Happy Valentine's Day

Oleksandr came to pick us up around 7 PM. We loaded the two big suitcases in his car (last round we had four big suitcases) and went over to the Chocolate Café for coffee. We apparently had made a good case for the awesome brownies because he ordered one and persuaded us to do the same. Since we had recently eaten a full meal with Oksana, complete with a shared strawberry blini, we shared a brownie, too. It was still delectable. Next we put the four small bags (oops - that was up from two small bags when we arrived) into the car and headed for the train. We had plenty of time before our 10:25 departure for more visiting - before and after settling into our compartment. We rented an entire second-class compartment (usually for four people) giving us more space for suitcases on the top bunks and saving us some money, too. We learned to do this from mission trip travels.

The train was very new and much more modern than any we have encountered so far. We were very comfortable and enjoyed our tea with lemon. We stayed up until midnight trying to fulfill Dennis’ request to call him from the train, but we were unable to connect via the broadband modem, and couldn’t get our cell phone to work for an international call either. After that I slept fairly well. John did not. The wake up announcement came around 6 AM. I had been careful to limit fluid intake, and so did not have to use the WC again - always less pleasant by the end of a trip. Sergei was right at the door to help us disembark and took us in his car to an apartment he had procured for at least one night. We assembled the bed and promptly fell asleep for five hours. Sergei called around 12:30 to say he would be by after 2 PM to look at one or two more apartments that were located closer to the orphanage. We managed to clean up, change clothes and get ready, but neither of us was a bit hungry. The apartment he showed us was very close to the orphanage: not even a block from the Metro station closest to the orphanage from which we had walked twice every day to visit Nick and Dennis. It had a bedroom separate from the living room, bathroom with a shower curtain and a toilet seat cover, a small functional kitchen, washing machine and the ever-present electric tea kettle. We took it. We actually went straight back to the agency and paid for the first week and moved our luggage in right away, not even staying the night in the first apartment. We were both glad to just be settled prior to meeting Daniel and starting all the documentation process.

We walked over to our favorite (familiar) Billa grocery store next to the Metro stop for supplies. The grocery list this time: meat, eggs, cookies for Daniel, paper towels, peanut butter, butter, pasta, a red sauce, multivitamin juice for us and a few juice boxes for Daniel and we each picked out a candy bar for a Valentine’s treat. Back at the apartment we discovered we had no matches to start the stove, so we had ungrilled cheese sandwiches, a banana, a dried fruit bar and our candy bars for supper. We did try to call the boys but our schedules did not coincide. We knew their Grandpa and Grandma Thur would be over for a visit, too.

We tried watching the Olympics, but the biathlon wasn’t the easiest: too much commentary was necessary to understand who was really in the lead based on time and accuracy and everything was in Russian, except for the commercials! We watched the only DVD movie we brought: Twilight while I knitted a hat for Daniel. Although I carefully checked my gauge before starting, it is clearly too big for any three-year-old’s head. Guess I will finish it and hope he isn’t too embarrassed to wear a hat with his name on it by the time it fits. Off to bed after laying out all the things - gifts, photo albums, documents, toys, treats - we want to take along in the morning.