Friday, November 9nd

Post date: Jan 1, 2011 4:54:07 AM

Well, we are finally settled in to our new space and have arranged for internet access from here. We are very happy with our new accomodations and new friends. The children have a large play area and seem to not mind hanging around in the kitchen while we make meals. We now have two bathrooms and two bedrooms as well which has made things much more pleasant. The first night we were here, there was someone singing/playing a familiar Christian song on the floor below us. It was such a welcoming sound. We will probably try going to church here on Sunday. If we feel at home here it will save us about $40 a week on van expenses. If the people we haven't met yet are as nice as the ones that we have met we will feel very at home.

The people here have been amazingly helpful. One of the women who lives here speaks English very well and is waiting to go on the mission field. She wants to work in the Middle East as a missionary to the Muslim people. She has shown us around the place -- helping us get settled in and showing us where to find the dishes and the clothes line, etc. Her mother is living here, too. Both of them teach at the small seminary that holds classes here. The mom made dinner for the half of us that didn't get it the night we moved in. The next morning, she walked us to an excellent bakery where we feasted on eggs and ham/cheese croissants. Then she walked us through a small mall showing us the best places to visit and showed us where to find the grocery store. We can't imagine how they could have more helpful! We are very close to lots of good places -- McDonalds, a couple of pizza places, a drug store, a grocery store, and we even caught sight of a park in case they want a change from the play equipment here.

Tomorrow we get a refrigerator in our room because the staff is worried that someone else might eat any food that we keep in the one in the kitchen. No one has touched anything in there so far -- but it's nice of them to protect our stuff. So far we have eaten 3 meals here and already gone through 2 1/4 loaves of bread. Tonight was spaghetti night, and left-overs are apparently a thing of the past!

We managed to fit all of us in one taxi today -- quite a sight to see judging by the taxi driver's amusement. We went to the store to stock up on water and and pick up a few more groceries. A man from the church was very kind and offered to take us to the store since he was getting ready to leave anyway. On the way back, we grabbed the taxi. Up to now, we have always called the van that picked us up from the airport -- but it's expensive and he's quite frequently busy with tour groups. We'll be using the regular taxis more often now that we know we can do it for short trips. Tomorrow, we go back to the other hotel to go to Pizza Hut with some of the guest that we met there and to pick up some things we left in the safe.

We got a call from our adoption facilitator today. She wanted to see how we were doing since we had moved and to let us know that our papers had cleared one hurdle in the court. She says that our papers now go to a judge who has 10 business days to review them. After he/she is done, they go to the defender of minors, who gets 5 days to do whatever he does. So, it shouldn't be more than 3 weeks from now. It could be less if they don't use all their time. One couple at our hotel had final approval after only a week in court.