You know those days in early spring when you can hardly wait to be outside?The kind that are so pretty and fresh and the sun coming at it all from the east makes it even more appealing?
Yep, that is the kind of day we started with here this morning!
Once everyone had come back inside from waving goodbye to Daddy this morning, the play-clothes were hurriedly put on! And all the kids (except Hannah--I don't know what she was up to) bounced out the doors to play.
Apparently, Vitali couldn't find his shoes quickly enough and had to settle for his snow boots! Max didn't even have time to adjust his helmet! Ivy had time to change out of her nightgown but thought it would be better to add a veil instead and just look beautiful. She does, doesn't she? She and Vitali rode their little bikes. They aren't allowed to go into the road so they ride down the driveway over and over again. Vita often sits at the bottom watching the big kids going by but here he is at the top about to begin his descent. Misha saw me with my camera and kept posing for me. He learned to ride a two-wheeler when he saw Max and Hannah learning. He is so proud of being able to pedal! By the way, notice his bike? It was a hand-me-down from a friend of ours and is just his size. He doesn't seem to mind the butterflies at all! He does mind the helmet though! He doesn't like that much at all (not because it's purple) ! He likes to pose for me. They all do. Then they all say, "Pockazhee!" (show!) and look to see the picture on the back of the camera. Even Ivy always says "Pockazhee menya!" When I take her picture. She is so silly. I love this one of Max:And this one too: And he asked me to take this one of him with his big giant remote control truck from Grandma and Grandpa E. He loves that thing! And I should mention that the kids all got bikes for their birthdays, some current and some advance-gifts! Also from Grandma and Grandpa E. Thanks, G'ma and G'pa! They use them every day! Every bike is out and needs to be hauled up the hill each evening. And the kids all take a few trips back and forth and it's done. Good kids!
Things are going so well here. I feel like we must be in for a 'storm' soon! Eeek! I hope not! The boys and girls get along so well and our only clue that the boys haven't always been here is their Russian! But the English is coming along and they each seem to take turns advancing and putting in the extra effort.
Here are some pictures of our littlest boy on the fourth anniversary of the day his little life in the big wide world began, although it was his first birthday with us! He is such a little joy despite being a big part of the many times we have flopped into bed at night exhausted!
I wish I could convey in this post the sheer thrill of the day for him! He practically turned himself inside out with excitement! He surely was excited to have his birthday come! He could hardly wait!
The picture I should have taken of that day (darn hindsight!) was the one of him sitting at the table for a good 45 minutes straight where our normally constantly moving little boy kept a constant vigil over his cake! And, for those of you who know him, you'll be impressed that he managed not to touch the cake, either! (For those of you who don't know him personally, let's just say that so far restraint has not been one of his strong points! He tries; he really does try...)
Does he look happy to you?
Also, I thought you might enjoy hearing the different ways each of the boys refer to birthdays: Misha calls it a "Happy, Happy" Max calls it a "Happy-to-you", and Vitali, who even sang himself the song several times on his own birthday( I don't know where he learned it; I didn't try to teach him) says, "Cappy Bootday!"
Most people probably imagine life around our house as crazy. Truth is, for a while it was pretty nuts! But like most things in life, eventually routine settles in quite comfortably and a home with 6 kids, only half of whom are fluent in English, is no exception!
Earlier today, while I was making six sandwiches (3 egg salad, 3 tuna), I actually said out loud to the kids, "You guys, I am loving having a house with six kids in it!"And I meant it! Now, that does not mean that I love every minute.
For instance:
I did not love it when I had to leave what I was doing several times this morning to fish matchbox cars from under the stove and refrigerator.
I did not love rinsing the accident out of Ivy's fluffy princess clothes.
I really did not love having to get after the little ones twice to stop talking and go to sleep at nap time. They are so cute and it is so pathetic when they get in trouble!
I don't really find third grade language all that interesting.
And just once a day it would be nice to use the bathroom without somebody rattling the door handle the whole time!
But, on the other hand:
I do love that the boys had so much fun together racing their cars along the hardwood in the kitchen. I also am glad to report that all the dusty magnetic letters are out from under my fridge and stove!
