Sun...Rain...We still have fun!

Rob speaking)

Well today was only the third day that we have seen any rain since we've been here. The day started out beautiful and sunny, and by lunch time it started raining and didn't quite till dinner time. So, what do you do with a 7 year old and all the other kids that look to you for entertainment. We still showed up on time for our visit in the afternoon with Yuri, and didn't worry about the rain. A nice teacher who spoke a little English offered to let us sit in her classroom. What a nice surprize, we hadn't even talked to her before. I kinda think the word has gotten around that we are the family adopting 3 brothers from 3 separate orphanages, and I think those that know respect what we are doing. Not only did she let us use her room, but she made us hot tea since it was a little chilly. We had a few of our usual kids, Vica, Rita, Andre', and a new one Tonya. They had fun drawing, playing with our Language Translator, electonic version not Igor, and trying to communicate. Andre' drew us a picture of a rose that he sketched and colored off of one of the tea cups. This boy is so talented and kind hearted, I really wish we could bring him back, or at least have him adopted by a good family. Travis would absolutely love having this kid around, he loves to play, catches on really quick, and doesn't cause trouble. The kids also just love the camera, they like to take photos, see photos, pose for photos, anything for photos. It's going to be really hard to say goodbye to these kids. I'm just glad I'm not going to be the last one to say goodbye, good luck Laura, you'd better bring plenty of tissues.

Here's the best news of the day. While using the voice recorder function on our electronic translator, Yuri said " I want to go to America!" This was the first time he actually said he wanted to go with us. I drew a picture of the house and showed him where everyone's rooms were located, and he was all smiles when I showed him his and his brothers room.

We also had a very good visit with Vanya this morning. He is just a lot of fun to play with. He constantly cracks us up with his facial expressions. He is going to be a real ham. He loves to play ball and race. He also has a very healthy appetite and can drink quite a bit of liquid. We haven't been able to locate the word he uses, but it sounds like "peet". We know it means something like, drink, thirsty, or something like that. It's so funny that Laura and I have adopted it into our everyday conversations. I can't quite do it like Vanya, he furrows his eye brows, gets very serious, and just keeps repeating it over and over again. You know, he just might be related to Laura somehow, because I think she's done the same thing to me for 12 years. I know she's done it to Travis. We have also had several people at the orphanage tell us that Vanya actually looks like Laura.

We have decided that we will each post our 6 favorite pictures when we leave Zaporozhe, me hopefully on the 19th, and Laura hopefully on the 29th. I will still have 1 day in Kiev and Laura will have probably 3 days.

Now for those of you looking for a diaper head picture, I'm trying. They haven't had a diaper head outside lately. I will get it this week even if I have to humiliate myself and ask a caregiver for it myself. As most of you know, I'll do almost anything for a laugh......almost anything!

One week to court and counting,

Rob and Laura