Another great day, but tiring...we are older parents, you know!!

Sunday, a day of worshiping the living God! It was indeed a worshipful day, but different. We picked the kids up and told them through Sergey our translator that we were going to church and what that would mean…1 hour or more, singing, preaching, praying but all in Russian with Mom and Dad having earphones with English translation. So off to church we went. They were good, Kolya has been to church with a Ukrainian woman who has taken several of the children on Sundays. Christina has not. She needed attention, liking paper to write on, going to the bathroom, etc. and church went over 1 ½ hours.

We went back to the flat and had Borsche and sandwiches. Kolya said is this all we are having? He wanted the wonderful Spaghetti that Veeca had cooked for us and we had Saturday night. The funny thing is that at first he would not even try it. When Christina tried it, he tried it and loved it!!!

We went for a walk. When we got back Dan’s watch said it was 36 degrees in his pocket. The wind was fierce! We found a park and the kids played. Then we paid $1 for the kids to jump on a trampoline. The lady was trying to figure out our situation. We were speaking English with a little Russian, the kids were speaking Russian with a little English. She asked in broken English mixed with Russian, You English, They Russian, together? Yes, we are mama and daddy and they are our kids…adopting. She understood! Through a long paragraph in Russian we finally understood that she was saying Russian or English, we are all the same…and that this was a good, a very good thing for us to be together!! We agree!!

The kids are really picking up English faster than we are picking up Russian. We knew that they were taking English at school and we can really tell. NO, don’t think this means we can communicate. It means we have a better base to start☺. They are understanding to say, May I Please? to get permission to do something. They say hello in English as we say hello in Russian. They say thank you in English as we say thank you in Russian. Signing is becoming a way of life. We should be much better at charades after this…look out Game Night Ladies!!!!!

The pictures are from our Christmas celebration yesterday. One of the MTW missionaries, Bob Burnham, is also a professional photographer. He takes great pictures and shares his amazing talent. Go to Burnhamsnapshots.com to see his wonderful collection!

We are finding out that the kids are completely different than what we saw of them on visits. Christina was always very reserved, loving crafts, but not really wanting to get close to anyone. Now we see that see is so much like Sasha Taunton with lots of energy, very smart, and loves to be loved. She is the affectionate one of the two. Kolya was running everywhere and into everything, loudly expressing himself with all the boys at the orphanage. Here we see that he loves the computer, camera and figuring out things. You show him how to do something one time and he has it down and goes beyond to figure out more than we knew was possible. He does not like school much and Christina does but we will work on that☺

Thanks for all your prayers. I can feel, see and discern that God has definitely been working in their hearts and our hearts. PLEASE, PLEASE keep praying for us. We need strength, wisdom and lots of love and patience. You know what happens when you pray for patience…God gives it to you in situations that causes you to exercise patience. We are there☺ KEEP PRAYING!!!

In Him alone,

Leslie