I also am glad that I had to clean out the princess dress before it got too dingy since Ivy wears it every day now.
I love it that Ivy and Vitali giggle and play together so well.
I am so happy for Hannah because after doing seemingly endless pages today, she reached the end of her whole language book on her own initiative!
And the bathroom thing...well, I still don't like that all that much! But they won't do it forever. And someday I may wish...
(Two three-year-olds. No, he's not saying "two"; he's answering the question, "Who wants a piece of candy?!")
Tomorrow, Vitali will be four years old. This will end the six-day-period we are in now where we have two eight-year-olds, two six-year-olds, and two three-year-olds!
Vitali is very excited to have a birthday tomorrow. He has made plans that have not shaken in the least: He wants to go in Steve's "Labota machina" (Baby-talk Russian for "Work car") to the store. He can hardly wait and has asked daily when they are going together!
He is also so excited to be no longer three but to be "chiteeli" (baby-talk Russian for "four") or often he tells me that he is now three but on his birthday he will be "noga" ( this means a lot); he says this while holding up all his fingers, opening his blue eyes to their maximum capacity and nodding his head for emphasis.
He is such a funny little guy!(Last day as a three-year-old! Vitali is jumping for joy in Ivy's springy pink shoes)
The boys are still loving being outdoors. You may have noticed that the bulk of our photos are taken "khoolahd"(outside). From Max in his Batman mask to Vitali and his caterpillar. Spring is in the air! It is great for the boys as well as for me. Not only am I motivated to get my spring cleaning done, but with all the kids outside, no one is messing up my work! Not that the house doesn't somehow manage to maintain a constant "mess-factor"! Especially on rainy days.
Sweet Vitali.
Bahk Mahn! That's how they say it...
Vitali came up to me the other day and pointed out the back door. "Come eat Barbie!", he kept insisting. "Mama! Barbie come eat!"
Finally I figured it out: "come eat" meaning anything having to do with food, and "Barbie"being the English word he could remember coming closest to "Bird". Yup, the bird feeder needed filling. Obvious, isn't it?
See that bucket in the foreground of the picture? If you are from a big family you will probably recognize that as being a tub of peanut butter! Yes, they do sell them that big! Actually, that one now holds birdseed.
Vitali loves filling the feeder and then sweeping off the porch! Can you tell?
And here he is with the first caterpillar of the season.
Our sweet little Ivy has been feeling sick the last couple of days. ( Vitali is happy because he gets to sleep in the big boys' room while I sleep in with Ivy. Other than that, everyone else just takes it in stride. ) Being sick has made Ivy a little bit irritable. When I say little bit, that's what I mean. For the most part you'd never notice her. She is normally quiet but even quieter when she is sick.
All this to say that when she hollered over a "Bug!"(It is spring after all!) on the floor she was not only overreacting, the unusualness of her outburst grabbed the attention of those around her. Now, in a house made up largely of girls, bugs were trapped and carried outside to be set free. (Us girls don't like bug guts much.) But now that our house has a larger male presence, things will undoubtedly be different. Just as I was automatically glancing around for a piece of paper to urge the bug onto, Misha nonchalantly walked up, glanced at the bug and promptly stompedon it! Then he shrugged and walked off, not even thinking to look back. If he had, he would have noticed the horrified expression on his little sister's face!
Life is not always fun at our house but it is always funny!
Vitali is always getting himself in some kind of trouble. I like hot sauce, spicy foods, and hot horseradish. I don't know how many times Vitali has absolutely insisted on trying my hot sauce. I tell him in English and Russian he won't like it. I remind him he tried it yesterday but he persists and persists until I let him try it for the 20th time. Every time is the same.
