The Orthodox church celebrates Christmas on January 7. Here, New Year's is a bigger event than the Christmas celebration. But for us, Christmas is TODAY.
Chris spent the night with us. Just like a little kid, he came into our room (earlier than we would have chosen). He said, in a little expectant voice, "Medee Kreesmas!" We rolled over, and then we rolled out for his first time around the tree. We began as we always do with me (Ande) reading the Christmas story from Luke 2. I pulled up the Russian translation online and Chris immediately began to read aloud...all the way to verse 20. It was pretty cool.
We opened a junior version of presents here and all began to engage their new loot. After playing some Christmas songs, I had to get ready to meet George, our facilitator, at the notary. Yep, everyone is at work (or what most here call work) today like any other day.
Our family met at 1:00 for Christmas dinner at, where else? TGI Fridays!!!!!!!!!!! Our bio. kids had the reindeer fingers and fries. Chris and I had the mistletoe alfredo (which he loved). Paula enjoyed the fish that slept at the North Pole last night. We chased it all down with Claus Cola- no free refills, please. To top it all of our waiter was MUSLIM!
We had some of the orphan grads over and they had their only meal of the day at dinner with us. Afterwards, Paula and I gave them some small presents (which may have offended most who read this blog) and they were beside themselves. It really is better to give than to receive. I had to get Chris back to the orphanage by 7:00. He fought back tears, but was not too successful. Tom Petty was right- "The waiting is the hardest part."
We miss home. It's not the stuff that we miss most, but all of you. Ok, I do miss driving and having a clothes dryer. Otherwise, we are managing just fine.
We have court tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8:00am, CST. Please pray for us. We have a judge who is new on the job and I cannot get a feel for how she will act. I trust all will go well.
God Bless You, and "God Bless Us, Everyone."
Ande, Paula, and the Elves
P.S., Thanks to all of you who called today and yesterday. What a delight to hear from home.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
At Least it's Christmas Somewhere
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5 comments:
We are praying that this judge will look on you with much favor and that you will be allowed to move forward in the process ;)
Excited to hear the verdict!
The Smiths ~ Here and There...
PS... Christmas Dinner tonight we went to be with a family from Church, Ms. Brenda made the quilts for the kids this summer... They had tons of pics... GUESS WHO OF!!!??? We are so excited!
Merry Christmas from the Werk family. We love you
Ande and Paula,
We are praying that things move quickly for you ! We miss you around here but we have enjoyed the blog :) !.... the Hoosiers
Merry Christmas Underwoods! It is very cool reading about your celebration half way across the world with your new son. God bless you guys-we are praying for your court hearing today!
Trace
I am praying for you today and checking back for news.
Joy Chance
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