Wow, we made it home finally. What an ordeal. The flight was fine, both children behaved wonderfully, what met us in St. Petersburg was not fine!!! By now, I (Ramona) was almost hallucinating from exhaustion from a week averaging 2 - 3 hrs a night due to my fight with pneumonia (up coughing all night) and no sleep for the 20 hour trip from Washington to Russia. After hauling all 10 pieces of luggage up to the 5th floor where our apartment is, Aaron gave us this discouraging news. "The door doesn't open". I gazed at him not comprehending his words. "The key doesn't work in our door".
We ended up sleeping for a few hours at a local hotel then dragging ourselves back to the apartment where we tried once more with a different key friends had taken from us. Still no go. Aaron dropped me off at Sasha's flat were Tim, Abby and I had lunch then he called to tell me he had a flat tire and could not come to pick us up, could we please walk. He also gave us the bad news that the reason the door would not open was that someone had jammed it after breaking into our apartment and making off with our stash of money.Tonight as I sadly cleaned up my nighties, socks, and slips it was hard to imagine some stranger rifling through my drawers looking for hidden treasures. They didn't get much.
Please pray for us as a family. We really feel God leading us in new directions and believe the enemy would love to discourage us from being obedient. Thank the Lord that we are able to rejoice even in the midst of difficulties. He is God in heaven and on earth and we are His ambassadors. Our hearts are determined to do His will.Blessings!!!!
Aaron, Ramona,
Timothy and Abby
PS. This is a just a brief update so that you can all start praying. More to come...
