We arrived at the orphanage in the town of Elektrostal in mid-afternoon. The van pulled up to a back door close to the stairs where we had to carry our luggage up to the third floor where we were going to stay for the next three days. Unfortunately they hadn't cleared the ice off the steps and I took one step and slithered right on down! (My knee has been giving me some problems and I used a cane for a lot of the time in Russia - canes don't help on ice!) The orphanage director, Nina, grabbed me and walked me around to the front door where the steps were cleaned off. (You don't say "no" to Russian orphanage directors!) That was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Nina "adopted" me as her "American daughter" and she is now my "Russian mama". She made sure that I had taxis into town when we went on excursions to see the library and attend church on New Year's Eve; John Wratchford teased me and said "Some people will do anything to get special treatment!" ;-)When we got all the baggage upstairs we took a breather in our room with the pretty lace curtains. My bed was better than last year - last year I may as well have had a hammock but this year the bed was very firm. The bathroom was across the hall; the toilets aren't like ours here in the states but they serve the purpose! The sinks were in the next room where there was also a free-standing shower stall. It was a decent shower but you had to make sure you gave the water a chance to warm up!
Unfortunately, most of the kids were at "Winter Camp" for the holidays and we didn't get to play with them but they came back to give a program for us and let us do our puppet show for them. More on that soon!
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