Sunday October, 31st - Hallelujah!...the universal language! (but what does mmoooo sound like in Russian?)

We went with our friends, the Alikin family, to church this morning. It is an Assemblies International church and it was WONDERFUL! It is an English speaking church and the Pastor is a retired military Chaplain from California. Most everybody there spoke English, but it's amazing how none of that matters when you are praising God! Scripture is scripture and praise music is just that - it's not the language that defines it. Anyway, we had a great time praising God with our new friends. We then went out to eat at a cafe for a Russian meal - pigs in a blanket, mashed potatoes,and Pepsi! Mmmmm. It was really good. We then went to the zoo. We all had a good time, but the kids in particular had a BLAST!!! I was especially touched that their oldest son was begging for us to come back for his birthday on Dec. 4th! I do hope we are here for it!! The ongoing joke between Annie and I, since we've gotten here has been what different things sound like in Russian. It all started because she saw toy monkey in the DC airport that laughed. I told her to wait until we got to the St. Pete airport because maybe they'd laugh in Russian. She naively agreed. When we landed in St. Pete somebody sneezed and my comment was "that's what a sneeze sounds like in Russian". At another point, we passed a dog and I said that I wonder what a bark sounds like in Russian. Then somebody blew his nose and ... you get the idea - it's been like that and we've laughed since we got here. Cows are Annie's favorite animal and unfortunately they were eating so we still don't know what a moo sounds like in Russian. lol We have had the best time here and to make a fantastic weekend even better, I found out this morning that we will be able to visit baby Max twice tomorrow! Hooray!!! Is it 10am yet???