Another Day Down

It has actually been 2 days since we posted because we took a day off to go and get a CD of the most recent pictures. This one was taken from inside of a play tunnel while Stacey and Coy were playing on the other side. The orphanage dresses him and some days he comes out in pink clothes. Today, he had on pink overalls. Thank heavens that there will only be a few more days of that.

We learned today that Coy had his surgery in August of 2005. That would have been about 20 months ago, when he was almost 1 year old.

Please continue to pray that the remaining paperwork and hurdles will all be cleared in a timely manner. We trust God that He will get us home in a timely manner but we are still asking all to pray. We are also asking for prayers for the journey. We took Coy out to see the van that we will be riding in last week and he sat in it for a few minutes before he became upset. Yesterday, he sat in it but was immediately upset. Today, he got upset before we even got within 10 feet of the van. Stacey thinks we probably should have used the element of surprise on him but hindsight is 20/20. We are going to attack with the new toy tactic next. If that doesn't work, we will go for videos. Our last hope will be the stroller. He loves being in the stroller and when Victor swithches the seats around so that they face each other, there may be enough space for him to sit in the stroller while riding.

Seatbelts you ask??? Forget about it. No seatbelts here. Every car ride is an adventure. We have only seen one accident though, which is amazing. They park and drive on the sidewalks here. We had heard others talking about it but we had to see it for ourselves. Its true. Walkers, beware.

This is some kids picking up their friends in front of the internet cafe. They are driving on the sidewalk. It gives new meaning to "I'll pick you up at the door."

We learned that the embassy will be closed on Monday, April 30 through Wednesday, May 2. We are still waiting to see if the court will be closed on those days as well. The judge was out sick today. Hopefully, we will know something tomorrow. We do know that the orphanage will be closed on May 1 and 2, so if we don't get to take Coy with us on April 30, we won't get to see him for 2 days. That is a long time when you are stuck in a strange city.

An update on the Game Boy situation. Our facilitator and another facilitator were able to get me a step-down transformer so that I could charge it. They have saved me from reading too much or hip-hop aerobics. They had to send it by train, so I really appreciated it. They had offered to let me use it while we were in Kyiv but I was afraid I would lose it. Now, I am glad to have it.

The visits continue to go well. He seems to get upset when it is time for us to leave. We don't know if that is because he wants to stay with us or just doesn't want to stop having fun. He seems to be generally excited to see us when we come and that makes it good. There are several other families that are visiting their children at the orphanage too but none of them speak much English. We obviously don't speak their language either. We are learning a few Russian words though. A very few though. We would starve, freeze, and die if left on our own for more than just a couple of hours though. (We might could last a day Stacey says.)

Thanks again for all of the e-mails and messages to this blog. We can not even begin to express how much we look forward to reading them when we come to the internet cafe. It is like Christmas morning every day or so. Thanks again to the friends and family that are caring for Caleb and Katie and helping out around the house and transportation, etc. etc. etc. God has been so good to us and we are very fortunate to have the number and quality of friends and family that we have.

If you see our children that are still in Indiana, please give an extra measure of love to them for us. We miss them a ton and can't wait to see them again. We have a date in our heads about when we might come home but it is too early to really start talking about it yet. There is many a slip betwixt a cup and a lip, so we will just keep praying that it is soon. God knows when we will be home.

Caleb and Katie, when we get home, you guys will have to take Coy and go with us to the place where we hike all the time with the Dorschs. I am sure that he will love doing that with his brat and sestra. (Russian for brother and sister.)