Vitali: Ya Hachoo eta (I want that) Me: N'coosina (it is not tasty) Vitali: Ya Hachoo PLEASE (I want it PLEASE) Me: Eta gariachi sauce, Tee n'hachoo (It is hot sauce, you don't want it!) Vitali: Please Me: n'coosina (not tasty) (Repeat last two lines 5 times) Me: Skol'ka (How much) Vitali: NOGA (LOTS!) Me: OK Vitali: Spasiba (Thank You!) (Vitali takes a big bite of whatever with hot sauce) Me: Coosina? (Tasty?) Vitali: Da (yes) (1.23 second delay) Vitali: WATERRRRRRR PLEASSSSSSSE
A minute later: Me: Coosina? (Tasty) Vitali: Da! (Yes) Me: Yeeshoo? (more?) Vitali: NYEEEET! Ne COOSINA (NOOOO! Its not TASTY!)
Repeat again the next night.
Vitali is also the one who sat on the URINAL at Home Depot the other day when he needed to use the toilet!
Vitali is often afraid of "Ba-bye" the Ukrainian version of the boogeyman. Tonight at church he was using the bathroom and there was a very dark room off the bathroom. Here is our conversation:
Vitali: Ba-bye tuda? (monster over there?) Me: Ba-bye v'Ukraina; Ba-bye Ne v'America (monster is in Ukraine, Monster is not in America) Vitali: Ba-bye n'suda? (monster is not right here?) Me: Ba-bye ne suda. Suda America. (monster is not here. Right here is America.) Vitali: (pointing at the dark room) Tuda America? (over there is that America?) Me: Dah, Tuda America! (Yes, over there is America)
I also could not help but post this picture of Max. These three are all boy but they do occasionally like to play with the girls' toys. What is particularly funny is when Max gets grumpy and starts saying Eta Moi! (ITS MINE!)
The good thing, or bad thing, depending on who you talk to, is that the boys are just like me.
Lately they have gotten into saying "Ahhhhhhhhhh, nyet!" or "Ahhhhhhhhhh, da!" when you ask them something. It wasn't until Melissa reminded me that I do this fake pondering "Ahhhhhhhhh..." with them when they make an absurd request, that I figured out where they had gotten it.
All three boys are capable of making a mountain out of a mole hill, so I often say, soothingly, "ITS OOOOOKAY!" The boys now all say "ETA S'OOOOOKAY!" if another is over reacting.
I think I will sew something pink. Starting with Annette's ripped princess dress-up dress.
[Ivy] A wainy day....What shall I do?
I Know.
I will put on something bootiful and play with Vitali and our little doggies.
[Vitali] A rainy day! I think I will go outside in my socks!
WAAAAAH! My socks are wet!
I think I will follow Mommy everywhere with my doggie and see if I can shake off Ivy and that little dog of hers.
[Misha and Max] A rainy day....Hmmm....What should we do?
I know!
Let's dress up in fairy wings and run like hooligans all around the house! Mom will LOVE that!
[Mom] A rainy day...
30 minutes till nap time. 30 minutes till nap time. 30 minutes till nap time. 30 minutes till nap time. 30 minutes till nap time. 30 minutes till nap time. 30 minutes till nap time....
Here are a few new photos. I took the pictures of the kids yesterday, Leap day. So, even though the one picture is of our little Ivy, who was not adopted, she is jumping. And jumping is like leaping so....it fits, right? Besides, she makes a really cute little two-year-old pink ballerina, doesn't she?
Speaking of Ivy, I think I should mention that Max seems to especially enjoy her. In the same way that he kept sweetly watching Vitali when they first met in Ukraine, he watches her. She's little and therefore interesting to him. He loves babies and is very sweet to our little Iv', as we call her. He often sees me watching him watch her and smiles shyly when he catches my eye. Then he usually says "Ivy..." and grins. Sometimes if she is being especially cute, he calls her "Ivyska" (adding the"- ska" at the end makes it more like an affectionate nickname). I don't blame him. It's hard not to like Ivy. Ivy and Vitali are just about exactly the same height. She's heavier, though, as a result of being a family-born baby. They both will have birthdays the end of this month. She will be three and he will be four. He is so skinny and babyish that I often forget that Ivy is really still the "baby" of the house.
