Yes, We Are Still Alive And Doing Very Well!

Well, it has been a long 4 days and not having internet access has been really hard for me. But we are Wi-Fied now and loving it.  

Just a quick recap of the past few days. THe travel to Moscow was great but long. No delays, fairly smooth rides - prayers answered! Our hotel in Moscow was great! THe European soccer championship game is Wednesday of this week so there were tons of soccer players and people around the hotel. Russ said the team was Manchester United.

Our flight to Asktrakhan on Sun  was a little more eventful. They are very picky with the weights of luggage so we had to check and extra bag. But then our one carry on would not fit, over or under the seat and the crew spoke very little english. In the States they just gate check your bag and give it back to you when you get off the plan but Russ had to sit spread eagle over the suitcase for two hours. When we landed we found out that the hotel we were suppose to stay at was booked and that we could not go there until Monday so they found us another place - it was more expensive but very nice, even though there was not internet hookup.

Monday we moved to the other hotel that we planned to stay at. I could talk forever about it but basically, we have a sewer smell in the bathroom, no AC(temporarily out because of construction - note that it was 78 F today and will be 89F by Friday) and RUss and I could have been on Russia's FUnniest Home Video as we tried to get 4 suitcases and 2 adults in an elevator that would not hold more then 4 people tightly fit.

Anyway, to get on to why we are here - it was not for a luxury vacation. Our original plan for Monday was to visit the Ministry of Education to do our interview and get info about the children. This was thought to be done in the morning and we would get to meet the kids in the afternoon. However, we did not get to meet until 4:45pm so we will not get to visit them until tomorrow.

We have seen pictures of them and they are adorable. We can not wait to meet them tomorrow. We will not be able to post any info about them or their pictures until we get custody of them on the second trip. Please pray that the meetings go smoothly. That we have safe travels( one of them is in an orphange about 50 minutes away) and that we will get good information about their medicals.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. We can feel them working and when something does not go smoothly, God has blessed us with calm spirits. We have a great coordinator and interpreter and they have helped so much. And when things start to go bad, God has blessed us with the memory of the elevator above and all we can do is laugh.

All for now - hope to update soon(sorry, the update was not as quick as I originally thought)