CRAZY Day!!

I woke up yesterday morning thinking that a nice, peaceful day awaited me. The day started out great. We woke up, got ready, and headed to our dear Angelina's church with our sweet friends. I had a such a wonderful time listening to the sermon(Angelina translated), and worshiping alongside Ukrainian believers. At the end of the service, I was delighted to hear them start singing an old hymn that I grew up singing. I loved being able to hear it  in Russian, and joined in the singing with the English words. It was a perfect song for me to hear. Below are the lyrics to "Blessed Assurance"

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;

Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

• This is my story, this is my song,
  Praising my Savior all the day long.
  This is my story, this is my song,
    Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending, bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,

I in my Savior am happy and blest;

Watching and waiting, looking above,

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Sweet time of worship 

After church we all grabbed lunch, and then headed to my apartment to rest for a bit before we all (minus Angelina) headed to the Circus!! This is where our day got REALLY interesting. An hour before the circus, we decided to head out because it was raining, and we had a good walk to where the circus is located. My apartment is on the 8th floor. Your options for going up and down are to either a) take all the flights of stairs or b) get on a very scary looking, old-as-the-hills, tiny elevator that has no call button, no emergency phone number, no nothing but huge thick old doors that slam shut. 

For our first few days when we were in Kiev, I refused to ride such an elevator even though our apartment was on the 9th floor. Here, my legs have gotten tired from walking miles and miles each day, so despite my better judgement I have been riding the elevator. The capacity for this scary elevator is 3 people. So what did we do yesterday? We crammed 5 people (one of which counts as 2 people, so really 6 people) onto the tiny elevator. When I say we were squeezed in there, I mean, we were all packed in as tight as possible. 

Everything seemed to be going fine, I thought we were in the clear, and then all of a sudden....silence. We stopped moving and the doors did not open. I should have prefaced this all by saying that I am pretty claustrophobic and really dislike elevators. So what did I do when the elevator stopped and I realized we were completely, and hopelessly stuck? I did what any normal person would do...I started to have a panic attack! I dropped down to my knees in this tiny, dirty, elevator when there was absolutely no room to be doing this, and had a little freak out moment. Thoughts going through my mind....we are so gonna be stuck in here for at least a day. We are in a steel box with absolutely no way to get out. There aren't even tiles in the ceiling of this thing to punch out and crawl on top of the elevator. We have absolutely no cell service to call anyone, and there is no freakin phone in here to call somebody. AHHHH!!!! Honestly, the only thing that kept me halfway sane was knowing that the Lord did not bring us to Ukraine to adopt our daughters to die in a stuffy old elevator. 

So what did we do? Mr. Hulk tried to pry the doors open with his bare hands. Although he did not succeed, I was able to see that the outer set of doors were on the other side which gave me a huge sense of relief. We were stuck between the first and second floors, but at least I could see another set of doors, and not a full wall of bricks. If we had been stuck where I couldn't see the other doors, I would have totally freaked out. With the doors cracked open a tiny bit, L was able to bend down, hold her phone right next to the door, and get a call out to Angelina. I got on the phone, and Angelina instructed me to look up, and tell her what set of numbers I saw. I looked up, and these were the only numbers I saw:

Really?!? A weird set of numbers written in a sharpie is what I am supposed to be looking for?!

This number turned out to be the correct one for the elevator operator, and Angelina called back to say that the operator would be right over. As we are on the phone she asked me how many people we had on there. I told her 5 to which she responded, "I see. That is why you are stuck. There are only supposed to be 3 people on there". Duh!! We know this, I really didn't want a lecture until AFTER I got out of this steel trap!! After about 30 minutes of being stuck, the operator finally arrived, and starting unlocking these ancient doors. We finally jumped down out of there, and my legs were so shaky from my nerves that I thought I would collapse! Needless to say, I will be taking the 8 flights of stairs from now on. 

Here is the elevator...

Now imagine 2 more people on there!!

The girls were very concerned that we were late for the circus, so we hurried over there and made it just in time for the show to begin! I knew it was going to be a fabulous circus when were assaulted by the overwhelming smell of animal poo as soon as we walked in. Nothing says, " buy some popcorn and cotton candy" better than that smell!!

We grabbed our seats just in time for the opening act. The circus was very theatrical. Some of the highlights included porcupines and skunks running around the circle, goats pulling an old cart, and ballroom dancers dancing with cats and dogs. You just can't make these things up, folks! 

 Ballroom dancers...

 Ballroom Dancers with a dog

 Pretty cool act with an abnormally flexible girl and lots of rings

 Human pyramid

 Ever seen a goat at a circus? Didn't think so:)

 Live Band

 Lions and Tigers...I wasn't convinced that that net would keep them in if they really wanted to get out.

This girl was being held by the dude's teeth...and neither one of them had on a harness!!

I have never seen an intermission like this one. They brought out all kinds of dogs for kids to take pictures with, ponies for them to ride, a really old porch swing that you could sit in and be lifted all the way to the ceiling...not strapped in of course, and some kind of parachute thing that took tiny children all the way to the ceiling really fast and then dropped them. The circus lasted for 3 full hours. The girls had a great time, and it definitely was an experience!

Hard to see what is going in this pic...but look closely and you will see the porch swing high in the sky  and the parachute on its way down.

Today was a very busy day preparing for tomorrow...the day that A officially becomes ours!! I can't wait to share her with you all tomorrow, so be looking for a special post!!