Day 7

Today is Nick's birthday. We walked down to the mall – but it's not quite what you are thinking of. It's more like a Super WalMart; just not as big and some of the clothing is real Italian. Also, WalMart doesn't sell the same kind or quality of alcohol (Does WalMart sell beer?). But I did find chorizo!!! There must have been 50 different kinds of sausage there but very, very little hotdogs. We got Nick a cake and ice cream. The cake was covered with a dark chocolate and resembled a chocolate pound cake but with layers of chocolate mousse. The ice cream was vanilla with caramel swirls and it’s much richer than we are use to. It wasn’t as sugary and it’s mostly sweetened naturally by the heavy cream. How many other American boys celebrate their birthday in Ukraine? And I have some bad news: I lost the key to our flat. I'm sure I lost it because I had other things in my pocket that stayed in my pocket but at least the address wasn't on the key. We have a dead bolt that only works from the inside and Tuesday, we'll get the tumblers changed. I really think that Satan is attacking us at almost every possible avenue. But we are not losing heart or faith, despite the overwhelming spiritual darkness. We also learned that what seemed like a delay isn't as bad as we first thought. Even if we had left for the orphanage city on Thursday, we wouldn't have gotten there until Friday and with the weekend and the holiday, we would have waited the extended weekend anyways. So, as it stands now, we are planning on meeting with the SDA again on Tuesday or Wednesday (if they don't have the updated list of children). Please give continue to pray for us!