Day 3

Getting up at 10:30 was difficult, but worth it, because we made it to the 12:30 worship experience at Hillsong church with Eugene and Erik (his wife Jenny wasn't feeling well).  Eugene picked us up at our apartments and actually attended the service with us.

Our church (Elevation) covers a lot of Hillsong's music, and we've had a guest speaker from Hillsong Australia...so that was pretty awesome to be at the actual Hillsong here.  We went expecting to not understand the service, but they had at least 3 interpreters who sat behind a group of us who interpreted the entire service for us.  Amazing.  We heard songs that we were familiar with, but sung in Russian.  We just sang along in English, hoping that the music was loud enough that it didn't matter.  I love that we had time to go to church before our SDA appointment- it's nice to start the week with worship and a time for prayer and fellowship with others, and to have a sense of normalcy before diving into the unknown that will be the next several days.

Afterwards, we had coffee and tea and chatted with one of the interpreters, who was surprised when we told her how our boys' lives would change once they made it home to the US.  She was very supportive and happy that we were here to adopt, but I could tell that she was surprised that we were going to adopt a child with special needs.  It saddens me to see first hand the belief that children with disabilities don't have a future...but also makes me thankful for the opportunity to share our experiences and to open people's eyes to our kid' ABILITIES that have yet to be tapped into.  If we can change one mind at a time, then we are successfully advocating for our children.

Well, that catches us all up now.  We're at the coffee shop around the corner from TGI Friday's using the internet and getting a little caffeine buzz to carry us through this evening.  (Try the latte or the iced cappucino, btw). We're getting ready to hit the farmers market again, and then we'll have dinner with the Moniers and I think the Hazeltons at a Ukrainian buffet.  Crossing my fingers that all this new food will sit well with us, since we have to be ready to go to our SDA appointment tomorrow at noon.

So- prayers are appreciated to make sure that this appointment goes smoothly.  It is where we will be matched officially to Danil and see his records for the first time.  If all goes well, we'll have a referral for his orphanage by Tuesday afternoon, and be on the overnight train to his region Tuesday night.

Dasvedanya for now!