And Time Moves On

Another lazy day here at the Inn.

Got up to the ringing phone with more news on our poor house.

Ate breakfast.

Did laundry.

Ummmm.

Talked to several different people on skype.

Took naps.

Ate a snack. M&M's, communion bread, and yogurt.

Took more naps.

Checked e-mail (again and again...reading more news about our house)

Sat around.

Tried to work up the energy and enthusiasm to brave the chilly weather long enough to walk down to the frozen body of water.

Fixed supper. Chicken noodle soup. And bread, of course.

Read e-mails again. Can't believe that our house actually flooded.

Listened to JN babbling his way around the room.

Read e-mails again. Still can't believe that our house flooded.

It seems to be some spiritual warfare going on. Really. Satan desperately wants us to be depressed and discouraged. He's trying his best to get us to give up.

First was the postponed court date which 'never happens'. That was hard. We did get frustrated. We did get angry. We did lose sleep. We did cry.

But. Eventually we remembered that God alone is in control. He alone knew the reason and the outcome. We chose to pray instead of pout.

No. We are not perfect. But He gives us the grace.

Now we hear that our house has been flooded. The children's bedrooms were untouched. Our bedroom and the main floor bathroom were relatively untouched....just condensation on everything the way I understand it. The kitchen is nearly untouched. Bummer. It could use a new ceiling. :)

Otherwise, family and friends have been working for us. They sorted through soaked papers on the desk. They mopped up water. They poked holes in the ceiling as water escape routes (the nerve). They packed up all the books off the bookshelves. They packed up the china from the china hutch (which I just put in there a week or so before Christmas). They took pictures out of the albums to lay out to dry....and numbered the backs of them all so I would know where they belonged later. They hauled my water logged sewing machine and serger to the repairman to see if they can be resurrected.

They met and talked to the insurance man. It sounds as if insurance will cover everything.

The flood restoration crew is drying the house out here for several days before they can tell us just what all needs to be done. For sure most of the ceilings downstairs need replaced and the wall between the kitchen and dining room needs replaced. They're hoping to save the office floor. The kitchen should be fine.

They have a pod sitting out by the garage with all the downstairs furniture stuffed in it. It'll be just like it was two and a half years ago when we got home from Russia. (Then, our family and friends moved all our belongings to this house..which we purchased just a week or so before we headed to Russia for a month.)

What a mess. It's kinda hard to sit here knowing that all these people are slaving on our behalf.

They have been busy. And we are so thankful.

Satan is a busy guy. A flood in our house? Seriously. He's not being very sneaky here. Delayed court date and a flood. All in a ten day timeframe.

They're telling us that our furnace quit for a time. The temperatures at home were zero and a little above for several days, and the pipe in the upstairs bathroom just couldn't handle it.

The good news is that we still have a house. We still have our family. We still have our God. He. Will. Take. Care. Of. Us.

Addie and Will are pretending that their house here has a broked water pipe. Eberthing is filthy dirty. And their insurance isn't gonna cover it. The poor dears.

See? Our latest issue has just jogged their imaginations.

Another Day in Russia

Here we are again. Still in Russia. Still hanging out in our room. Still counting the days til we can head home. One week from today our flight will leave here at 2:something PM. We should touch down in Moscow at 4:something that same afternoon...after a nine hour flight. The increased security in the airports here sure sounds fun, huh?!

Yes. We are keeping up on the news here. Our one news station located in Australia keeps us well informed. :) The issue was in a different airport than the one that we fly in and out of...but.....

Today was a different day than normal here. Jason & I got to go with Oksana to take JN to the photographer for his passport picture. Doesn't that sound fun?! We also stopped at a computer store to buy a new charger for Dad & Mom's computer. (It worked til it must've fried the computer. Oops. We need to get Oksana to take us to the computer repairman sometime in the next couple days.)

Fun, huh? It was a change from the hum-drums of motel room life. I used to like staying in a motel.....

