Here's Coy

After an hour or two at Circuit City, we were able to work around our photo problems. It seems our 2.0 GB SD card holds too much information for the $7 card readers we purchased. We were able to ask them to make a copy of the pictures on a CD and finally....here it is!

A point of clarification...our anniversay is actually in August. We are just celebrating a little late.

We had our last visit of the weekend today. Everything went well. Coy is quite the social bug. He enjoys going around and visiting with the other children and couples in the room. Yesterday he consoled a young boy who was crying by rubbing his head. It was very sweet and reminded us of his sister and her compassion for others. Coy was quite upset when it was time for him to go today. We take that as a good sign, but the nurse didn't have a new toy to distract him like they usually have. He spent a lot of time playing the piano today. It drew a crowd from the other children, but they mainly wanted to bang on the keys so their parents quickly put an end to their play. Today there were parents from Germany and Italy (We think.). One couple had two boys and the other had one boy. Another couple was in the room briefly and were visiting another boy. Our American friends were not there today. We heard that their son has a fever so they will not be able to visit him until Monday. They are supposed to be leaving Donetsk on Monday for Kyiv.

It looks like we may be set back a bit by the holidays. Sveta says that offices will probably be closed the Monday after our 10 day wait due to the following two days of holidays. She said that usually in this case they will be open on Saturday and closed on Monday so that there is a four day stretch of days off. If this is the case we will hope to be finishing our business in Donetsk on Thurs., May 3 and then heading to Kyiv. Either way, please pray that we will be able to finish quickly and get home soon.

Yesterday the head nurse at the orphanage, Oksana, gave us a little cross with a string on it. She said that Coy had been baptized when he was younger. She also gave us a picture of him when he was younger before the surgery. The doctors did a good job.

On a different note, I (Stacey), think I have figured out the mystery of our shower. I am a big fan of a nice warm shower in the morning if possible. It seems that the hot water comes in cycles. Gradually it warms more and more to burning hot and then back down again to ice cold. If I am patient enought I can get a good shower in about 3 cycles. The trick is to be washing during the cold cycle and rinsing during the warm...all the while trying not to get water in your mouth. There is an extra level of difficulty because there is no shower curtain and the shower head is hand held. A bit of coordination is key!

We have been so blessed to hear how family and friends are taking care of Caleb and Katie. Thank you so much for inviting them for extra visits, delivering food, and even loaning money at school for unexpected activities...We are so THANKFUL!!!