Regular Rostovians

No doubt we are missing home and our children especially, but we are doing well learning how to survive and even enjoy Rostov. We are amused, and sometimes saddened by the sights here. You'll find a few shots sprinkled in this post of Rostov. Sorry, we didn't have time to sharpen our blogger skills and now navigating our site is near impossible since it is in Russian. The famous saying "A picture speaks a thousand words" is so true. You'll find a picture of a huge apartment building taken from our hotel window and some others just like it that we took on our walk to Samuel's orphanage. Most people who live here in the city call these rundown apartment buildings home. And of course you'll see their clothes hanging out to dry, since they don't have the convienence of a washer/dryer like we do. We have observed people working hard here and especially for older people, life here is hard. You can see it in their faces and swollen feet.

You'll see a lovely picture of me sitting in our room...thought you may be interested to see where we lay our heads each night. Notice that everything is low profile (small bed and nightstands) and the bright green patterned bedspread and curtains. The carpet matches too! Another picture of our hot spot, McDonalds. Actually this one is new to us. Can you believe it, there are two! Yes, we admit we are not very adventurous...at least we've not been accused of eating strange things and we stay far away from resturaunts with rabbit liver on the menu. We did find a new place called MaMa Pizza. The food is good and they even have a non-smoking section. Next to McDonalds, it's the only one we've found in all of Rostov and Moscow. It seems that everyone smokes here!

As I said at the start of this post we are missing home. We are SO thankful for the comfortable, inviting place we call home and look forward to getting back there! As we struggle to be comfortable here in Rostov we realize soon it will be Samuel's turn to leave all the comforts of his home to adjust to a new one. Talk about feeling homesick for what you "know". Two days ago we took Samuel from the Baby Home for about a half hour to take passport pictures downtown. Paul (our driver), Olga (translator), one of his caregivers (name unknown), and I took a 10 minute drive in the car to the photo place, which was a teeny tiny closet of a place underground. Sound inviting? At the last minute we were told Ryan couldn't go 'cause there wasn't room in the car. Imagine my disappointment...he's my protection! Samuel began to kick, scream, whimper, shake, and try his best to climb out of the window. I've never seen a boy so scared! He wouldn't sit in the carseat and so his caregiver held him down in her lap. About halfway through the drive she reluctantly let me try to comfort him. It was awkward and I got the feeling she didn't want me to take over, so I tried to be gracious. It was an eye-opener to how it might be to travel home. I wonder how he feels about plane rides, like 4-5 of them? I told Ryan as soon as we got back that we have got to work on our soothing Russian phrases. I guess he has only been in the medical van a few times and it was to visit the hospital for his surgeries. Poor boy, he is associating those not so pleasant experiences with rides in the car. I don't blame him for being so afraid.

The rest of the day I was on the emotional side, fighting those same fears I had when adopting Noah. I am not alone, Ryan felt the same. We are asking God to renew our courage and help to rest in the fact that even though Samuel will grieve the loss of his Baby Home it will be suffering worth enduring. The blessings of being a part of a family we trust will far outweigh the pain of the here and now!

We had a really good visit this morning and now we are off for our afternoon visit. Did I mention we are walking now? We have to do something to work off all those burgers and fries! At times Samuel decides he wants to be independent, but for the most part he likes us and is happy when we get there. Yesterday it was so cute, another boy came to Ryan's legs to get a hug and Samuel quickly motioned this boy to move it. With a swipe of his arm and words (?) the boy obeyed and then Samuel snuggled into his spot. This is good, he wants all to know this is HIS Papa. Ahhhh! He enjoys the toys we bring. But, even more he likes playing with the boxes they come in.

In the words of our kind facilitator, "you must pay him". And that we are doing! Yesterday we took him a sucker, he loved it. So much so that he paraded around with it, running it along the bars to the playground, flaunting it in front of his friends. Germs anyone? And so we tried Skittles next and shared them with the other kids. This was a hit and it gave the kids something to be excited about. We (Ryan & I) are kind of the entertainment while we are there. Today we found Gummy bears at the store, so we'll see how those go over! We are getting to know the children in his group and it will be hard to say goodbye.

On a side note: Please pray for an opportunity we may have to meet with a missionary here. He is a part of Slavic Gospel Association. Maybe we can somehow be an encouragement to him, or likely the other way around. We are waiting for him to contact us via email.

Also, we are looking forward to catching a soccer match on Monday night.

with love from Rostov,

Allyson for both