2nd Tuesday in Serbia

I need to start by asking for a prayer request. We are not going to Max's hometown tomorrow. They could not find the Minister today to get his signature. We must have that before we complete the adoption. This means we HAVE to get the signature tomorrow, go to Leskovac on Thursday, have Max's medical exam Friday and get the US embassy to give us his Visa the same day (Friday). (Usually, this takes 24 hours.) If the embassy takes 2 days for the Visa, we are stuck here until Monday. If the signature doesn't happen tomorrow, we are stuck here until next week for sure. Belgrade is a beautiful place but I miss my kids!!! I really want to get home Saturday! The people at the US embassy were SO nice to us today when we went to get all the forms. They said they will try to have the Visa the same day but it is out of their control. Please, pray that everything will fall into place and we will come home as planned. I am sure my sister will pray extra hard. LOL

OK, now to today. We spent time with Max this morning. He was in a really silly and talkative mood. He was laughing and babbling a lot. He doesn't smile all the time and we have even seen him a bit cranky but he is much more good natured than I ever would have thought. His nickname here is "smesko" which means "smiley boy." It is well deserved! In the afternoon we went to Zemun, which I guess would be a suburb of Belgrade. It was nice and more laid back than in the city. There were a lot of children there which we haven't seen so much in the city. AND, we have seen 4 older children/adults with Down syndrome!! I always want to talk to their families with them but the language barrier has prevented me from trying. So, I am very happy to know that some people here do value our children. Very cool.

We have not had a problem finding food here. The food is good and even more importantly, the ice cream and desserts are very good too. We found an amazing dessert place here. The only thing is when we asked for milk, they brought us steamed milk. It was actually good with chocolate cake though! We do eat out a lot even though we have a kitchen. I am not much of a cook and I figure it is good to experience the culture. Right? LOL Tomorrow, I am making apple pie for the church members. They meet on Wednesday night for family night. Don't be too impressed, I'm cheating. I brought pie crust mix and canned apple filling with me from the states. I also brought "apple pie spice" and it got crushed in my luggage. So I have one suitcase full of stuff covered in cinnamon!! It smells good though. LOL Oh, the joys of traveling!