Comfort Zone

We arrived in Voronezh safe and exhausted. I don’t sleep well on trains or planes, and when I don’t it hurts my brain. (I couldn’t help myself, I love to rhyme). Anyway, we received news on our return as to when Tatiana is coming to us. We thought tomorrow, but now it seems on Wednesday the director is bringing her here to us. Some of the paperwork for her passport is not completed, so that is the delay. I’m so pleased to hold on to the concept of expect the unexpected with this process. Yes, I do get frustrated by it all, and I believe it has kept me from getting excited. Some friends have shown their excitement, but I have this big reservoir inside of me keeping all of this at bay. I can’t let myself go there until probably we are back home in Maryland. I know once she is here with us that will recede, but for now I will stay this way and have little moments of celebration as we get closer to leaving.

Now that I am a train expert, which means nothing except I have more unanswered questions than ever before. Like, what is that terrible smell in the bathrooms on the train? Why is the heat on when its 80 degrees outside and no windows to open? Why are there so many stops and no one gets on or off? Why are you not allowed to use the bathrooms with two hours left until your destination? These are some of the few, but I have many more not suitable for this blog.

I have became very good at using bottled water to brush my teeth, wash my face, and take a short shower (short being the optimal word). Besides my water issues on trains, in Voronezh the water is turned off from noon until 5pm, and again at night from 11pm-midnight. Water has become a very important commodity for me, and one that I take advantage of at home. Dare I say, I will think of it differently once I return home or is this just a thought I have now and will let that go? We all have a comfort zone. Where we like to shop, eat, travel, and this excursion has taken me away from all of it. While we were on our own in St. Petersburg, food became another interesting event. We would ask the front desk, but for some strange reason they must think all Americans are rich and want to eat at very nice places. After sightseeing all day, we ended up at a very expensive restaurant arranged by the hotel. We were too tired to find another place, so we ate there and the food was great. Around 9 pm, the restaurant had a fabulous show with singing and dancing, but what is funny about this is we didn’t know it was going to happen. That seems to be the whole thing here; we never really know what’s going on.

Even in my feelings of fear or being unsure of the next disappointment, God is always faithful and near. Last night when reading the Bible, I ended up in Nehemiah (fancy that), and read his prayer and the fear he was facing. Below on that page were these words, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” That takes the bite out of every trial!