Then we came back to the motel. We sat in the lobby for a little to look over the documents that we will need to take to the Embassy, Consulate, etc. when we're in Moscow. That was fun, too. I discovered that I was born in Arklandesk, Arkansas. You learn something new every day.

Back in the room again, we found out that Addie didn't do so well in school today. Little attitude kinda got in the way. Dad took Will outside to play for a little, but they came in when they nearly froze.

We put the children down for naps and Dad and Mom asked us to sit down. They had some news from home that we may not be too impressed with. All kinds of thoughts started flashing through my mind.

I can't say that I expected a flood in our house, though.

Seriously, our house sits on a hill.

A water pipe developed an issue in our upstairs bathroom, resulting in a fallen ceiling in the dining room, puddles on the floors, soaked papers in the office, soaked pile of mail that was on the dining room table. Water, water, water. Sounds like it made a lovely mess. Just lovely.

Our trusty house caretakers (family and friends) went in to start cleaning up the mess for us. They got a fire and flood repair company out who brought with them fans and dehumidifiers to attempt to dry things out.

Why does all this happen when we aren't home. Not only when we aren't home, but when we're halfway around the world?!

It did spice up our day.

Here's the e-mail that was sent to us describing the mess. You don't care do you, person who sent this?
Ivan called around 3:30 with the news that there was water everywhere. He didn't know where to start to clean-up.
I was in the middle of putting the boy's room in order, but Greg suggested that I run over & check it out. I grabbed a few towels and figured that I would 'clean up the mess and be home in a jiffy'. Ha! I even left the chillens here.
I quickly saw that we had a very large mess and I wondered where to start the clean-up also. It was 'raining' in the house - the dining ceiling was residing on the floor - all the walls, windows and ceilings in the rest of the house had condensation on them - the living room & office wanted to be ponds - the mail and lots of papers had been swimming. Oh dear!!!
We started by carrying out the ceiling, then sweeping with shop vac, mopping with towels, going through pictures, pulling apart papers. I went through your mail again and this time almost everything went into the trash except the really important stuff. .
Sarah brought supper over which was a blessing.
When I left at 8:30 Boone's Restoration had brought in big fans and dehumidifiers. They were running on high. Your bed & floor, Addie & Will's bed are all covered in pictures and papers drying.


They sent us a picture. If I can, I'll try to stick it in here. It doesn't look too bad in the picture. Maybe they embellished their stories?

So. Here we are in Russia, while those at home are taking care of our house mess.

Makes us feel a little...I don't know...odd. We have plenty of time right now and can do nothing to help. They all have jobs and daily life to keep up with...and have to do our stuff on top of it.

Since the hotel computer repairman fixed our computer (we hope) I'll try to do a brief picture recap from our day yesterday. The day when I spent all that money and should have saved it all to repair our house. :)

Ice chipper right outside the hotel...we see them everywhere around town.

Hopping on the train....literally.

First stop...fabric store.

Traffic on the main drag. We took a walkway over the top of it all on our trek to the grocery and babystore.

Market behind the chinese market.

Anyone want a whole piglet?

Or perhaps a hog head with eyes, teeth, and tongue included.

Or how about some pickles?

So there you have it. A brief recap of our day out on the town yesterday.

We hope that tomorrow is a little more boring than today was. From now on if our phone rings...we won't be pushing and shoving to answer it.

As far as the M&M's? We're working on them. I have now doubt that we'll polish off all ten pounds before we get home.

After all, we don't want to have that extra weight in our luggage.

No Pictures Today.....

...cause both our computers are currently on the blink. Bummer. I took 43 pictures today and had a gigantic post thought up to go along with them.

Not all 43, mind you. I would have spared you a few.

Anyway. The computers are on the blink. My wireless connection refuses to stay connected...just blinks in and out sporadically which isn't overly condusive to being online. Mom's charger is fried. We found a computer store today, but they didn't have any chargers for sale.

