Day 48 - Party at the Rhoads - Friday, Nov. 4

Wahoo, a day to sleep in. Ksenia was going to her sisters for the weekend to celebrate Nastia's birthday. All of our paperwork was done that we could do at the present. Now we just had to hang around and wait. We had wanted to get Vitalli a warm coat for the winter, so we made plans with him to go to the open air market. He was hoping his teacher would let him out of school early to meet us, but he said no. So instead of meeting him at 11, we met him closer to 1pm.
At the open air market we walked around. He tried on a couple different coats and finally decided on a black one. The first one he tried was a more light weight jacket. I am glad he did not choose that one, because it would not be very warm for the cold winters here. We also found a scarf for Yarik and one for me that matched my jacket.
The temperatures are definitely dropping! It was a brisk day to be out walking about, but I am glad that the weather is still nice enough to be outside. Yarik wanted to go to McDonald's so we stopped there for a quick bite to eat. Then we went to the EcoMarket to get a few groceries.
Back at the apartment the boys wanted to go online to check out facebook and try to chat with friends. I started reading a book about Corrie ten Boon, "Tramp for the Lord" it was a really interesting book about how she was faithful to follow God's leading and tell her story all over the world.

Yarik took this photo of Vitali, Mom, Alina, Sasha, Sergei and Katya

Yarik had invited several friends to come for dinner and I had invited Vitali's sister, so once back to the apartment, I started cooking dinner. Katya and Sasha arrived first, while Yarik and Vitali were on their way to get Alina. The boys also stopped and got some juice and water for dinner.
When they were all back, we had Thai chicken soup and sandwiches. Then cookies, tea and coffee for dessert. We had lots of fun. I had no idea what they were talking about most of the time, but they did try to include me now and then. We got out photos that I had sent to the boys so they could see our family and we were trying to find a picture of our house. I finally resorted to going to Frodo's page where there was the only photo of our house that I could find!

Sweet little Katya with Erica

Yarik and Sasha

Yarik, Vitali, Sasha, Katya, Erica, Alina and Sergei

After everyone left, Sergei watched some skate videos and Yarik and Vitali listened to music to go to sleep. Then I turned off the computer and the other two of us went to sleep as well.