Thursday

Nearly two weeks have flown by since we left home. I can hardly believe it has been that long, and yet, it seems like we haven't seen our house for months. Addie keeps telling us that she misses her house....can we go home yet? She also has a thing against the judge right now. We have a book at home that walks you through the adoption process, including the court visit. The pictures show the judge as being grouchy. All day Monday she was lamenting the fact that judges are so grouchy. We kept telling her that the judge isn't grouchy, she's just doing her job. Needless to say, she doesn't believe us.

Today has flown by again. A fact for which I am so thankful. It would be horrid if the days just d.r.a.g.g.e.d.

This morning we slept in again. Baked oatmeal and toast was on the menu. Delicious. Looked a little different than what we're used to...really dark brown sugar, white raisins.

After breakfast Dad, Mom, and I headed to the exercise room. Boy did I feel good then. However, in approximately 20 minutes time, I was wishing that I hadn't exercised so rigorously.

We checked the train schedule and realized that we had about 15 minutes to make it to the train station. Oh how the warm duds flew. With eight minutes to spare, we raced out the door. Down the 'lane' we ran (Addie on my back, Will grouching that his legs were getting tired), to the road, down a totally ice covered hill (which made running a little difficult...poor Addie was freaking, which is nothing uncommon), across the train tracks (where we saw the train coming round the bend), up the steps, down the sidewalk. It was about a half mile walk...not far...but too far with two little children in tow. The train arrived right as Jason dashed up to the ticket window. Thankfully the conductor was a kind fellow, and he stepped of the train to wait for us to get our tickets. We leaped onto the train and off we went.

Addie was crying. Will kept saying that he was scared. Jason rubbed his throat, which was made more sore than it already was by running through the cold air. I don't know for sure what the temperature was, but it was somewhere between -1F and 10F. The low and high for our day. Not a one of us was what you would call cold after racing to the station.

This time we disembarked at the Second River station which is the third stop from our station..Sanatornaya Station. We were told there was a Chinese market and an indoor market there. Sure enough, there was.

The Chinese market was just like any other. Lots of little booths selling all manner of things. Shoes. Coats. Jeans. Boots. Kitchen wares. Fruit stands. Draperies. Hats. You name it.

The indoor market was what we would call a mall back home. Clothing shops out to wazoo. The shop that we were looking for was right inside the door. The store that sells mink coats. Real mink coats. Not the fake stuff like you can buy in the Chinese markets. Those are too cheap. Only $500 or so. THESE fur coats are far from cheap. The cheapest one we found was roughly 70,000 rubles (divide by 30 for US dollars) and the most expensive we saw was 286,000 rubles. All the fur coats stayed hanging on their nice little hangers. I think the girl at the desk was more than happy to see us file back out the door. The children made her a little nervous.

On the way back to the train station we darted back into the Chinese market to browse a tad. It's hard to browse in a place like that. If you even think about pointing at something three little salesmen/women are right there, doing their best to sell their wares. We didn't buy...

Finally, when our cheeks were frozen into permanent grins and our toes felt like ice cubes, we opted to head back to the train station. Unfortunately we had about 45 minutes til the train came in so we bought some cookies to snack on and stood huddled around eating them in the nice chilly outdoors. I distracted myself from the cold by snapping pictures.

About 20 minutes before the train was due, we decided to head that way so we didn't miss it. Off we went. It's easy to see why the majority of the folks here are far from being overweight. The steps about do me in.

After waiting about five minutes, here came the train. It was 15 minutes earlier than our schedule said it should be, but we decided to hop on anyway in hopes that it would take us where we wanted to go.

We clambered on with the other hundreds of people, and stood huddled near the back. All seats appeared to be full. Hardly had the train started when the ticket checking lady came by requesting to see our tickets. I dug them out of my pocket, handed them to her, and she shook her head saying that they weren't right. She jabbered at us a little. I told her I couldn't understand her. She jabbered some more. I told her I couldn't understand her.

One thing that I don't get is how they keep on jabbering when they know full well that you can't communicate. Are we suddenly going to be able to understand?!

Sorry, that was off the topic.

Oh. You think that's off topic too? It is. I just thought that since I was already out in left field I may as well really be out there. The ice on some roads/sidewalks is thick. Men are everywhere with straight edged shovel thingys chipping the ice and hauling it away.

Back to the subject at hand...now that you have totally forgotten what we were even expounding on. The lady finally started laughing. By that time we had captured the attention of the whole car. Not unusual, we're finding. We must look out of place with our smiles. After much confusion, a kind man stepped forward stating that he knew a little English. Come to find out, when Jason bought our tickets, he had purchased one way tickets. We were on the train with no tickets. Oops.

It wasn't a big deal. She whipped out her little money collecting device, we paid her 48 rubles for all six of us, she smiled, and moved on. Why can't we seem to take the train without any struggles, I wonder?

We actually got off the train at the right stop, a point that Addie kept exclaiming over. However, even bypassing the taxi ride, she has declared that she is never riding the train again.

Back home again, we all took naps (except Mom...I think that she went to the White Rabbit to work on her pool skills), got up, ate supper, had devotions....and....you guessed it. Went to play pool. When there's nothing else to do, you resort to pool.

Tonight, though, we had a change of pace. Two other adoptive families, both on their first trips, came in and we got to know some new people. Too bad they both leave tomorrow. It's always fun to have other faces around. Especially if they speak English!

Now. Jason is showering and praying that he's feeling better by tomorrow. The cold/nasty head stuff that we've been passing around has bit him. Don't worry. We're pumping him full of Oregano tea, Echinacea tea, Emergen C, and Ginger/Lemon/Honey tea. All Oksana's advice. It worked for Dad....so maybe it'll work for Jason, too.

Dad and Mom are both perched at the table with me glued to their books.

Addie and Will are in bed attempting to go to sleep.

I'm typing.

But I guess you had already figured that out.

I'm also trying my best to keep my mind off of court tomorrow. Not an easy task. Part of me is thinking that we have nothing to worry about, but the rest of me is nervous. Like churning tummy nervous. It's so easy to say that we trust God. And we do. It's so easy to pray, Thy will be done. And we know it will. It's so easy to say all the right things. But it's so hard to actually let go and let God.

Everything in me is on edge.

Tomorrow morning Oksana will be picking us up at 9:30. That's 6:30 in the evening at home. Court should commence at 11:00.

Please pray. Please.

We know that God is in control, but knowing and feeling the prayers of those back home and around the world is such a boost.

As we read in 1 Timothy 1:7 tonight. "For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

I need to go to bed. Hopefully my mind will shut off and I can get a little sleep while I'm there.