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???

Saturday October, 30th - Where am I???

It's Saturday! Our day to get to sleep in - and we did! Our bodies still have not adjusted to Russia time. On top of the 8 hour difference, everything here happens at about a 2 hour difference. For example, the sun doesn't rise until around 9am, so it feels like it's 7am. This has almost made us late a couple of times. The day starts later, schools get out later, meals are later, etc... which sounds like it would work in our favor, but it doesn't. Somehow between the hours forward and two hours back, our bodies have defaulted to "it's night and we want to sleep." I figure we'll get it all straightened out sometime on Monday - we're leaving on Tuesday. lol Regardless, we had a blast today!!! We went to a Russia bakery and bought a chocolate cake kinda thing to take to our friends' for desert. I had no idea what they liked, but chocolate for female never seems to be a bad choice. My friend was going to pick us up so I kept looking out the window for him to pull up. Well, I didn't realize that "I'll pick you up" meant that he'd ride 2 subways, a tram, and then walk 3 blocks to the hotel! How incredible that he would do this for people he doesn't really even know! We then repeated the travel process in reverse to get to his family's apartment. We walked in and it smelled WONDERFUL! His wife is absolutely sweet and his kids are so friendly. We were all sitting on the floor of his 3 year old's bedroom when she, in Russian, kicked the adults out so that she could play with the "americana" (aka - Annie) by herself! Their two sons (8, 11) flirted with her in the typical pat on the shoulder and run kinda way. It was fun to watch the kids all interact since they did not speak any English. I helped prepare a salad while we had great spiritual conversations. Dinner was delicious! We had a traditional Russian meal, which was basically a big meatball, mashed potatos, and salad. During dinner, their daughter began speaking French! How in the world is a 3 year old bilingual?! I do good just to be lingual - see! lol Anyway, we then all gathered on the boys' bedroom floor for a game of Memory. I knew before we even started that this wasn't going to be good. Then it got worse...I saw the cards. I can keep picuters of Disney characters straight or Winnie the Pooh, but no.... these cards were from Holland! I was surrounded by little windmills, geometric shapes, and wooden clogs with patterns on them. Okay, I'm an American who only speaks English, sitting in a Russian home with a three year old speaking to me in French, playing a game from Holland...where am I??? The world suddenly became even smaller than it was when I landed here and my awareness of how uncultured I am became huge! We enjoyed a delicious pumpkin pie and the chocolate stuff for desert, and then headed back to the hotel. You won't believe this - I offered for him to just tell me the number of stops so that I could count them, get off the subway, and then walk to the hote, but he refused. He insisted on escorting us the entire way back to the hotel and then he repeated to journey home. God is good. No, God is GREAT! And, I am very thankful to my new friends for extending their hands, opening their home, and sharing their hearts! I can't wait until church tomorrow!

Friday, October 29th - Sonny Boy..."what's my name?"

First of all, NO! I'm not old enough to know that song. Secondly, his name is Maxim Alexey Stickley! I decided to keep it pretty much the same. I wanted his initials to be MAS, and coincidentally, his birthname initials were MAS. And most importantly, he already knows and responds to his name. Anway, I only have a few pictures from today because my little boy is sick. I chose to return him early today because he was feeling so miserable! It was really hard for me to do, but I know it was best for him. The workers agreed to make sure that he gets to see the doctor. I won't get to see him again until Monday. :-( Then, Annie and I did something we've never done before - we rode the subway. I have to tell you, it was quite interesting! It started off very empty but by the time we got to our stop, it was rediculously crowded. All that pushing and shoving - I hope I didn't hurt anybody! I'm actually serious - we had to shove our way off. I don't know what we'd have done wandering around a huge city where we don't speak or read the language. I had my backpack, purse, and computer bag, and Annie had a bag - we'd have looked like street rats! Anway, this weekend will be a time of sightseeing with friends and church on Sunday! I'm hoping that it makes Monday come quickly and we can see Max!!!