Merry Christmas

First off, let me say Merry Christmas to everyone back home. We had a great day today. As some of you know, Ukraine celebrates on the Orthodox calendar, so Christmas here isn’t until January 6-7. In that respect, today was just another day for everyone else around here. We had quite a day in the midst of normal for everyone else. We went to the orphanage early to see N. We took her some Christmas gifts (3 shirts and a watch—2 of the shirts were Mississippi State and 1 was Alabama. Not sure how that happened, but we’ll correct that in due time!) We still couldn’t communicate much. Galya ended up not being able to go with us. We mostly looked at pictures from summer before last. A couple of her friends hung out with us. It was a good thing. The extra girls kept things lively and kept it from being too boring. When we left, we decided that we really needed to get the wireless modem so we could use Google Translate to communicate a little better. We caught the bus thinking that it would loop back by the store where we could get it...we were wrong! It went the other way. We went to the other end of town. We thought the buses went in a loop. The bus driver put us off at the end of the line!!!! Ha!!!! At that point, we just cut our losses and caught a taxi back to our apartment and started over. With a little cellphone translation help from our buddy Sergei once we got on the right bus and got to the store, we got the Internet modem and we are in business. So now I think we are in a better shape to communicate. We are also looking forward to getting on Skype with the Drakes. If the Mills and the Jordans are reading this, look us up on Skype or get our info from Barbara, we’d love to get her on with your kids too! We can arrange a time via facebook.

Technology is amazing. Later in the afternoon, we were able to be with the boys and Nana and Papaw while the boys opened their Christmas presents. They moved their computer into the living room and pointed the camera at the Christmas tree and we sat in front of ours while we were connected by Skype. The connection was a little slow and dropped a few times, but it was sure better than missing it altogether! We could tell that Erick in particular was a little pouty this morning and so were his momma and daddy to be honest. Today was a tough thing to miss. Pray for the boys. We miss them terribly. It is great being able to see them and talk to them every day on the computer, and we are thankful for that, but we miss them so much it hurts. It is balanced some by looking at N and realizing how much of her life we have missed, but we don’t want to be away from any of them.

We plan to go to church tomorrow and then to take the day to rest. We will not see N. Then Monday we will resume a regular schedule. She is out of school, so we will go earlier in the day to see her. On Thursday, they will have a New Year’s program that we have been invited to attend as their guests. We hope that we will get to see her sing. We’ll let you know. Also, Please keep praying that we hear something about our court date. Everything hinges on the Judge’s decision as to when she will schedule our court date.

That’s all for now!

Again, Merry Christmas,

Rick