there's always a lighter side...

thanks to all of you reading the blog, commenting, emailing us, praying for and loving us--we feel the groundswell of support. i'm not going to write a lot right now, but i did want to just reassure that while this has been hard, and there have been moments of anguish, there are also laughs, new insights, moments of peace that swell, and enjoyable experiences interspersed throughout it all. here are a couple happy and funny tidbits from yesterday:

- after bringing a new bag of diapers to the baby home and putting them in baby A's locker, our translator looks at me in all seriousness and says "you can wear a pamper now." i just kind of stood there and asked her to say it again, not sure she had just said that. she said it again, and a broad smile began forming on my face. "oh! no! i mean, you can put a pamper on him!"

- after the baby home we had the driver take us to a bakery that has become a favorite of the families here--i'd only been there once and this was Rob's first time. we had some amazing dishes like beef with some sort of cheese, peppers and onions and on top; some sort of beirock type thing with rice and beef inside, and topped it of with some WONDERFUL cake, and yes--espresso! i was going to take a photo of it to share, but when i sat down i was just so excited about real espresso and delicious cake, i just gobbled it up! what bliss...the best expresso i've ever had (or is it just the only espresso i've had in a loooooong time?) here's a nice blurry (sorry) shot of the cakes. the one i indulged in is bottom row left. they really have got the whole sweets/cakes thing down here:

a view of the bakery from across the street. i think i had my flash turned off - a no-no with my old camera, shots turn out blurry. ;-p snow is finally melting, and as you can see, things are becoming a soupy mess!

well, we're off to go downtown to get fruit, diapers, and bibs for the baby home; fruit and diapers are expensive, so they don't get as much as they could use, and we noted that they often just wrap these handkerchiefs or rags around the babies' for bibs, so i think some nice new ones are in order. it's great that rob is finally well enough to actually leave the hotel - after 10 days here, we're finally going on an outing! :-) 

may write more tonight...that's all for now. just wanted you to know we're still alive and ok. ;-]