This morning was a rerun of the past 16 days or so. Get up. Eat breakfast. Wash dishes.

Instead of lounging, though, Dad, Mom, Addie, and I bundled up like eskimos and headed for the train. Jason stayed in our room with our boys. That looks a little odd. Our boys. :) Until the ten day wait is up and the official court order is signed, we can't venture too far from the motel with JN. It'd be a bad deal if an official stopped us to observe our papers and we had nothing for him.

Jason didn't really mind. Shopping (browsing) really isn't his cup of tea.

We left here about 10:15 to catch the 10:28 train. Would've worked had they not cancelled that train for today. So. We stood (read danced, skipped, hopped, jogged) on the platform and waited for the next one. Which did show up on time. 10:38.

Off we went to the Second River stop. That's a neat place to go if you ever get the opportunity to visit Vlad. Just something to jot in your notes.

First stop. Fabric store. (I have several pictures. Aren't you glad?) It's very tiny. There were three or four four foot long 'walls' of swatches that you could pull out and observe. If you found one that you liked, the lady would dig around on the shelves behind her to find that bolt. I bought four. To the tune of 4,000+ rubles. Ouch. But it's not every day that you can buy fabric in Russia.

Then we walked. Along the way we found the computer store. Nobody there could speak any English. Communication was poor, to say the least. We did find a computer identical to Mom's and she used the charger for a little. The lady wouldn't let us buy just the charger, though.

Then we walked some more. And walked. And walked. About 1/2 hour later, after enduring biting winds, walking up a kizillion steps to cross the main drag in Vlad, watching a 'tow truck' towing some cars who were apparently parked illegaly (pictures), and skidding around on the ice covered sidewalks, we finally arrived at the baby store. We purchased a few things...a dress for Addie, cereal for Jack, a bottle for Addie's baby, and some toys for the boys. Then it was off to the grocery to buy some eggs and miscellaneous items. The grocery is right next to the baby store, thankfully.

That done, we headed back toward the train. We got a little sidetracked, though, and ended up in an indoor market. It was fun. (pictures)

And then the fun part came. We discovered that we had nine minutes to catch the next train, or we would have to wait an hour. Poor Addie already had tuckered out legs, and wasn't too thrilled with the opportunity to run.

I heaved her up on my back and we set off at a speedy pace. It was fine until we came to the kazillion steps that we had to climb to go up and over the train station area to our platform. Jello legs were the result.

We did make the train, though. Even had a couple minutes to spare.

It was good to actually have one good experience with Addie on the train. She has a very strong aversion to them since our first couple mistakes.

20 minutes or so later we disembarked and walked back to our house. Er. That'd be motel. But we're beginning to feel right at home.

Jason fared well with the boys. I was glad. Maybe he'll allow me to go shopping again. Not likely considering how much I was able to spend in just a couple short hours.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. Lounged, read, Mom taught school, napped, ate supper, put the children to bed.

We. Are. Getting. Lazy.

It's nearly time to head home. Only, uh, 14 days. Eight more here, and six in Moscow.

The countdown is on.

Kind of.

What a Day

Oh. You thought by that title that something exciting has happened? It has. But you'll have to be patient to find out what it was.

Up at 7:30 this morning. A little late, but still not late enough to be qualified as sleeping in. Is it?

We held off on breakfast til about 9:30 so we wouldn't get hungry before time for supper. Didn't work, but more on that later, too.

Pause. We're learning about steak and all its stuff from Jason who is reading a book called "Steak". For the second time in three weeks.

Okay. Back to our day. After breakfast we did a couple loads of laundry. Has to be done nearly every day as the washer is a baby and can hold only a fraction of what we're used to at home. We've nearly stopped using the dryer. It's way faster to just dry stuff in our room.

Laundry taken care of, we headed to the White Rabbit. Such a delightful place. Maybe it's just that it gets us out of our room. We stayed there for several hours, perfecting our pool skills once again. It's obvious that Dad and Mom have been getting more practice in than we have. They whooped us. Soundly. In quite a few games.

