Dragging on...

Well it has been a few days since the last post, and not much interesting to share.  It seems we are just sitting here.  No adoption business to take care of, no one checks on us or calls or really has any idea if we are alive or not.  Nevertheless, here are the past few days in a nutshell.

 Friday and Saturday were spent staring at each other in cabin fever madness.  We pretty much sleep as late as the girls will allow then head to the mall around lunch time.  The fresh air is nice at times, when it is not producing black lung.

Sunday was by far the best day we have had so far as a family of 5.  We went to bed Saturday night with anticipation of getting out of the apartment and going to church with our social worker Barbara.  She and her family arrived at 10 to take us to church.  As earlier posts explained, we meeting Barbara and her attending the church of a pastor I had emailed before our arrival were about 1 in a million literally.  The church has about 100 members or so, the area we are in has about a million people in it.  The odds of her being the social worker assigned to our adoption case is nothing short of a God thing.  We arrived at church and met the American pastor and what a joy he was to meet.  Leigh and I listened to the service through headphones where a local English teacher translated for us.  The girls made it through the service to the part where the guest preacher began.  At that point we went across the hall to room with toys where a couple other children were playing and the pastor sat with us and we talked while the kids played.  He has been here 18 years and has a heart for Poland, its people, and for seeing the Gospel spread through the country.  During this time, he asked if we knew about Barbara’s husband.  Other than the fact that he drives very aggressively, we knew they had a BMW and a Mercedes and that they weren’t hurting.   Turns out that her husband was a heavy metal rock star here in Poland during the 80’s.  The preacher said his band opened for ACDC back in the day and were pretty big here.  So there you go.  Adopt a baby, meet an 80’s celebrity.  After church we went with the pastor to IKEA for lunch and for the girls to play.  We had a great time eating and learning about Dan and his ministry here.  Turns out that we know a lot of the same people here in Poland.  For those who have been to Poland with us, Dan is the one that organizes the English camps that all our youth workers talk about going to in the summer.   During our talks, we also were invited to attend a meeting at church Tuesday night for a group that is heading to the US in a couple weeks and are taking some conversational English classes.  We are thrilled to have another opportunity to get out in the town and help some brothers and sisters in Christ in the meantime.

Monday brought about our first encounter with snow.  After preparing for a visit from the orphanage workers, we waited in anticipation of the meeting.  We had cleaned the house.  Actually Leigh cleaned while I was sick and in the bed.  There was a small Polish uprising in my GI tract Sunday night and into Monday morning.  That’s enough detail.  The house was clean, the girls were dressed in their Christmas gear, all dolled up, and there we waited.  Waited some more and then called Magda to see what was going on.  They ended up not coming and here we were with our whole day built around this meeting.  Our friend Leslie had taken pictures of our house and uploaded onto FB for us to share.  We were ready.  Not sure when they are coming but who knows.  Monday also brought about the need for a new shower hose.  Ours broke after Leigh and the girls had gotten ready.  So I was fortunate to be able to take a bath.  So there we were, its Monday at noon, we have nothing to do.  I am puny but pressing on.  So, we go to the mall!  We stay there to dark, which is about 4pm.  We grab some food and head home, only to be welcomed by a layer of snow and slush.

After a night’s sleep, we wake up back at full strength.  We had to leave the apartment long enough for the cleaning lady to come and tidy up the place.  So where do we go, the mall!  After having a nice lunch at a place called Jeff’s, we walked for a while and let the girls play in the indoor playground, which has been a big blessing.  Ryleigh made a change from her usual Happy Meal request and decided to go with the KFC.  She didn’t know the name of the restaurant but said she wanted to go to “the place that had the white man with the chicken leg.”  She can’t eat a chicken leg now without thinking of what Paul said this summer at the park to her after seeing her “destroy” a chicken leg. 

 Fun things from the last couple days:

-Upon leaving the playground, they gave us a piece of chocolate and a wrapped ornament.  Not 2 pieces of chocolate Layla.  But to her credit, she tried to eat it multiple times.

-Victoria screams “momma” all the time.  Even the smallest thing we take for granted is so exciting to her.

-People at the IKEA playground did not believe Victoria was 3 because she is so petite.

-The large balloons given out at the mall sound like gunshot when they pop.  Making Leigh and I jump and Ryleigh cry.

-Polish wasabi is no joke.  Just a tiny investigative taste gets your attention.

-Not a good idea to run out of baby wipes and paper towels.  Otherwise, you have to take a girl with a dirty diaper all the way to mall to buy wipes and then change her.

- The newly European powered Wii we brought is a life saver.  Ryleigh is undefeated at sword fighting.

Prayer requests:

-Our upcoming court date next week and that the judge will rule in our favor for the trip to be shortened.

-Leigh is battling an approaching migraine.

-Ryleigh is starting to get homesick.

-Everyone seems to be sleeping well.  Layla included.  Prayer answered!

-Please pray for travelling mercies for Leigh’s parents who leave Lexington this Saturday.  It is their first time overseas.