Today, in the middle of a bustling esplanade, we had to say goodbye to our daughter. She said to me over and over again, "Don't cry... please don't cry!" I finally said, "If you don't walk away, I will start crying, really hard!" And of course, the tears welled up pretty good by then. She left and we waved and I thought how wrong it felt that she had to leave us like that and get on the metro by herself and ride the 45 minutes to the orphanage.
They wouldn't even cut Lily loose today until after class once again, we only saw her for about 4 hours. Several times she asked when we would return... we told her the same story ... if all goes well, in a perfect world, it could be as quick as a month... if not, then the normal time is 6 weeks, and anything after that is Russian stubbornness and bureaucracy. Please pray for that perfect world! :-)
One thing that worked out great. We got to see Galina, the director of the teen crisis center where Lily first stayed for a year. And although Galina speaks English a little, she does not speak it or understand it well enough for any kind of deep conversation. As God would have it, the interpreter I met in USA last January appeared at our hotel today ... we chatted for about an hour and in walks Galina for our lunch appointment. We introduced them, invited Irina to have lunch with us too and she willlingly translated the whole time for us! What a blessing.
We also saw the last two of the main cathedrals today, St. Isaacs and the Church of the Resurrection. They are both amazing... there are no words really.
Off to Tallinn tomorrow... a whole new language... time to switch gears.
1 comment:
This post just made me cry. Thanks for sharing your story and your photos of Russia. I hope you are able to go on your second trip soon. We are still waiting for our first!
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