Just Two More Weeks

It's just for two weeks. Small comfort for my dear Sasha. I've given her my name and my heart and yet I still had to drop her back at the orphanage for "just two more weeks." Before we left the hotel this morning for our last day together, Dan and I made her a little calendar so that she can mark off the days until we return. This morning I told Sasha, "We will be back in just two weeks and then you never have to go back to the orphanage again- ever." I could tell that it brought her some comfort, but her demeanor was markedly different today knowing that she was going back to the orphanage instead of back to Texas.

We did have a wonderful day together despite knowing how it would end. We visited The Church On Spilled Blood, The Peter and Paul Fortress, and the book store located inside the Singer Sewing Company building. In the book store Sasha chose a book on Russian history, a book about the Czars, a fiction story about a horse, and a sort of horse encyclopedia if you will. (If you haven't figured it out yet, the child loves horses.)

The Church On Spilled Blood is a favorite for Dan and I. The entire theme of the mosaics inside the church is simply Jesus. His life, his death, his resurrection. What better theme is there than that? As I stood in the church, Natasha pointed out how one side of the church focuses on his death and suffering. The other side of the church focuses on his birth, life, and resurrection. Suffering and death. New life. This is how it is for all of us I suppose. But I really thought of Sasha. There is this one part of her life marked with sadness and loneliness. Now she is stepping into a new chapter. A chapter filled with friends and family who love her and will speak life, new life, into her.

Just two more weeks my dear Sasha. Just two more weeks.

The Church Of Our Savior On Spilled Blood

The Church On Spilled Blood has more mosaics than any other church in Europe.

The Peter and Paul Fortress. Every Czar since Peter the Great is buried here.
For all you conspiracy theorists, I'm sorry but Anastasia really did die.

We ended our day at a yummy Georgian restaurant.
That's Georgia in Eastern Europe. Not the peach state. :)