Maybe they need to be volunteering to babysit more so we can practice a little more often.

And then. Then is when the fun part of our day hit. We had tracked our package from home last night (it was in Artyom which is 1/2 hour from here) and again this morning (it was on the truck for delivery).

It just so happens that the driveway is visible from the White Rabbit. Handy. Every vehicle that pulled in was observed in an effort to see that UPS sign on the side. Though we weren't sure that it would even be marked.

First we saw this car. He was obviously getting something big before he crawled out. We were positive this was it.

It was newspapers.

And then we got hungry. We ordered the nachos el' grande. Mistake. They served us the same rancid chips that we got in September. We scraped all the goodies off the chips and ate that...but left the chips sitting on a plate. (We thought of you, T&R, and Ivan. :) )

Since the chips weren't so good, we ordered two baskets of Chicken Fingers and french fries. Much, much better.

Then we saw another car that looked like it could be it. I took a picture, but deleted it when we realized that it wasn't what we were watching for.

And then. Several hours after we started our watch, in pulled "the truck". We were confident this time.

See?

Here's another view.

And here's the fella carrying the box. Albeit he was toting it to the wrong building. We were trying to coach him from our window (it was shut), and eventually he figured it out on his own.

See?

He's walking down the sidewalk, carrying a box.

We hurriedly gathered our stuff from the White Rabbit and raced downstairs to collect our package. It was it!!!

The box we've been waiting for. Talk about an exciting time. The children were squealing and dancing the whole way down the hallway. Finally we reached our room and had to pause a tad to take a picture of the box before we tore into it.

It was well worth the wait. Ten bags of M&M's, four king-sized almond joys, two packs of gum, and notes from Darin, Justin, Krista, & Brandon. It was so fun. Addie toted her notes and stickers from Krista all over the room declaring how special it was.

The box showed up at 4:23. By 4:38, one bag of M&M's and one almond joy were completely stowed away safely in our tummies. They were so good. The M&M's were anyway. I don't do almond joys.

Sweet lil JN got to taste what I am sure was the first chocolate he has ever had. His caregivers would have heart attacks, I am sure. Especially when you combine that with the ice cream we fed him the other night (which he wasn't too fond of...he spit the chocolate ice cream out, but learned to tolerate the vanilla. He'll come around.) and the french fries today.
Oops.

Dad and Jason tired of the chocolate (can you imagine?!) and decided to walk to the convenience store for some juice, bread, milk...and Pepsi to go with our chocolate. I can't wait to taste that Pepsi. Everything here tastes so different, I can't believe that the Pepsi will be normal. Dad & Mom got a Snickers and a Milky Way on their jaunt into town the other day and said that even those taste funny. Not even made like they are at home.

Odd.

We ate supper, had devotions, gave baths, and plopped the children into bed. Since we purposely didn't allow them to take naps today, they went right to sleep.

Now? I'm gonna see if we can break into another bag of M&M's.

Might have to get a gym membership when we get home.

On a side note. We appear to have another little Daddy in our family. Today Will was throwing a little fit (directly related to extreme exhaustion) and JN was waving his finger at him and jabbering something. Will paid him no attention. So...JN picked up a water bottle and clobbered Will on the shoulder, set it down again, and went back to what he was doing. Will quit the fit. He's hired.

And a couple teasers to finish up.

You're welcome.

Another Monday Gone

I can't believe it. Here we are with 17 days under our belts....and 16 days to go. We're over half done!!!!!

That's a long time. A really long time. Guess I won't dwell on it.

Tonight I have nothing of any excitement to report. Nothing.

I tried to get a guest to write a post, but she claimed that she would lose all the readers for me. Dad volunteered, but I think he was kidding. Maybe not. Guess I should find out.

This morning we got up at 7:00. Mmm. Hmmm. 7:00. It's our new tradition. We were all getting bed sores from lying in bed for so long.

