We have a very good friend in a man named Nathe Lawver. We met Nathe at our church. He and I serve on the youth and family ministry committee at church together. The interesting coincidence about Nathe is that he spent some time in college studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is one of the only people we have met that truly understands what the "Russian experience" is really like.
Nathe has a theory. Russia does not do anything without there being an official stamp placed on a piece of paper. Actually, there must be about 30 stamps to make it really official. If you don't believe me, ask him about the time he had to have some medication shipped from the US to Russia. No kidding, 30 stamps on one piece of paper.
I believe the Russians stamped our passports 4 times each, the official form to adopt Alexander twice and a few other miscellaneous items a few times.
Nathe was convinced that the reaccreditation was not happening because the Russians needed a larger stamp. I got to thinking about this. I don't think it is the stamp that is the problem. I think they ran out of ink! I also believe that the ink comes from some remote village in South America, and must travel via burro and then into the Russian postal system. The trick is finding the swimming burro to deliver the ink from South America to Russia. Thus the slow down.
I know this may sound a little crazy, but it is the only way we can justify the slowness of the whole process. So I say we start an ink drive! This has to be much easier than teaching burros to swim!
In all seriousness, we need your prayers. I don't want this process to drive me totally insane. If I am considering the possibility of teaching burros to swim then I must be loosing it! Please add the Ministry of Education in Russia to your church prayer chains and personal prayer lists. This won't get done without a little bit of our "stamp".
Blessings to you all!
Lisa