Churches, Referrals and Chocolate, oh my!~Day 3

It snowed today.

I walked out the front door this morning with my apartment friends, and the gentleman remarked "Gosh this is pretty."

And I said "Pretty's a word....."

The truth is, it was absolutely freezing. Snow was blowing sideways into our eyes and faces as we headed up the hill towards some nearby sightseeing.

First, St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. This is like the bell tower out in front. And that's me freezing my face off.

There was some very lovely artwork along the walls, and under the bell tower were two small gift shops and an entrance to a museum.  

 Jennifer and her husband decided to see the museum but I wasn't really interested, so I wandered off towards the main building. I guess that would be the monastery part?

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  

Even in the snow and grey. I am sure its absolutely stunning in the sunlight. 

I went inside, with my headscarf on because thats the rules, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures. People were lighting small candles, whispering and making cross signs, and after about 5 minutes I decided I should probably go back out and wait for my catholic roommates to come with and explain what was going on or if I was doing anything wrong.

I went back to the museum entrance and asked if my friends were back yet. The woman didn't speak english, but she waved me on through and said something that seemed to mean "Go on ahead and catch up with them, we don't need your $5."

The museum was pretty cool, and a few of the signs even had english explanations but the COOLEST part was getting to go up to the bell tower.

 This is now programmed, like a player-piano, to do certain things at certain times and play different songs for different days of the year and holidays etc. all the way until like 2099 of something incredible like that.

I caught about 30 seconds of the bells tolling to mark the half hour:

Here I am way up in the bell tower, and there is St. Michael's behind me.

We then decided to walk across the street and down a ways to St. Sophia's Cathedral.  Unfortunately it looked like they were setting up for something outside of it and it was closed so we could not go in.

This statue was in the courtyard.  It appeared to be a religious figure on a horse with some kind of weapon.  Religious figures apparently used to be pretty much way more stud-ly.

We decided to wander about in search of the toy store, but we never found it.  The streets and sidewalks were slushy, people were outside their stores and shops shoveling the walk.

Two ladies caught my eye as the strolled by.  Fur coats, jewelry, leather boots. But the real kicker was they were THE. ONLY. PEOPLE. we had seen in the whole city using an umbrella. Very posh. I especially like the contrast of the older woman shoveling snow directly in front of them.

We had to be at the Adoption Authority at 3 pm, but we were early so we stopped to eat.

My husband will be totally shocked to see the photo of my lunch below.

Actually. No. He won't. :)

Seriously yummy.

We rested happy and warm for a bit, happy to have found a spot with chocolate and employees who spoke english.  

But before long it was time to brave the cold again, and head over for a very important moment.

Before going inside, I decided I should do what we had seen other folks doing, although we didn't know why.

This statue had a beetle on the gentleman's bottom. People would stop to rub it, presumably for good luck or something.

See? Its like way shiner than the rest of the statue from all the rubbing.

People also rubbed the lady's nose. So we did that too. You know, just in case it was important.

This church we also did not go in, but it's directly across a small street from the adoption authority and it was very pretty. St. Andrew's.

A member of the facilitation team arrived then, with another family and we all headed inside.  We sat for a long while, and more and more people came in with other facilitators speaking different languages.  It was quite the international experience.

Eventually, a lady came downstairs and sat in a very small cubby at a desk with a pile of papers and a sort of record book full of graph paper.  She would call up a family, write some stuff in the book, make an x, and ask you to sign. You signed and she gave you the papers.  

This is your dossier, EVERY single paper we prepared, notarized and apostilled over the last 8 months in order to be here.  They had taken it, translated it, stitched it together (with actual string, kind of like a book binding?), and now were handing it back to me to take to our child's city.

Along with the most important paper of all: The Referral!

This gives me information about our child, along with permission to go and start visiting her in the orphanage!

Awesome.

We came back to the apartment, and had a long visit with Ana. It was too cold to go out wandering about so she came here to see me. We talked to my brother in law for a long time on Skype, she ordered pizza which after being in a country where almost no one understands you for a week seemed like manna falling from heaven!! We thoroughly enjoyed her company, had great conversation, and now I am ready to head to bed tired, but very happy and grateful for what will transpire in the next few days.  This week in this city has been one I will never forget.

But realizing the moment of meeting our child in 3 short days is really going to happen.....I am sure everything up to this point as wonderful as it has been will pale in comparison!