Poor JN didn't sleep too well. He tossed. He turned. He cried. He arched his back. He rocked. He sat up. He laid down.

Therefore, Mommy didn't get much sleep last night either. We're praying for a better night for all tonight.

At 9:00 we dialed in to an evening church service at home. Heard a wonderful message about being ready for the end times. Persecution. Trials that are preparing us for the persecution to come. Super message. It felt so good to 'go' to church again. We almost felt like we were sitting right there in the pews with them.

Church over we ate breakfast. At nearly 11:00.

Then Dad & Mom headed off on their adventures for the day while the rest of us vegged in our room. Sounds like they had a fun day. They went exploring. Back to the Second River station where they just went in doors and explored all they could explore. They even found a fabric store!! Guess where I want to head?! They ended up at the grocery and baby store on the main road, about a twenty-twenty five minute walk from the train station "if you're hoofing it". In other words, had we been along, it would have taken much longer. We blame our slowness on our poor, innocent children.

While they were out and about, we read books, watched the maid clean our room, went and attempted to perfect our pool skills (Jason's doing great. We won't talk about me.), came back to our room and napped. For two hours.

Dad and Mom put off coming home just long enough so that Mom got out of cooking. But I guess she felt a little guilty. She jumped in to help me finish up the chicken pot pie. Which was delicious, if I must say so myself!! It was actually kind of fun to cook again, but don't tell Mom I said that. She'll just head out on more adventures.

That was our day. The children are now in bed, but only the youngest is actually sleeping. The other two must have missed the memo.

Since our day was so drab, I took some pictures of our little home to share with you. I know. That really spices things up.

The first is of our kitchen and dining room.

The second is of the family of five bedroom with the bathroom back in the corner. Yes, there are walls around it so you can't actually see it. Though if the lights were on in it, you could see the light all the way around the walls and ceiling. It's really soundly built. The bed making job is amazing, I know. Unfortunately, that is one thing that Mom hasn't started doing for me. And. If you ever need a clothes rack and have a crib? Take off one side. It works great.

The third is of the living room.

And the fourth is of the family of two bedroom. Which happens to adjoin the dining room. In fact, it's about five feet away from the table.

We like close quarters. Yes we do.

While I was browsing through today's pictures I found some that I had forgotten I took. Jason, JN, and I took a little walk. While we were out, Dad, Mom, Addie, and Will had a tea party. It looked to be a grand time, but we had to miss out. First, we needed some fresh air. Second, there weren't enough cups for us to join in even if we had wanted to.

So that's our day. So exciting. So breath-taking. So....normal, here lately.

I think we had enough spice last week to last us for quite some time.

By the way. Several folks have asked how big JN is. He's much bigger than I thought, evidently. The twelve month clothes that I brought fit perfectly....if you really like high waters and 3/4 sleeves. The eighteen month clothes actually fit much better. It's too bad that I only brought two 18 month outfits. Shoes? Well, the size four that I stuck in are about 1/2 inch too short. The boots that his baby home gave us are size 23. Quite a large difference between 4 and 23. He has huge feet. We hope that someday he has a strong desire to be a clown. His feet would work great in those red shoes. Really, though. He does have large feet. I would guess that he'll be in size five at least. The way he's eating though, he may be in size six til we get home.

A Day of Rest

Sunday. They're so nice. You don't have to do anything. Seems like we've had about two weeks of Sundays, actually.

This morning we broke our tradition of sleeping in and got up at 8:00. I know. It does seem early, but when you have as much to do as we do, you have to bite the bullet and drag yourself out at unearthly hours. It's rough. Somebody's gotta do the work around here.

That'd be Dad and Mom. They cook. They do our laundry. They do it all. Except clean. The maid comes in daily to do that. I don't know what I'll do when I get home and have to do all that myself again.

After dragging ourselves out of bed, we ate a fine meal of leftover baked oatmeal and burnt toast. The toast wasn't leftover, but it was burnt. In defense of Mom (she can get a little ouchy about some stuff), not all of it was burnt. Just nicely crisped.

