The good news or the bad news? I always like the bad news first, so here it is: we did not get to visit Anastasia and Jonathan today. Our guide called us this morning saying the director of the orphanage asked that we not come today because an inspector was coming and that it would be better if we were not there during that time. We understood but were still disappointed. The good news: we had a really fun day just taking our time walking around the town (in spite of the 32F degree weather) and just hanging out together. This was especially good since last night we started to get a little stir crazy with the waiting and not knowing the next step.


The waiting and not knowing are very difficult for us Americans, (so we've been told) but today we felt like we were really just letting go of control and enjoying the moment! Praise God. Another great thing about today was the food! We had the best meals we've had since we've been here. We found great "hashbrowns" in the hotel cafeteria for brunch and a fantastic pizza place about a block away for dinner. Of course we had that yummy gelatto/ice cream as well. The photos are from the pizza place. The photo above is of dessert. Even though they gave us an English menu it was still a hoot. The description of the dessert was "pastry tubes impregnated with creamy and condensed milk." Yum! That beats another menu which had a dish of "potatoes fried in deep fat." We skipped that one. The next photo is Rosie tasting a juice which Mikey absolutely loved. It was fresh squeezed orange and lemon juice. Sounds ok except it tasted like pure lemon juice with NO Sugar! ;-}


This photo is Mikey with the pizza. It was sooooooo good! Very unusual too. It had pork marinated in cherry, tomatoes, peppers, onions and seasoning on a thin crust. Yes that is a maraschino cherry in the center. That's why the name of the place is "Cherry Pizza." The name is actually in English! Another reason we really liked this place was that it did not feature tv screens everywhere showing semi-pornographic music videos.



To give more of a picture of our experience here while we wait, here are a couple pics of our hotel. It's called the Liverpool and has a Beatles theme. As you walk outside the hotel and through the parking out to the main street you hear "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "Michelle, Ma Belle." We have yet to hear "Back in the USSR" though :0
These are life-sized statues of the Beatles found as you drive into the hotel.

This is the elevator made to look like an English phone booth. There are also Beatles records that line the walls and statues of the Beatles throughout.

We look forward to seeing the kids tomorrow and hopefully we will have more information about the adoption process. All we know is that we cannot leave until we have appeared in court and we do not have a court date yet. That is what we are now waiting for. Pray that God will use the time to grow us and bring us and our children into the next phase.