Arriving at the orphanage

We have finally arrived in Samara, Russia. I had begun to wonder if we would ever get here. The first thing I want to say is Praise God! We traveled all of those miles, half way around the world without incident. Things went so smoothly. The planes were not crowded. We were able to spread out and lay down and actually sleep. It was very, very nice.

The second thing I want you all to do is first of all pray for Diane because she has picked up a nasty stomach virus. She is feeling very rough. And next I want you to pray for the rest of us that we don't get the virus from her. She is a trooper I will say that for her.

We got day room in Frankfort, Germany and were able to get some rest before we did some sight seeing. It was News Years Day there so there was nothing opened so we even had trouble finding something to eat. We finally gave up and went to the airport to eat. We had plenty of time to kill at the airport. Some slept, some read, some just hung out. I tried to get my computer to work there, but no luck.

The flight to Samara was about 4 hours. I slept the whole way. When we arrived it was -5 degrees and a blizzard. The airport is very small. They back the plane up and park it like in a parking lot and picked us up in a bus to take us to the terminal. Funny. It was freezing cold and blowing snow. When we got inside we had to go through customs. That took a long time because no one could speak English. I went first and got through pretty quickly. I talked with a couple who were Christians and were anxious to hear what we were doing. They were so nice to me. She was from Malaysia and he from here in Samara but they live in London. While everyone else was going through customs they helped me get the bags together. (We had a bunch of them!)

After going through customs Tamara and Olga (not sure of those names yet) were waiting for us. They brought along Santa and his helper! Really cute! They had a bus waiting to take us to the orphanage. The snow was really bad! There was ice under it. It was so slippery! The wind was blowing. Wow. We had to load our suitcases in the bus. Thank goodness for Joe! He just threw those things right up in there.

The drive to the orphanage must have taken us 45 minutes I would guess. They do not clear their roads off. It was pretty scary. If our roads looked like this we would have a level 10 snow emergency!!!!! No one would go anyplace for days.

When we got to the orphanage the dogs greeted us first! We got our bags in and got settled in our rooms before breakfast. My roomy is Diane. Right now it is 9 AM. We have some free time until 11 AM. We are going to go shopping for groceries for the people at the church nearby and then when we come back we will have lunch. Sometime this afternoon the church is coming to do a Bible school like thing with the kids. We are helping with that. Later on we are preparing for the Christmas party. Sounds like a busy day to me.

I hope to have some pictures downloaded next time. Until then keep praying. We are having a great time. It is nice and warm inside so don't worry about a thing we are fine and in God's hands!