Almost In 'N Out Burger

Our first 2 full days with Micah Aleksandr are complete and have been wonderful! He is settling in a ton better than we ever could have hoped given our experience during the 10 day waiting period. As expected, he is still very much preferring mommy for the bulk of his interaction, but I have been carrying him the bulk of the time that we go out and have been changing him and helping him get dressed, and he is responding better and better as time goes on. I know that it is going to take time, and I am more patient than he thinks. I can wait this thing out a lot longer than he can. He’ll cave soon enough and realize that playing with daddy is pretty cool (at least I think it is…and four other brothers can’t be wrong). We have stayed pretty close to the apartment for the most part, although we have gone out a couple of times both days for walks just to get some fresh air (we use that term loosely, between the smog, cigarette smoke, the wind blowing dust and trash everywhere, and the copious amounts of smoke as people are burning the dead brush in their yards and fields). We braved the cold and wind to feed the pigeons yesterday, but apparently the pigeons didn’t get the memo that we were coming, or maybe it was too cold for them and we were the idiots here. So that ended up being just a walk in the stroller. Today we have the privilege of spending the afternoon with our friends, the Loomans’. I got schooled by their boys in soccer, ran races against their two new goats, ate hamburgers that tasted as close to home as you’ll get in Siberia (not In ‘N Out Burger, but wonderful nevertheless), looked at baseball cards with their son and regaled him with stories of Jose Canseco getting hit on the head with the baseball and having it go over the fence for a home run, my wiffle ball career, and a play-by-play of Kirk Gibson’s dramatic (no, dare I say epic) home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series against the Oakland A’s (brings tears to my eyes just writing about it). Something tells me he didn’t find it quite as exciting as I did. But he was a good sport and played along. We had an opportunity at the end of the evening to pray for each other’s future journey as we continue to seek the Lord’s guidance in where we can serve Him best in the future, wherever that might be.

As we were driving home, I reminisced about the amazing things we had an opportunity to do in Krasnoyarsk this time around, and mentioned that I was bummed that I didn’t get a chance to ride on a Russian city bus. Tim, who was giving us a ride home, took me seriously and dropped me off at the bus stop, and I rode through two stops and got off. I set up Elmo and was all ready to take the picture when I found that the batteries in the camera were dead! Bummer. But I have the ticket to prove it. I had two buses to choose from, and chose the less crowded and creepy-looking one. I know, I’m a wimp. Tomorrow we are planning on laying low, packing, and getting ready to go. I pick up Micah’s passport tomorrow and it’s off early Wednesday morning to Moscow. Can’t believe we’re almost finished…

JP