in Ukraine, Lena is aware that our dossier is headed that way.  Apparently she was in touch with him today, giving these instructions, "make sure when Charlie and Judy's documents arrive, they are translated FIRST PRIORITY, ahead of any other families who may be in line for translation"!  Charlie and I would have to agree!  :]

Still singing our God is Greater!