Aren't they darling together? This morning in my bed as he was dozing off again, (he always joins us at about 6:30 or so) Vitali asked several times for Ivy. Actually what he said was, "Mozhoo Ahvy" --I don't know where he got the southern accent--which, I think, meant that he wanted to go to her since he was half-heartedly trying to sit up. They sleep in the same bed and they're buddies. She has adopted about as many Russian words as he has English ones! The most prevalent being, "EE Meenye!" (and to me!)
Misha is always himself. He is that type. What you see is what you get. I like that and I don't like that. Sometimes I want him to pretend to be better behaved! But at the same time, when he makes progress, I know it is real progress and not just for show. So that's a good thing.
Now, I absolutely have to show you this next picture. We bought these shoes when we first arrived in America; before we even got to Tennessee! One day when they were only one month old, we looked at them and this is what we saw. (Max hadn't thought it worthy of mentioning, apparently!) Yes, that is daylight shining through the backs of that shoe! How? You might ask. Let's just say that he thinks of them less as shoes and more as a set of convenient brakes when riding the big-wheel down the driveway!
Here are a few very random things I want to be sure and write down but I keep forgetting to so I will type them here and that way, you'll all get to read my notes. Lucky you!
A couple of days ago Max got into the car and instructed Annette, "Buckle up!"
He also seems to really like green (favorite color?). He points it out often and loves to wear it.
He loves the cow at Chick-fil-A. I mean LOVES it.
His Spider man baseball cap is another thing he likes a lot. He wears it every day.
His shoes. I have to post a picture of these! He has completely worn out the backs of them doing what I think must be his favorite pass-time: riding the big-wheel down the driveway at break-neck speed!
Another favorite pass- time? Playing CDs.
He spent the past three days carrying around and American flag with him everywhere.
Misha is saying "I love Mama ee Papa" in English more and more. Up until now he mostly only said this in Russian.
He spits when he talks. A lot.
He rolls every 'R' very noticeably. Even in English words.
He drives us crazy by shaking his head while pronouncing, "Ya ni Boodoo." before tasting anything for the first time. I don't know exactly what that means but the gist of it seems to be "I will not be doing that!" Fortunately after he tastes it (and likes it) he is not too proud to admit that it tastes good.
Vitali Loves his Papa. Almost to excess, if that is possible. He loves me too, but in a more normal way.
He says a bunch of his words in baby talk. In Russian he says "Zozeezonya!" instead of 'dos vidania'. He says "Kanna" instead of 'Hannah' because of the Russian phonetics; in fact, he uses a 'k' sound to replace every 'h' sound.
At night I say, "What song shall I sing?" He understands this perfectly and always says, "A-B-C-D-E-F-Zhee- Zhee" Meaning the one that goes, "A,B,C, D, E, F, G, Jesus died for you and me..."
He throws very few tantrums now. Only one every several days or so.
He bounces when he walks.
He sings to himself when he's happy.
He likes to go outside but to poke his head back in the door every 5 minutes and say, "Mama?... Allo!...Paka!" then waving, go back out again.
Vitali loves soup. He usually has two or three bowls and generally makes no mess when he eats it. Generally. All the boys...
...Love to get their hair done and then go and show Papa. ...Like to wake up waaaay too early!
...Yell, "Pre-yekhelleeeee!" (we've arrived) every time we get home from anywhere. Vitali actually says, "Peeyekellee!"
...like to wear footie pajamas
...Love to play outside
...LOVE their Babushkas and Deodushkas (Grandmas and Grandpas)
...Love talking on the phone.
...whine. But they are getting better about this. Thank goodness!
...like hotdogs. It is definitely their favorite food. Oh, yes and potatoes.
...Get excited over things we would think are mundane. Such as getting the mail of going to the grocery store or having hot dogs for dinner or going ANYWHERE in the car.
...are as excited to ride in the car as an American-born boy might be to get a daily ride in a Bulldozer
...are fascinated to watch me cook. For some reason the saying my dad used to say comes to mind, "If you want to help, don't help!" But I usually just swallow my words and remind myself that they have probably never watched anyone cook before. Misha is especially funny about this. The other day he saw me making cookies. He looked in the bowl and saw the butter. He tasted it. "Ya ni boodoo."
