Ryan's Friends

We were so fortunate to be able to attend church services with Ryan on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday. Ryan traveled from his orphanage into Riga most Sunday's for church. He had to take a bus and a train to get there and was the only child that did this. His orphanage was about 80 miles from Riga. The social system kids have a public transportation pass and he knew which routes to take to get there. That church has been kind to him and for that I will forever be so grateful. They are the ones who sponsored him to Christian camp and each Sunday they fed him after church when all the families ate together. He had no many to pay, but they fed him anyway. It reminds me so much of Jesus' statement, whatever you do unto the least of these, you have done unto me. We never know whose need we are meeting as the body of Christ. In this case, Christians on the other side of the country were sowing seeds into the life of my child.

It was wonderful to follow him into church and watch him say hello to friends. He was so proud to introduce us as his new parents. While church was in Russian, they were some familiarities. We could tell when they were saying the Lord's prayer and I could easily sing along to the Russian version of "Via Dolorosa" and "Up from the grave he arose" on Easter Sunday Morning. Because of Easter, they weren't having their normal services so Ryan did not get to attend his Sunday afternoon kids church service, which is where he would have seen many more friends. Easter week was a holiday week in Latvia, so I think many children were away with their families visiting relatives. We only got to meet a few of his friends, but I thought you'd like to see some of those photos. The main shot was taken inside his church while the kids choir was singing. I hope, when he and I return for our third court trip, to attend services again with him and get more photos.

Slavic was a boy from church who met us on another day and toured Riga cathedral with us. He was out of school that week, like the other kids. While out, Jon and I stopped to check emails and Slavic and Ryan went off walking by themselves. As a nervous mother, I was just praying and hoping nothing happened and that they made good decisions while they were out and about. Imagine my surprise when the two of them returned on time with presents... for us. Slavic had spent his own money shopping with Ryan to buy us gifts. Jon got a pair of sunglasses and they bought me a snow globe. I felt bad that Slavic had spent so much money and I wanted to repay him, but he wouldn't let us and just said that he felt we were very good people and we were doing something very nice for his friend. He and Ryan had a good time, he seemed like a very sweet boy. He liked hearing about America and even came back to the apartment to watch movies with us later that night. We were sad to see him go but grateful for the time he spent with Ryan.

We were not able to go to the orphanage this trip, but plan to go there on our 3rd trip to Latvia. At that point, we'll have pictures of the children and teachers from the orphanage.