Stop thief!!!!!

Hi,

Funny story from yesterday at the O. Andrea and I were feeding the boys their normal snack of Cheerios and crackers when we were raided by hordes of little rugrats!! (I say that affectionately!) Andrea decided that we better run for it - so we packed up our hysterical boys and headed for the back of the O. I put the baggie of food in the left leg pocket of my cargo shorts, grabbed Brady/Daniel and ran for it. Andrea grabbed Lucas/Yevgen and ran in the opposite direction. When we met in the back the boys calmed down as they knew we were going to pull out the goodies. BUT - come to find out during the chaos and mayhem of the moment I was pickpocketed by some wiley little 3 year old. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!?! So I ran back around the building to find Dasha distributing the last crumbs of our daily offering!! Luckily we had lollipops stashed away so the boys didn't completely melt down. When I got back around to Andrea and the boys I was clearly out of sorts but Andrea talked me down off the ledge!! She hasn't stopped laughing about it since!!

The caregivers have been bringing out the pools the past couple days. The boys both tried to jump in completely clothed - in fact Brady did make it - on Momma's watch not Pappa's! Andrea and Brady were then rightly scolded and made to stand in the corner with their nose against the wall! Andrea was crying louder than Brady --- Ha-ha j/k!!

Anyway at the end of the morning play time the kids were stripped down naked and allowed to go in the pool. The water must have been a bit chilly by the looks on their faces - quite priceless indeed!! Unfortunately we did not have the camera but we will next time!! Both of the kids loved the water - I am going to have make them the pond they rightly deserve.

The boys are getting more and more attached to us. We think Lucas more so than Brady. Lucas cries when it is time to go in where Brady just walks right in, takes his shoes off and goes about his business!! Occasionally he will turn around and throw a wave our way. When we go to meet them each visit Lucas always come running for me and Brady for Andrea. There is no doubt that Brady is a Momma's boy!! I have already warned Andrea that Momma's boys get beat up in school though - :-)

This morning's playtime had visitors from the US. A mission group from all over the US and Canada had arrived with gifts in hand. There were bikes and blankets and each child received their own bag containing shoes and an outfit as well as candy and a toy. It was pretty neat to see such caring people in action. Andrea and I spoke with a couple of the missionaries - they were two young women from the states. They were gushing over the boys and how lucky we were. This was their first trip to an orphanage but they have been to cancer treatment and TB hospitals as well. Their journey will be taking them to Latvia and Moscow as well.

We are now six days away from court - yeehaw. The days are going by pretty quickly however we would be lying if we said boredom did not exist on occasion. Thank you to those who offered ways for us to entertain ourselves. We will be trying some of your recommendations for sure.

The Canadians had their day in court yesterday but not without drama. At 9PM the night before their translator calls them and says "I cannot make it down there to translate for you"!! She went on to say that she lined up another person to step in for her though. They were dumbfounded to say the least. They met their step-in translator an hour before their appointment and she starts to breeze through their documents. She said "you are missing two key documents - they are going to have to reschedule your appointment". Darrell said "no way, that is not acceptable". So off goes the translator to chase down the judge's assistant to tell them the story. The assistant told her to go and get the missing docs. Amazingly she was back a little over an hour later and finally court went off without a hitch. These poor people have had one glitch after another but they appear to be heading for home - finally!

Two other families have successfully completed their process and left for home. The German and one of the Italian families both left with their little boys this week.

As we walked from the orphanage to here today a man stopped us on the sidewalk and said with an accent "where are you from" to which I replied "United States" - "yes but which one" he said and Andrea and I both blurted out "Vermont". "Ok - thank you" as he went on his way! Andrea keeps saying we stick out here but I don't know why!! So to blend in Andrea is going to get a micro-mini skirt (and I mean MICRO!!) and 4" high-heels - ok that isn't going to happen even though I am constantly harrassing her to!!!

Another BIG thank you to those of you helping pick up the mess at our house from this past weekend's storm. Your generosity is incredible and so greatly appreciated!

That is it for now - talk to you all in a day or two.

Take care,

Chris & Andrea