The boys are doing so well at putting their best efforts towards learning to communicate! I am so proud of them!
I shot this video of Misha a couple of weeks ago at the lake. After only 10 days in America he had decided that he needed to master this ABC song! I think he has done quite well, Don't you?
We went down to the lake tonight and took a new family picture. After that, the kids had a good time throwing rocks into the lake for a bit as well as climbing on the rocks around the edge. I hope you will enjoy some pictures of the evening:
Hannah.
Misha and Steve. The boys love their Papa.
Annie Grace I can't believe she's almost six!
Maximus. The boys have rosy cheeks from playing outside all day long!
The whole clan.
Us. Melissa and Steve. Steve always looks concerned about something in his pictures. If I remind him not to scowl, his eyebrows shoot up and he just ends up looking extremely surprised. :-) Even so, I like how this picture turned out.
Misha.
Ivy was sick yesterday. This evening she is better but still extra cuddly. Nice for a mommy.
This one was almost as big as his head. The angle disguises that fact. Vitali heaved this missile with all his might! It landed about a foot and a half away from him.
I'm kind of cheap. (ok, I can hear you snickering out there!) Anyway, last year we just could not make time for our usual Valentine's Day celebration. So, we celebrated the 15th instead. Know what? The kids really cleaned up! Everything was 75% off and so we were able to get some things that we normally would never have baought and only spent about $10!
This year we let Hannah decide, would it be ok to make Valentine's for us on the 15th again? She considered it carefully and opted in favor of extra candy.
Last night, on the 14th , we made Valentine's 'Whatevers'. I call them 'whatevers' because they were just whatever the kids decided to create! Vitali enjoyed smearing red glitter glue and paint on this construction paper heart for a long time. Then he held up his hands like this and asked for a napkin! Today, we have beautiful weather. I am not sure what the temperature is because out thermometer blew away in a storm the other day but it is quite pleasant. (Not quite as pleasant as Hannah's shorts and short-sleeved shirt would suggest, however!) The kids have all enjoyed playing outside today and I hate to call anyone in for a nap, but then, I'd hate not to, too!
I like this picture of Max. It shows his sweet little spattering of freckles. I like freckles on boys. Steve has almost the same pattern across his nose. Vitali has his mouth full (and I do mean full!) of bread. He is also wearing a baseball cap. He likes to look like his Papa. There's Papa, getting ready to leave for a while. I thought he looked a little eager... Hannah kept saying, "Mom, take a picture! Hurry up, Mom! Mom?!!" I didn't tell her that I already had... The kids (except Annette, who isn't feeling well today) lined up like this and asked me to take a picture of them. No, they are not going swimming, that is armor. Oh yeah, now you see it, don't you? Misha posed for this picture. He usually is known for liking to goof off for the camera but today he just wanted his picture to look nice, I guess. It does, doesn't it?
This picture really reminds me of my brother Warren when he was little. Misha wanted me to take this one too, next to the 'machina' (car).
Riding in the car to them is as much of an adventure as an American kid riding on a bulldozer. They absolutely LOVE to go anywhere! They are actually a little awestruck that that is our car. OURS. wow. I guess it is pretty cool.
BTW, keep scrolling down, I have posted a surge of new stuff today!
Our friend Ginger brought us a delightful gift the other day! I would have mentioned this earlier but for some reason my pictures wouldn't load correctly and I wanted to make sure and show them too!
She brought us bag after bag of groceries that she had picked out herself. The boys all helped to carry the bags in and exclaimed over the contents of each of their bags as they did so. They were so thrilled! It is really a treat how they get excited about every gift that has been given in their honor--even groceries! Misha wanted to be sure I got this picture with him in it: She also brought 6 tubs of Legos, sorted by color. One for each child, their names written on the lids. They all really have enjoyed these Legos, especially Max! Big, huge thanks to Ginger and her husband Richard--again! We seem to owe them a lot of thanks. We have been so blessed by so many caring and thoughtful friends.
