It's been a long, long time since I pulled an all-nighter. ORU days probably. But, last night, along with our friend Maggie, we did just that. Here's how it happened:
6:00 am: The Garretts get up and get ready for church in Hong Kong. Annabelle complains of a tummy ache.
7:00 am: Josh and Ava Raye leave for church, Annabelle and I wait for her tummy to feel better.
9:00 am: Josh and Ava Raye almost arrive at church, realize diaper bag/wallet was left on the bus. (Annabelle and I leave Shenzhen.)
9:30 am: Josh miraculously retrieves bag/wallet/credit cards from bus station.
10:00 am: Josh and Ava Raye arrive at services. An hour late, but services were only just starting.
11:00 am: Annabelle and I arrive at services, 2 hours late, but with about an hour of service left.
These services are held at the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. This little community of believers is really wonderful, and it was amazing to get to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord with them! The morning services were terrific - the priest changed vestments mid-way through the service from red gowns to sparkling white gowns, the curtain of the iconostasis changed to red midway through, there was a blessing of the bread and of Easter Eggs... including a great shower of the congregation by Holy Water... which was totally unexpected by me and I had JUST moved from the front, near the priest, to the back of the room. The whole service Ava Raye sat quietly in the back and Annabelle did great as well. No disturbances!
12:30-ish pm: The Garretts have lunch at The Outback. Maggie Turner joins us for a long and leisurely lunch and coffee. The girls BOTH get a short nap at The Outback!
3:00 pm: We go play in a park nearby the Outback. Good to get some of the girls' energy out!
4:00 pm: We wander around a nearby mall. Hang out for quite a while at Starbucks. Maggie teaches Annabelle how to play "I Spy" which she would be really good at, except she points to the object when she says "I spy something... black!"
6:00 pm: We try to take some Easter photos of the whole family. This is the best we could do (thank you Aunt Maggie):
We are kneeling in this funny pose because, moments before, there were two little girls beside us. They quickly ran away, and this was all that was left of our "family photo."
8:00 pm: Service starts at the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Luke's. It is a beautiful service that includes darkening of the church to remember the darkness when Christ was Crucified followed by each Congregation member lighting candles. The service itself, full of chanting and singing, lasted 3 hours. THE GIRLS WERE PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!!! (Mostly) quiet and contained the entire time!
11:00 pm: Feasting begins! The church community breaks the long lenten fast together by eating Greek food! Beef and chicken kebabs, baba ghanoush, rice, pita bread, and, of course, Easter Eggs! Everyone made lots of new friends...
12:00 am: Finished yet? NAH!!!! We head BACK to the Russian Orthodox church. I'm positive that the church, being completely packed with people almost to the point of not being able to move, was violating some some sort of fire code. Wish I'd taken a picture! Did I mention that there are no pews in the Church and everyone stands for the entire service?? The girls were COMPLETELY SACKED OUT for almost the entire service!
Here's a snapshot taken after service. The girls camped out in the back of the church and they stayed in this position for several hours.
2:00 am: After another amazing service, including "Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen" in about 5 different languages about 200 hundred times, it's time to break the Lenten Fast once again! This time with traditional Russian food!
Maggie, after the service ended.
3:30 - 5:45 am: Breakfast and sleep at a 24 hour McDonalds. At one point, a manager told Josh "NO SLEEPING HERE" to which Josh replied, with eyes wide open, but without getting up out of his vertical position, "I'm not sleeping - I'm drinking my Coke!"
Maggie kept me company with her funny stories about traveling to Panama and her frequent time updates "only 45 more minutes till we can start leaving for the subway...." I think she's playing sudoku on her phone in this snapshot.
7:30 am: Finally home. Even though the girls (mostly) slept from midnight till we got home, the entire family sacked out together.
1:30 pm: I woke up starving. Ate a couple of snickers' bars and started writing this post. Josh and the girls are still out like lights (3:00 pm)! (Maggie is a rock star... she went to the Shekou Protestant Fellowship service at 9:30am!)
CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED, HE IS RISEN!
Recent Comments