Clinging to Images of Home

Until today, everywhere we went, we had to pay a driver because we had no earthly idea where we were. This evening, however after studying a map (ok-Brian studied the map. We all know I am directionally challenged.) we decided to walk to the "big market" to get enough food to get us through the next few days. It is probably about a mile away, but a pretty straight shot. On the way there, I found myself clinging to anything I saw that was written in english. I got excited when I saw images like these:

Would I normally care about Tropicana, The Gap, or whatever the Fresh Factory is? Nope, but in a foreign country where I can't understand a word anyone is saying to me, I find myself clinging to these images as somehow they remind me of home. Weird? Maybe, but next time you encounter a person who does not speak english, offering up a game of charades to try and help them out would probably be more appreciated than you can imagine. While we were at the market one of the ladies at the meat counter yelled at Brian. We don't know exactly why. (ok, maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was trying to take a picture of some kind of furry animal leg with a hoof on the end for sale...eww!) It felt awful though because we did not know if we had done something to offend someone or if they don't allow cameras in the market. Who knows? Another lady though was very kind and helpful. She was our cashier and she did play charades with us. She was trying to ask us if we needed bags to carry our groceries. Their bags are not free. They have barcodes on them that they scan and you have to pay for them. After a second or 2 she realized that we had no idea what she was saying and acted out taking a bag and putting groceries in it, smiling the whole time. I gestured toward my book bag and she put the bags away and smiled. We packed the groceries and headed back to the apartment for dinner. It was such a blessing for a complete stranger to reach out us. Just remember that a kind gesture no matter how small can go a long way.

This is completely off topic and more so for me to remember my trip more than anything else, but here is a recap of yesterday and today:

Yesterday we went to go pick up Quinton's referral which allows us to enter his region, visit him, and start his adoption. We got there early so that we could be one of the first in line as we had other places to go afterwards. I was surprised that there were people there adopting from all over the world. I am sure that I heard some Italian, French, and Spanish among other languages. I was not meaning to eavesdrop on conversations, but I definitely found myself listening closely to the hispanic couple, trying just to understand something that someone was saying. Then I said something to Brian and a lady gasped and smiled big. She said "you speak english!" I could feel my face light up. I told her "yes" and the conversation took off from there. It is so funny what not being able to talk much will do to a shy person like myself. Neither one of us could stop talking. We talked about where we were from and who we were adopting and anything else we could think of. Today I can't even recall her name, but God keeps sending me these small little blessings that help me get through my time here. It is not that I don't like it here, I am just a real homebody and being away from home is really difficult.

After the SDA we went to TGIFridays again to meet some more American families also adopting through Reece's Rainbow. We had a great time showing off pictures of the kids we are going to adopt and exchanging experiences. We will all be heading out this weekend sometime to go meet our little ones and hopefully we can all finish up around the same time, because I would LOVE to have dinner with them on the way out of the country and us all have our little ones with us.

Today we mostly stayed in. I try not to complain too much because I feel very fortunate to be here, but we were just kind of bored. Brian made breakfast and afterwards I went right back to sleep. I think I slept until 11:00 just because there wasn't much else to do. Then I got up and made lunch. I boiled some noodles and a sauce packet of beef stew gravy. Well, we did not have a whisk so it was lumpy and there was no flour to thicken it with so it was runny, as hard as we tried to pretend, beef flavoring is just not the same as meat. So, we will call that one a bust. Oh well, live and learn. (In case you did not know, I brought like 40 packets of dry sauce mixes with us since from what I understand, meats are not refrigerated in the region we are traveling to.) Brian and I layed down to watch a movie (Simon Birch) together to pass the afternoon which bwas followed by our walk to the market and that's about it for the past 2 days. Thank you for reading and leaving comments. Hearing from you all makes me feel a little closer to home. Love you guys!

-To Riley, Sydney, and Jonathan: Thank you guys for your prayers. You guys might just be kids, but you are making a big difference. Thanks for helping us get Quinton home!