I am making it a point to take mental notes. Although I always thought I enjoyed giving to others, I can see that I have much to learn! Wow.
I have gotten this response several times recently from Melissa and cant help but wonder what it means?
The "other kids" are taking a nap.
The "other kids" had eggs for breakfast.
The "other kids" are headed out to the car.
Anybody who doesn't know me knows I don't act like a child!
For those of you who do know me just shut up!
Melissa say she is referring to "the kids" and has only accidentally inserted the "other."
Anyways, Max is having "a day" today. The struggle just now was over toys at naptime. He was supposed to be going to bed and had several of Hannah's my little ponies. He kept saying in Russian that they were his and did not want to give them to me. It is very hard to keep a straight face with an eight year old boy who is carrying on about his ponies.
When I put together our original video and uploaded it to YouTube this video popped up right after the one I did. I know Google has great algorithms and search techniques but the video is of Misha when he was 4-years old and is one out of millions of videos and it popped up right after mine.
The video was from a couple who had adopted a little girl from the boy's orphanage and they had become friends with Misha. Christie has a very funny story about how Misha would come in the room with his puppy dog eyes and beg off a cookie. Before anybody knew it Misha had eaten all the cookies. Typical Misha! Through this video we were able to make contact with the couple who did the video. They along with others around the world had been praying for our Misha and his brothers before we knew them.
After finding this video we were able to make contact with another friend of the boys "Papa Dima." Papa Dima is a Ukrainian man who teaches a Sunday school at the orphanage. Papa Dima met us at the train station as we left for Kiev. He gave us dozens of pictures of the boys from the last few years. This may not seem like much but we know almost nothing about our boys history and to find even the smallest pieces is so encouraging. We have discovered several people who knew our boys and were praying for them from a General in the US Army, Papa Dima in Ukraine, a woman in Scotland, people in Ireland, and others throughout the USA. It means a lot to us to know people were sharing the love of Jesus with our boys before we could.
Christie sent me this picture of Misha just yesterday. I find it to be highly symbolic of the struggle we all face with our reconciliation with God. Misha has a smile on his face and is standing amidst some beautiful colors. The reality though was that Misha was behind bars and no matter how they are painted his position was precarious. Our Misha was facing a system where those who graduate from it at 16 face about a 10% chance of SUICIDE before their 18th birthday. If he avoided those odds there was about a 70% chance he would end up in a life of petty crime. Misha also was just about to turn 5 years old which would make him even less desirable for adoption because he was too old! I find it amazing the parallelism between adoption and the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is an adoption story.
I was working on some writings the other day on how adoption was used throughout the scriptures. Starting at the beginning, Moses, the adopted son of the Queen of Egypt wrote the Pentateuch and led the Exodus. God revealed Himself as "I AM" to Moses. It was to Moses that God gave the ten commandments. There were any number of ways Moses life could have been spared but it was through the divine intervention of adoption.
Later when the wicked Haman was plotting to destroy the Jewish people and the Messianic line a courageous woman, queen Esther, the adopted daughter of her uncle Mordechai had the courage to risk her life and went to the King. Mordechai raised Esther as his own daughter and at "such a time as this" Queen Esther was in position to appeal to King Xerxes. Through the intervention of Queen Esther the Messianic line was preserved.
During the inter-biblical period a young man whose father was assassinated was adopted by a woman named Ada. This man, Alexander the Great, gave the world a cohesive language, Greek. It was the Greek Septuagint, the LXX that Jesus quoted so often. God used the Greek language to help spread Christianity during the first century. It was an adopted man of war who made it easier for the gospel of the adopted Man of Peace to be shared.
God chose to use Joseph of Nazareth as the adoptive father of His own Son. It was Joseph who took Mary to Bethlehem and the humble stable that fulfilled the prophecy of Micah. It was Joseph that acted quickly and took the young Christ child to Egypt sparing His life. It was Joseph who brought the child "up out of Egypt." The means God chose for providing a father for His own Son was adoption.
Lastly, the gospel of Jesus Christ is an adoption story. We are not the natural sons of God. We are only reconciled to Jehovah God through adoption. We are joint heirs but only because of adoption. It is only through adoption that our own precarious state is mended.
