Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to - - -
me!

Yep - today is my birthday and I am 53 years old today. How can a person feel young and old at the same time?? :):)

It was a wild and crazy day. Church this morning, with about 20 young adults showing up from the church in Odessa. It was wonderful! The church was completely full, with 20 or so people sitting on teeny little chairs (we are talking 2 and 3 year old sized chairs, truly teeny!) in the back, or standing against the wall, or sitting on the window ledge. Wonderful! At the end of the service, as is the custom, those of us who had a birthday during the past week were called forward. The two gals that make up our whole worship team right now both had birthdays - so they each took a carnation and a bag with a box of candy in it and then traded with each other. I came up and was given my bag and flower. Then, we discovered that 3 of the people from Odessa had also had birthdays this past week! So they were called forward as well. Sergei N. called Mel, Sergei K. and Vitaly T. up to pray with him over us. Actually, it was getting more than a little crowded up there ... But I felt very prayed over and very blessed. :):) Melinda was also there for the first time in 6 and a half months. And as icing on our cake - our new team family was also in attendance. Oh, it was great!

After the service, Melinda, the family, Mel and I went over to the bus stop and waited for the correct marshrutka or trolleybus to come by. It took a little while, but a partially empty marshrutka did eventually stop. We all climbed on, got our seats, except for poor Julia who had to stand beside her 3 older kids, and away we went. The nice thing about the correct marshrutka or trolleybus is that they drop us off less than a quarter of a block away from our building instead of about a third of a mile away.

I told Timmy, the 5 year old, to look for the brown door and he and his dad raced to find it. Then Mel opened it and we all trooped up the 3 flights, carrying our Bibles, bags of clothes to change in to, food, and a stoller with the baby, Paulina, sound asleep inside. We were pretty noisy, so I'm sure all the neighbors were well aware that we had company. :):) Mel and Melinda went to buy some bread and ice cream, I got out some toys, coloring books and crayons and the kids got busy playing. All except Paulina, who was still asleep. After Mel and Melinda returned, we cut the bread and some tomatoes, got out cheese and two kinds of meat, condiments, chips and canned peaches and had a wonderful first lunch all together.

Once again I was reminded how long it has been since I have been around little kids. Busy, busy, busy! These kids are very well behaved, but like all kids (and adults who just usually do it in a more "civilized" manner) they had their occasional spats. We talked and talked, listened to classical music in the background and watched the kids play. I was amazed that Nadia, the 8 year old, knew so many of the classical pieces of music - until I learned that she has taken ballet lessons for 5 years! She got up and did a little ballet for us during Swan Lake. :):)

So, now we are alone, just Mel and me, Cheyenne and 4 fish, and BBC. Our cable internet is not working tonight, so I will have to try and post this via dial-up. I just hope I can get a fast enough connection!

All in all - a very good 53rd birthday!