It's light outside!

Time zones are a funny thing, at least that’s how we feel here in Russia. I know for sure Luke and I have come up with our own time zone that works for us because we are still wide awake at 11pm at night. Besides that, in St. Petersburg it is still light outside until 11pm, and I am talking light. We are close to the Arctic Circle and not far from the North Pole, so like Alaska being light in the summer it’s the same way here. Well, for you history buff’s we have been to St. Isaacs Cathedral, Peterhof (Peter the Great’s Palace), Peter and Paul Fortress and the Church on the Spilled Blood. Today, we are going to the Hermitage which is like the Louvre in Paris, and in one of our traveler’s guides it said that if you spent one minute in front of every object it would take five years to see everything. So, we will pick what will be most interesting. Luke wants to see some Van Gogh since he has studied him in art class, and he wants to see the ancient coins from Rome and Greece.

We have talked to some of you using Skype and it has been our one way to connect at home. The time zone doesn’t help because most of you are asleep while we are awake, but it is wonderful technology. Before we left, we set up Luke’s classroom computer with Skype and put our camera on their computer. So, Luke has been talking with his teacher and classmates while he is in Russia! He is so excited every time he is able to talk with them, and he can see everyone and they can see him. He tells them what time it is here and something about his day, and sometimes they will ask him questions. We all feel like they are with us every day!

We love your messages and treasure reading them on our blog. It’s like that scene in Horton Hears a Who, with the whole town yelling, “We are here, we are here.” And that is how we feel about your messages that remind us our family and friends are with us.

We will be leaving St. Petersburg tomorrow night on the lovely 24 hour train ride back to Voronezh. We are arriving Sunday night, and then we have two days until Hannah joins our family! The last week we will be in Moscow doing paperwork and getting Hannah’s passport! Our biggest prayer concern now is for Hannah. This will be a huge change for her and we have been praying that it will go good. She probably doesn’t know what major changes are about to happen to her, but we know God can prepare her heart to smooth this hard transition for her.