The sounds, sights and smells of the orphanage still haunt me. There was Denis one of the most annoying children you would ever want to meet. A child that had a face only a mother could love. A child who had no social graces. A child who just wanted to be held. A child who just wanted to be loved. A child who wanted to belong. A child created in the image of God!
I can't forget Christina. A little blond haired girl who had clear signs of fetal alcohol syndrome. A child that because of her FAS will almost surely never be adopted. A child who was just one of two girls in a group of 13 boys. A girl whose face lit up when she realized that while all the boys got cars she was getting a baby doll. A little girl who would hang on my arm and smile up and call me "papa."
There was little David. David has the sweetest little face and a little sister. David is trapped in a system that is broken. David is being disenfranchised by the very system meant to protect him. David is sitting in an orphanage without any of the paperwork necessary to allow him to be adopted getting done.
Vladik is a young boy with just the smallest nubs for legs. He is smart but faces a terrible future if not adopted. Vladik would interrupt our daily visits with a loud "PRYVIYET PAPA, PRYVIYET MAMA" (hello) that almost always led to him being disciplined by a house mother. There is a couple working to adopt this boy and we would ask you to pray for him.
There are so many faces and this was just one of 700 orphanages in Ukraine. There are tens of thousands of orphanages worldwide overflowing with close to 150,000,000 children. The outcomes these and other children will face are not pretty.
If you would like to help the orphans of Green Forest I would suggest Life2Orphans. They are a US based secular NGO that has actively engaged the orphanage and internat. If you would like to help Papa Dima with his Sunday School program in the Kharkov area orphanages you can find out more here..
We want to say a big thank you to a friend of Steve's brother and sister-in-law, Jen B.!!! She sent us a package in the mail with three very nice Sunday outfits for the boys. Now, I know it isn't very "macho" but these boys love to get new clothes! Vitali asked to wear his clothes out to play the next morning!
Don't they look handsome?
Jen also sent the girls some play purses and hair clips and play high heels. What fun for all the kids to look forward to: opening gifts after supper! Squeals of delight from the girls and a lot of, "Mama, smotree!" (Mama, look!) from the boys made for an exciting time. Vitali and Ivy each clomped around in the dress-up shoes the rest of the evening!
The boys were so excited to wear the new clothes this morning for church and eagerly got dressed. They had Steve gel their hair and proudly showed me the finished product. So cute!
And here are all six, lined up and looking sharp!
And, aside:
Steve and the two oldest boys went to Sunday school with Annette and I took Vitali and Ivy. For now we are staying in the classrooms with them. We actually lasted about 20 minutes through the main service today! A little better each time--last week was only about ten minutes!
And, if you are the people who sat in front of us today, we apologize profusely for the constant rustling and occasional pew-kicking or "Eta, Moy!" (it's mine!) exclamations from behind you this morning! We are working on it. Be glad you didn't sit in front of us last week...
There are 150,000,000 orphaned children in our world. Our mission and passion is to be the family for three children in the country of Ukraine. Now that part of our passion has been realized!
We left in December, 2007, pursuing three young orphaned siblings in the country of Ukraine and they didn't have a clue we were coming. We didn't know their genders or almost anything about them. All we really knew is that our children would be under age 9. We did know how much we already loved these children and were committed to do whatever necessary to bring them home.
This is still our mission and our passion. This will not be a 5-week mission trip and there will be no furloughs. We are beginning a life-long endeavor. The costs financially, emotionally, and spiritually are going to be great and we would like to ask you to consider partnering with us in prayer as well as considering what part you might have in ministering to orphans in our world. The Eimers
Max didn't even have time to adjust his helmet!
Ivy had time to change out of her nightgown but thought it would be better to add a veil instead and just look beautiful. She does, doesn't she?
She and Vitali rode their little bikes. They aren't allowed to go into the road so they ride down the driveway over and over again. Vita often sits at the bottom watching the big kids going by but here he is at the top about to begin his descent.
And this one too:
