Hey Hey Hey,

Today was a long day, jet lag is still hitting us. We are still here at the dorms this week. We woke up, ate breakfast (yogurt, granola bars, peanut butter sandwiches etc.) Then by 10am, Olga, her friend and the driver came and picked us up. We headed straight to down town. Olga’s friend gave us some history of the city while driving around. It was so interesting , a lot to take in, but very cool! We were able to take a lot of pictures! :) Then we made our way to the Hermitage Museum. It was huge!! Olga’s friend gave us a tour(I was pushed in a wheel chair!) lol We just hit the highlights, and only really went on 2 of 3 floors(there are 5 buildings). She told us that there are over 3million pieces in the museum and if you looked at everything for 1 minute each, it would take you about 9years to get through it all!! CRAZY! We took a lot of pictures. We saw a few Vincent Van Gogh pieces, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo de Vinci, and even a statue by Michelangelo. We were in aww.  Just to be able to say that we saw all of that was amazing.

Then we went to lunch, to this cute little café’ where they had these little croissants (of course they have a different name for them) but they had different things in it, like one had apricots in it, another had like eggs and green onions, another had cottage cheese…it was actually really good. Also, I’m trying to get use to the sparkling water at restaurants. So, as I said, breakfast is at the dorms and so is dinner, I brought a lot of Raman noodles:) and We bought at the store stuff for sandwiches, and chips and cookies, so I just had a ham and cheese sandwich w/chips. Not bad. Everything is smaller here, so we are trying to get use to the smaller portions. Haha

We went back to the Crisis Center Hospital today. Spend time with the same babies as we did yesterday. We took them outside to get some fresh air, changed some diapers and fed them their bottles. They actually got two new babies dropped off while we were there today.

Then we went to visit and play with the older kids, the same kids from yesterday and then 14 in addition. We took them outside to play ball and blow bubbles. The kids were so cute. They just hung all over us. They would say “I love you” even though we couldn’t understand a word they were saying. lol Their was one girl there, she was taken away from her family by what would be known as their version of DCF. Her mother was there visiting, it broke our hearts because she was just crying. She wanted her mom to take her home! I went over to try and distract her so that her mother could leave, I started blowing bubbles and playing play dough, it was so hard! We just started crying. They are so precious. The hardest part was when we had to leave. Just saying good bye to the kids, knowing that we are one of those people who are also leaving them….They kept asking when will you come back? We tried to share Christ with a few of the children but it is hard to keep their attention, and also with the language barrier, but we are getting there. God is good! Love you all…Gonna go get ready for bed! Another busy day tomorrow.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Lord, please help me to understand, why. Lord I know that you have a wonderful plan for each and every precious child. Lord, help me to share with them that you have a plan for their lives and to share your unconditional love with them. To tell them that YOU will never leave them nor forsake them. Thank you Lord! You are so good to me!

Your Daughter,

Melissa