On the road to Kotovsk: metaphors for life

I have been thinking about our experiences traveling to and from Kotovsk yesterday.  I cannot adequately share with you what it is like to bounce along for 90 minutes, each way, on a road where the amount of pavement is vastly outmatched by the quantity of potholes and patching jobs that seemed to roughen the route more than smooth it.  At some points we had to creep along at a walking pace because the holes were so large and so deep.  

How could our driver calculate the wear of such a trip, not just on the car but on his person?  He had to be ultra alert at every moment, strategically navigating the present maze of roadway and looking ahead for the dangers we were rapidly approaching.  It had to have been exhausting.  Apparently most of the country roads in Ukraine are this way.  He had traveled this route before and told us it would be crazy.  Ben and I just sat back and grinned at the adventure, grateful that we were having a once-in-a-lifetime experience and not a daily one. 

However, on our way back, about 20 minutes outside of Odessa, the car’s water pump blew.  The car hadn’t been overheating, but we could hear the problem under the hood, and pulled off the freeway.

Not five minutes earlier, Alyona had leaned back to tell us that we would be really running when we got to Odessa to try to accomplish as much as possible.  I had been talking with Heavenly Father about it since then, reminding him that we had been in Odessa for 6 1/2 weeks and that we would be happy to run as fast as anyone else would let us to move this process along.  

And then we were stuck.  

But Vitali and Alyona made some calls, and they had us on the road again in 15 or 20 minutes!  Vitali stayed with his car, and we had a new driver who took us to the notary where we met Olga and the Spencers who had been processing our paperwork along with theirs for the last 90 minutes and were almost ready for our signatures.  

Evangelical Christianity has a phrase: “But God is good, and …”

In life there is always the “but” part of the phrase, where the path is strewn with potholes and poor patch jobs, like the road to Kotovsk.

But God is good.

And …

and… Vitali broke down only 20 minutes from Odessa instead of in the middle of the nearly barren 90 minute roller coaster of a road we had just transversed.  We were all safe and close to help.

and … others had moved our paper chase along in our absence so that the time we waited was not entirely lost. 

and … the paperwork that we were too late to get to the passport office was accepted just before closing via instant messenger, and would be processed ahead of document receipt.

Life is full of bumps, sometimes very severe ones, but God is good, and His blessings are always evident.

Today, the road to Kotovsk led to our daughter’s new birth certificate.  On it, we are officially listed as her parents.  Our adoption is complete.    

“Cultivate an attitude of happiness.  Cultivate a spirit of optimism.  Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine.”  (Gordon B. Hinckley, New Era:  July 2001.)

(Posted by Sarah.)