Then. We had church. We downloaded a sermon off of a website and listened for about 1 1/2 hours. Lil Jack did super, considering he's never been to church before. Little Will had more problems than the other. I forgot to check for ants in his pants, but that must have been the problem.

Church over, it was naptime. All three children fell asleep well, but in true keeping with her reputation, Addie didn't sleep long at all. And, oh my. Does she need some sleep. The poor dear was so worked up after court on Monday that she could hardly sleep all week. Then she was so worked up after finally bringing Jack Nickolay home that she could hardly sleep. It's time for some sleep. Life would be easier if that would happen.

Dad and Mom left the room while we were napping. Not sure what all they did, but Mom came back bragging that she has officially perfected her pool playing skills. As proof....she beat Dad twice. Wish I could've watched.

For supper tonight we feasted on fish, rice, and mixed veggies. The veggies were delicious. I am considering becoming a vegetarian after how good they tasted. The fish left a little to be desired. Addie and Jack Nickolay thought it was delicious. The rest of us? Will declared that it made his tongue hurt. Dad and Mom thought it was the worst they had ever had. When I could glance past the skin that I peeled off the one side, I could tolerate it. But it worked out well to have lil JN sitting on my lap. He cleaned up my plate. Probably we won't buy any more fish from the grocery. No matter how cheap it is.

After supper, Dad washed dishes while Jason and Mom had a tea party. I rinsed dishes and ate sugar. Gotta eat something sweet since our M&M's haven't shown up yet. :) Let me clarify on that tea party phrase. Jason is hanging over my shoulder and doesn't think that sounds too manly. Both of them were sitting at the same table, both of them were drinking tea. Now doesn't that sound like a tea party to you? Me too.

Now it's 9:00. Or somewhere around there. The children are all in bed. Jack and Will are both sleeping. Addie is sticking to her guns and keeping those eyes open as long as she possibly can. Never mind. Will is still awake too. Playing with his face...which being interpreted means, picking the scabs off his nose.

How are the children doing with the new addition to the family, you ask? Maybe you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway. It's a little rough at times. The newness must be wearing off a little.

Addie did so well yesterday. She loves her new little brother. But today didn't go so hot. Today she started to revert back to her "Russia" behaviors. Three different times we caught her doing things that we haven't seen for months. She's back to baby-talk. Not all the time, but more often than I like. She wants attention, but is going about getting it in all the wrong ways. We're trying to hold her more than normal....and tonight I rocked her before putting her down for bed. Not that it worked.....

Will? He's still Will. Just a little enhanced. Doing everything he's not supposed to. Being obnoxious. Yesterday he actually pulled a little piece of wallpaper off the wall and ate it. Yep. That's our Will. We felt better when a 'neighbor' came by and asked us if we had any glue. His little boy had pulled off a chunk of wallpaper. :) Must be something in the air. But he loves JN and would do just about anything for him.

Nickolay is doing well. He still is loving to be held. Jason is slowly but surely winning some ground with him, but he still prefers me. He's not used to being around men. He cried a couple times during the night, but quickly calmed when I placed my hand on him. He's sleeping in bed with us. Right beside me. I can't say that I enjoy sharing my bed with a toddler, but his rocking made it a requirement. Did you notice his bald spot on the back of his head in the picture yesterday? It's from rocking himself. I don't know that there is anything more sad than to watch a child lie in bed rocking from side to side. That's often the only method a child in an orphanage has of consoling himself.

Tomorrow our little family of five plans to stick close to our little room. Dad and Mom plan to hop on the train again, heading for the grocery and the baby store. It'll be a new experience for them. They will get off at the Second River station, walk about 20 minutes, cross the main road (let's hope there are steps for them to cross over rather than having to dodge cars), and they'll finally reach the market. Sounds fun in 10 degree weather, don't ya think?

