Riding home from meeting Nikki

As I said - we got in the van and pulled away, with Nikki waving goodbye. What a day it had been. We didn't even want to leave - we had only been allowed to spend about three hours there, but the ride was three hours there, and three hours back to the hotel. So leave we must.

On the way back, we were silent for a bit, each reflecting on what we had seen and heard. And then, we couldn't stop talking. The words just kept coming faster, louder, furiously. We both LOVED that orphanage. There had been such a sweet spirit there. We had liked Cami's orphanage, but it had seemed so cold and callouse compared to this one. It's not that it was better furnished, Cami's was. But this one had a spirit of comraderee' and togetherness, and love. The walls felt cold - but the spirit was there. We had been so touched. And Nikki. I now understood how and why this little child had called to me thousands of miles across the ocean - halfway around the world. She was as endearing to me as anything real and full of love in my life. It was if I already KNEW her. I was certain of that. She had called me, I had heard her, and I had come. And now, she was mine. Paperwork or no paperwork, (which there was to be much more of) that girl was mine.

So we talked. And we talked. Then we talked some more. So much had been said about Nikki and the orphanage and the youth and the surroundings, the people, the dogs, the everything. We were mad, sad, that we didn't know Nikki had sisters. We expressed every emotion you could have on that trip home. We fell silent, and I know at that time, Vinny was thinking exactly what I was thinking.

FATIMA. He opened his mouth and started to talk about how she had smiled and waved in the camara. Then he showed me the video. I was mesmerized. She was beyond beautiful, and she had a cool air of confidence around her at the orpahange. But the video clip showed her sweet little self, with that half smile and a wave of a hand. So, the discussion began about adopting Fatima. "NO!!!" all my senses reasoned. Three would be way too many. I had come looking for one... now I had two, and now three??? How could I possibly do this? How could WE possibly do this?? So, on that three hour drive home, Vinny and I discussed the pro's and con's of adopting this additional little girl. Alex, our interpreter, seemed to be listening, because his wife Luba suddenly cut in and told us "no - you don't want her, she is sick. You can't take her home". We were like "huh"? Nothing like that had ever stopped us before, and it was almost at that moment, we were determined that we would really look into the possibility of adopting her. Before long, we were back at the hotel, tired and sore, from a long day.
As we drove up to the hotel, we again saw two more Elders walking down the streets of Stavropol!! They had their backs turned to us, and we didn't know if they were the same Elders that we had met at the zoo, but what a joy again nonetheless. The ones we had met when we had been with Cami were from Rexburg Idaho and Portland Oregon. I was so humbled once again.

At any rate, we got back to the hotel, and decided to go walking. We ventured out a little ways, and walked through a very old town that had been established in 1775. It was starting to rain a bit... so we turned back and went to the Galleria (the Mall). We did some shopping for the next day, where I picked up some lotion, deoderant, games, candy, apples and cookies for the orphanage. They had a Dominoes Pizza there! HAH! So we ordered a pizza, and decided to head back to our hotel.
We got to the doors of the Galleria, and we couldn't believe it. There was a flash flood - intense lightening thunderstorm. It was delightful and amazing. Our hotel wasn't that far away - but it was far enough away to get extremely soaked. So we waited for a bit to see if it would let up. It didn't. When it showed no signs of letting up, run we did, with gifts and pizza in arms! It was absolutely breathtaking. We were soaked clear through within seconds, and in some areas the water was to our knees. I can't believe I didn't slip and fall, for I am known for such things. It was so wet and slippery. We arrived back at the hotel, sopping wet, shivering, and everyone staring. We laughed, we didn't care. That was fun!

We sat down and enjoyed a littel supper - the pizza was very different from American pizza. We were so exhausted. We took a long hot hot bath. After that, we decided that it was time to kneel down and pray over this little girl, Fatima, and ask Heavenly Father what He thought of us taking her home. Our prayers were intense, and real, We wanted to know. We also wanted to know if we were biting off more than we could chew, and were we just getting caught up in the heat of the moment? The Spirit seemed to reassure us that all was well, and we felt very comforted. We fell asleep immediately. Anther day, never to forget, always to remember!!