Summertime in Lapland

It's evening in Finland's Lapland, here inside the Arctic Circle. This afternoon we sat by the fireplace in our homey condo (thanks, Mom and Dad!!!) warming the bones, watching the light drizzle and an occasional snow flake pass by our window. This is our kind of place!

This area is considered Santa's home, so we're on the lookout. Tonight we had reindeer pizza for dinner. No really, we did. More specifically, it was reindeer, salami, jalepenos, and "pickled cucumbers". All I can say is the salad was great!

We have had many travel adventures since our last post, but very limited internet access. Now we have access about a kilometer away from the apartment, so we'll be on every once in awhile. Sorry, Amy, can't blog every day!

Some highlights since we left St. Pete...
The train to Helsinki, Finland was great. It was a Russian train, and the Russians do trains very well. Good service and a nice lunch in the restaurant car. We spent a few hours in Helsinki before boarding our boat to Estonia Thursday evening. We thought we were getting on a ferry-type boat with maybe a couch where we could grab a few snoozes. But NO, this was a bonifide cruise ship - 10 stories high, supermarkets, restaurants, our own private cabin with private bath, and so much more, all for the 2-3 hour cruise over to Tallinn, Estonia. We docked in Tallinn and spent the night on the boat, then the next day in Old Town.

We are talking really OLD here! The town was settled in 1164. We saw fortress walls and towers and parts of buildings that were built in the 1200's. Tallinn is an amazing place - so much fun! The history is really interesting, too. The Estonians were defeated by the Danes in the 1200's, then the Germans came, then the Russians, and they were part of the Soviet Union until their Singing Revolution in the late 1980's. There are still song festivals every year, partially celebrating their freedom and commemorating the fact that they won their independence (twice, actually) by singing. We happened to be there at the same time as the annual song festival, but we were in a different part of town.

We were amused by the fact that we had to pay to go to the bathroom (actually not uncommon here, either) but then got to enjoy a private sink in every little stall. It was also interesting converting Estonian kroons to dollars then to euros so we could pay for things. We're still not very good with euros, either, since we just finished with rubles in Russia.

After a day in Estonia, we boarded another ship and started on a 22 hour travel marathon which brought us here. A couple hours on the ship to Helsinki, a few minutes on a bus to the train station, 13 hours on an overnight train to Roveneimi (Santa's official home town), then about 5 more hours into the arctic circle to Sääriselka on another bus. We made friends with Elimili and Katrin on the bus, Finnish college students with good English who helped us figure out what was going on and how to get where we needed to go. We taught them how to play Spades. Of course the girls won. Please pray for Elimili and Katrin - they need the hope that we have.

After checking into our condo in Sääriselka, we went grocery shopping. THAT was interesting. All of the food labels are translated...from Finnish into Estonian and Swedish. Not helpful. But in spite of sleep deprivation and language barrier, we made it out with food. Went back to the condo and I got to try out our own private sauna after dinner! Then today we did laundry - another hilarious process trying to use a tiny German-made washing machine with a ferris-wheel style tub and instructions in who-knows-what language. I THINK our clothes are clean. Then there is the drying closet...

Tomorrow the high will be in the high 30's or low 40's again, and Bob is hoping for snow! We'll do some good long hikes probably starting on Tuesday when it warms up to about 55-60. We seriously hope to see a reindeer. We are looking forward to relaxing this week, spending some quality time with each other and communing with our Creator, and reading up on parenting!

You are such a good praying group - please continue to pray for the kids during this appeals period - that they will be patient, at peace and prepared for what is coming. And pray that we will have everything in place to take care of visas, and that nothing unexpected, specifically appeals, will happen before our adoption decrees on July 13.

And have a wonderful week!
(Sorry, no new pic's for awhile since we are not using our own computer. And Dad, we got your e-mail - Bob says the glue stuck. Thank you!)

Lots of love,
Karen and Bob