Maybe I can finagle a guest post out of her. I suspect their day will be far more interesting than ours.

We're hoping to catch an evening church service over the phone tomorrow morning. Church starts at 6:00 home time, so we can dial in at 9:00AM here and listen. We'll feel just like we're there, I'm sure. That'll really confuse the children. Church two days in a row.

Maybe I should quit my fingers. Poor Jason is getting a workout that should last him for the week checking on the children. Will finally drifted off. I guess if you lie still and stop picking, sleep will come. JN is rocking. Jason is now over there laying with him trying to get him back to sleep. Addie? She's still hanging in there, trying to be the last one awake.

She'd hate to miss something.

Blessings on your Sunday.

P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures. Several problems there. I only used my camera a few times today. Once for the tea party, and a couple times to take pictures of JN. I am too lazy to get the camera from the top of the fridge. And even if I did, you can't see pictures of JN for another 9 days. Sorry 'bout that.

Day one with JN

Today was a good day. Court is behind us. Our three children all in the same location. Everyone is happy.

For now.

Last night none of us got much sleep. JN is a rocker...meaning he rocks himself to sleep, something that really isn't desirable. By morning he was in bed beside me so I could keep him from rocking. Didn't take much...just a hand on him and he quieted and drifted back off. Several times he got mad and went all stiff cause I wouldn't let him rock, but he got over it quickly.

Jason still isn't feeling the greatest, so his sleeping didn't go so well.

Addie didn't get to sleep til nearly midnight cause she was so exited about JN being home finally.

Will tossed and turned as normal, keeping me awake when I could have been sleeping.

Nothing like sharing a bedroom with six other people!! Really, it's working quite well. We can't hear Dad and Mom cause we leave the fan on the heater on all night....I don't know if they hear the ruckus from our side or not.

This morning poor JN was smothered from the moment he awoke. They cornered him. When he could finally find a route out, he fled...seeking out his mommy to rescue him.

All morning they led him around like a puppy, shoving toys in his hands, croaking when he immediately stuck them in his mouth, laughing at everything he did.

They love him, our children do. Everything about him. Even changing his diaper is great fun. For them.

By afternoon, the newness had begun to wear off and they were back to playing like normal. Addie played Mommy with her baby, and Will just pestered. They get along so well.

JN loves to be held. Every 5-10 minutes (when he's not riding in the pouch) he comes seeking out some lovin'. In pop both thumbs for about 30 seconds, and then he's off to find something else to get into. Never had a child this young before.

It's so odd. Here we are with three children. No blood relation to each other and no blood relation to us. Yet, I can't imagine how we could love any biological child more than we love our children. It doesn't matter that they have none of our genetics. God has given them to us to care for and to teach them about Him. They are our children.

Today was a REALLY lazy day. We ate breakfast at 10:00....Dad and Jason still in their pj's. We napped. We read books. Mom ventured out to do a load of laundry. Dad & I each took a turn or two going to get water. Jason, Addie, & Will never left the confines of our little house.

Maybe tomorrow we'll find some energy somewhere.

But I'm not counting on it.

Slowly but surely, Jason is going stir crazy. For 15 days, he has done nothing. Well, nothing physical anyway. Mentally, he's been wiped out a couple days, but nothing else. Tonight he figured up that we still have 12 days left here in this little room. Twelve days with nothing to do. Twelve days to sit and read....which he really doesn't enjoy.

Then five or so more days to spend in Moscow before we head home.

It'll be a long nearly five week trip.

I wish so badly that I could show you all some pictures of sweet little JN's face. But I can't. Not until Feb. 1, when the final court order goes into effect.

Until then, I can show you pictures of his back, or his hands, or even his feet. Just proof that he really is here with us.

This picture is of our trip back to Vlad. He spent quite some time peering out the window, seeing what all is out in the big ole world.

So. That's our Saturday. Nothing too special.

And yet. It was very special. It was our first full day as a family of five.

I think I'm gonna like it.