Waiting Days 4 & 5

Today is the halfway point of the 10 day waiting period! YAY!!! The next 5 days will be filled with paperwork, visits with our baby, and some other official stuff. We've had the last 2 days free to rest & do some sightseeing (even though we would have LOVED to have visits with him instead!).

Yesterday the cold water was shut off for maintenance from 12 AM Saturday-12 AM Sunday through most of the city which was interesting. Fortunately, the hot water worked so we had something. We had breakfast & then headed down to the Krasnoyarsk Museum of History & Local Lore which is right on the river bank. Andrew is the history geek & insisted we go...I wasn't too excited, but it turned out to be more impressive & interesting than I had expected. It was only about $4 each for admission plus an extra $1 to take pictures. It only took about an hour to go through the whole thing & the public restrooms were closed due to the water issue. We're not sure why, but the outside of the museum is Egyptian style....in Russia...weird. When we went through the part about the wildlife here in Siberia, Andrew's comment was, "Too bad I don't have my hunting guns!" Typical...HA HA :) Then we headed to KFC for lunch...let me tell you people, KFC is a happening place here in Krasnoyarsk! The girl who took our order was very patient with us as we pointed at the pictures on the signs & struggled through ordering. It tasted just like it does at home, so that was nice :) Again, public bathrooms were closed. After lunch we headed to the big children's store to look for a hat for baby. I forgot to pack one of his baseball hats & as I mentioned before, it's tradition & superstition for children's heads to be covered outside at all times. You just have to go with their way of doing things here. The cold water came back on at midnight right as we were going to bed :)

Krasnoyarsk Museum

Crest of the Crowned Prince of Russia

Painting of the Good Samaritan

Russian Orthodox Communion Bible

This morning we talked with the kids, Andrew's brother & sister-in-law, & one of the babysitters on skype. It was all ready Tara's 7th birthday here in Russia, so she opened her presents while we were talking with them.

Everyone is doing well, but we can tell the kids are starting to have a hard time with us being gone. They're in great hands, but we miss them so much! There's definitely going to be a lot of emotions & adjustment when we get home. I started getting caught up on the laundry & then we headed out to climb the big staircase up the hill to see an old Russian Orthodox chapel. It was Andrew's idea & something he has wanted to do since our first trip here. That was an adventure...it's almost a mile walk plus crossing a busy street with no crosswalk to get to the stairs at the bottom of the hill. When I say staircase I mean old, rotted, rickety wooden staircase with missing steps & surrounded by weeds & bugs. It's almost 300 steps to the top & then you get to walk uphill for another mile or so to get to the chapel. We finally made it! The view was really pretty & it was a nice clear day. The chapel was very small, and I didn't go inside since women must wear a scarf on their heads when they enter a Russian Orthodox church. Andrew went in for a moment, lit a candle for our son, & put it under the cross that was on the wall. We went and sat on a step where we read Psalm 145 from the pocket NT Andrew had & took a moment to thank God for our new little boy & bringing us this far. We are missing our PFB family today, but it was a very nice Sunday morning here in Kras.

We're just hanging out at the apartment for the rest of the day & getting ready for the busy week ahead. In exchange for me hiking up the hill, I get a foot massage & dinner made by my husband :) We're hoping the next 5 days go quickly. The 10 day wait period is over at 12 AM Saturday & then we get to go pick up our son FOREVER sometime that day :) We can't wait! Thank you all for keeping up with our story & for praying. Here are some pictures from the last few days.