Russian Holiday

Tomorrow is a holiday here in Russia – similar to Labor Day back in the US. Today the traffic was CRAZY busy and slow. Everyone was out on the streets. It normally takes 20 minutes to get to Silas’ orphanage. Today it took an hour. We had a great visit with Silas. He loves playing with Anna and he warmed up to me really fast. Iryna wasn’t interested in playing with Silas at all – I can’t figure out if she was jealous of him or if she just wanted to play with the toys. She didn’t seek out my attention, so perhaps it was just a fun room full of toys that held her interest. We got about an hour and 20 minutes with him. By the end Silas looked like he needed a nap! (He’s not the only one).

Sveta dropped us all off at the bank so I could exchange some money. All of our bills are super crisp and nice – I made sure of that – so I was frustrated that she wouldn’t accept one of the 100 dollar bills for the full amount. She said she would accept it for 8% less of what it should have exchanged for – no thanks, lady! I’ll just hang on to it until I get back in the states where they’re not so picky!

We decided to dine at the upscale McDonald’s for lunch. It was about $20 for 40 chicken nuggets, 2 small French fries, 3 packages of ketchup, and 2 medium orange sodas. I wonder how that compares to the US prices.

On the way outside of McDonalds, imagine my surprise to run into Alexei. We met him at McDonald’s a week ago when we went together with Tyler & Keith. He was sitting next to us and seemed to be very interested in our speaking English in us. We started a conversation with him and (through the help of the missionaries translating for us to him on the phone) we invited him to the game night last Friday night. He agreed and came to play games. We invited him to church on Sunday and over to our home for Easter dinner. He called (the missionaries) to say that he was feeling sick, so we hadn’t heard from him since then.

Alexei speaks very limited English, but is just such a NICE guy and he tries very hard to communicate with us. He said today that he’s going to the game night tonight and we said we’d see him there. We told him that we were on our way to do some souvenir shopping at a souvenir store (instead of the stands on the walkway) to find some souvenirs. He said he was going to eat at McDonald’s. We said goodbye and off we walked to the store. About 5 minutes later, you can imagine my surprise when Alexei and another guy were again by my side. He introduced us to Dmitri, who speaks a little more English than Alexei. They went with us to the store which was full of overpriced items and then walked us back to our apartment. Dmitri said he works with shipping vessels and that most of the workers are foreign and speak English. He seemed like a nice guy. We invited him to play games but he said he already had plans.

Now we’re back at the apartment and have a couple of hours before game night. I think that nap still sounds good! By the way, Tyler & Keith are now home and probably jetlagged. I am enjoying myself here in Russia, but I am eager to get home, myself, and get the paperwork going so we can come back to get our boys!

Thank you all for reading my blog and for giving me encouragement and support in this adoption. As you know, it’s not an easy process. There are many ups and downs with emotions all over the place. It’s nice to know that I have so many friends and family who are praying for me and helping me to continue on this journey that God has placed me on. I am so blessed to know you all. Thank you.