Sunday, April 11 I am writing about Sunday on Monday and with the events of this morning, Sunday (yesterday) is already a blur. Because there are no baby house visits permitted on Sundays we had a quiet morning to ourselves. We went to City Net after lunch to e-mail and send out our blog and the power went out to the whole place while we were inside. There were two fire trucks parked outside with firemen holding hoses in the adjoining building. Funny, we probably wouldn’t know it if we were being asked to evaculate a burning building (at least the smell of smoke is universal!).
John called Gulnara and found out she wanted to meet with us and Zhanat at 2:00 at Café Ankara. The two of them went over our petition and some other documents which Zhanat was to retype later that night at home. After last night’s clash between Gulnara and Helen, John and I took time to pray before heading off to this meeting, that God will give His divine wisdom to Gulanra and calmness, ect. It was a beautiful sight to see the two of them working well together as a team as they sat across from us in the cafe. We do think the world of Zhanat. He told us earlier that he is interested in being a translator for other adoptions in the future. We said we would be happy to write a letter of recommendation for him.
Gulnara then invited us to join her at her friend, Tatiana’s house for Tatiana’s birthday dinner . It turns out that her husband is Alexander, the man that drove us to the baby house that one morning, after we had been so reluctant to get into his car since we hadn’t been told he was replacing our regular driver, and then he got his car stuck in the snow and slammed into a tree. The last time we saw Alexander was when we left him and his car stranded in the snow (just as we were instructed to do!). This dinner of friends was a great experience which we will always remember. To be invited into someone’s home and partake of their culture is such a treat. We sat down to eat at 5PM and enjoyed an abundance of Kazak and Russian dishes (can’t name a one of them) including salad, egg salad with meat and cheese, cold roasted chicken, salomi, bread, black olives, and some congealed broth with chunks of meat in it. John and I were both stuffed. THEN they brought out the HOT food (all that other food was just the appetizer – ha, who knew!) Hot stuff included mashed potatoes and beef stew, chicken wing, ect. Did you know if you keep sitting at a table of food (we did not get up for over 4 hours), that every 15 minutes or so you are able to find new room in your stomach for more food? What’s a good guest today when everyone is telling them to “eat, eat.?” The birthday girl, hostess (in her early 50’s) was a gracious host. Nine of her cashier workers from the two stores she manages also joined us for dinner (as did her next door neighbor and another couple who are good friends). We enjoyed listening to them singing songs and giving toasts throughout the night. It was a night where not understanding words was not a problem – good fellowship doesn’t always need any words.
John called Gulnara and found out she wanted to meet with us and Zhanat at 2:00 at Café Ankara. The two of them went over our petition and some other documents which Zhanat was to retype later that night at home. After last night’s clash between Gulnara and Helen, John and I took time to pray before heading off to this meeting, that God will give His divine wisdom to Gulanra and calmness, ect. It was a beautiful sight to see the two of them working well together as a team as they sat across from us in the cafe. We do think the world of Zhanat. He told us earlier that he is interested in being a translator for other adoptions in the future. We said we would be happy to write a letter of recommendation for him.
Gulnara then invited us to join her at her friend, Tatiana’s house for Tatiana’s birthday dinner . It turns out that her husband is Alexander, the man that drove us to the baby house that one morning, after we had been so reluctant to get into his car since we hadn’t been told he was replacing our regular driver, and then he got his car stuck in the snow and slammed into a tree. The last time we saw Alexander was when we left him and his car stranded in the snow (just as we were instructed to do!). This dinner of friends was a great experience which we will always remember. To be invited into someone’s home and partake of their culture is such a treat. We sat down to eat at 5PM and enjoyed an abundance of Kazak and Russian dishes (can’t name a one of them) including salad, egg salad with meat and cheese, cold roasted chicken, salomi, bread, black olives, and some congealed broth with chunks of meat in it. John and I were both stuffed. THEN they brought out the HOT food (all that other food was just the appetizer – ha, who knew!) Hot stuff included mashed potatoes and beef stew, chicken wing, ect. Did you know if you keep sitting at a table of food (we did not get up for over 4 hours), that every 15 minutes or so you are able to find new room in your stomach for more food? What’s a good guest today when everyone is telling them to “eat, eat.?” The birthday girl, hostess (in her early 50’s) was a gracious host. Nine of her cashier workers from the two stores she manages also joined us for dinner (as did her next door neighbor and another couple who are good friends). We enjoyed listening to them singing songs and giving toasts throughout the night. It was a night where not understanding words was not a problem – good fellowship doesn’t always need any words.
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