Sunday, March 9, 2008

Detailed version:
Woke up this morning, so excited for the new day. Sherri, another woman from our adoption agency was to arrive early this morning. We went to breakfast, excited to finally meet this wonderful woman I’d been chatting with for all this time. It was soooo quiet in the breakfast room! We ended up being the only couple in there for a while.

We left for church with N. It was nice to be greeted and to greet people that already know who you are. Many recognized us from the Wed night prayer service we had gone to. Knowing and being known. Amazing things, eh?

I have to admit, the Sunday School and church services were a bit boring for us, but just a bit. It was fun to try to pick out the words we knew- and we were trying to guess what they were saying. The music was great- a few hymns we were familiar with- the other songs were definitely in a minor key- had such a haunting melody to them. It was good to be in the house of the Lord. And really quite amazing how many folks knew English and were able to at least say hi to us. I don’t know of anyone in our home church that can speak Russian.

When church was over, N took us back to her apartment. It was very nice- getting there was most interesting. The doors here are so different than what we’re used to in the States. The doors fit over the opening, rather than into the opening. We went through the outer metal door into a dimly lit interior hall- steps and landings- a small elevator door. The door opened. The elevator was about 3’X4’ with a little less than 20W bulb. We had 4 people in our group, and when another gentleman jumped in with us, we couldn’t move. We couldn’t see the button numbers on the elevator until the door opened and a little light from the hall spilled in. Very small and very little light. We got up to the floor, stepped off and saw that there was another door at the end of the landing. Upon opening that door, there were 3 more doors in the next landing area. We went to one of these and went in.

It was a very neat, clean, airy, spacious apartment. It was beautiful. N and another young lady were with us from church, and 2 young ladies from the youth group joined us. We had such a great lunch- good food, good friends, good times!! Thank you, N for hosting such a great lunch and making us feel so special!

We came back to the hotel and hung out, hehehe literally- we did the laundry and hung all our clean clothes to dry. Boy does the room feel fresher!! Smells like clean laundry now instead of stale cigarette smoke. And we’ve added a little humidity to the super dry room. Makes us feel GGGGRRRREEEAAAATTttt!!!! As Tony the Tiger would say!

We suddenly had a knock at the door. It was Sherri J It was so good to finally meet her in person. We chatted over tea (aren’t we getting civilized here in our hotel room?) and then went to dinner at Mick’s Patio. Interesting place. Pretty inexpensive- food buffet that you could go down the line and point to what you wanted. Makes it easier with our lack of language.

Had a blast with Sherri. Spoke about all we had gone through- gave her some of the pointers we had been given and told her about our experiences so far. We then walked around the block and pointed out the various restaurants, the toy store, 1 hour developing, how to get to the flea market, etc.

On our way back “home” we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few more groceries and show Sherri where everything was at and what was available.

I can’t wait until tomorrow. We go back to see Eli at 8am. Wondering how much he’ll remember us, praying that he won’t just see us as one more person who just comes and goes in his life. We love seeing him everyday, just hate that it is for such a short time. But, as Tim pointed out, that short time for us must seem so long for our wonderful coordinator and driver who are waiting for us the whole time.

Thank you, God, for all the wonderful people you’ve put in our path along this journey. May our hearts always stay focused on You and what you’d have us to do. Thank you for making us the parents you’d have us to be. Thank you for entrusting us with the awesome, amazing responsibility to care for our son. Thank you for brothers and sisters all around the globe that we can worship with.

Short Version:

Had lunch with N after church today. Great food and fellowship. Did laundry. Met Sherri, had dinner, walked around. Looking forward to seeing Sergey tomorrow!