Where Have We Been???

Well, I guess you could say that we have been pretty busy for the last couple of weeks. We had Vacation Bible School at our church one week. The kids had a great time. Also, that same week, we got a dog. Her name is Buttons. She has done pretty well so far. She is not a puppy and is fairly well behaved so there has been minimal effort on our part so far. Luckily the weather has been fine so she stays outside most of the time. Caleb and Katie fell in love with her instantly. Coy is warming up to her.

Oh yeah, we got a pool too. The only bad part so far has been the fact that Coy had his next surgery the day before the pool was installed and the Dr.'s orders were to not go swimming until his follow up visit, which is tomorrow. It is just an above ground pool but they had to dig out quite a bit to get our yard level. We have spent a lot of our recent free time shoveling dirt to backfill around the pool so at night, the last thing I feel like doing is typing. We have also done some night swimming, which is also more fun than typing. Once we get our fence up and the deck built, we will start inviting folks over to swim. Right now, the ladder is pretty flimsy and it is a pain to go in and out of the gate but hopefully that will be fixed soon.

Caleb spent a week at a friend's VBS and then the kids all spent the week at my parent's house for their VBS. Stacey and I went down for the picnic. The kids did lots of fun things there and we didn't know if we would get them to come home with us or not.

We have not heard back from the ladies in Ukraine yet. That doesn't really surprise me though. Sometimes they are slow to respond. If I don't hear anything back by the middle of August or so, I might try again.

Zickel family: We would love to do that. We could have you guys over. Can you try to send us e-mail?? I also looked on the Ukraine Consulate website thinking that I could help you with your question but there was not much help for Kentucky. I did contact the Chicago office directly (called them, what a trip that was) and they sent me a blank form via e-mail that we filled out and sent back (e-mail and certified mail) for Coy's yearly report. If you want, I could send that to you if it would help at all.

This is Coy shortly after his surgery. His lip looks a lot better. They were able to twist his nose some too. He is such a trooper though. Only as he was coming out of surgery did he show much discomfort at all. He complained some later about it hurting but he did not milk it for all it was worth like some others may have.

Fun Times at Yankey House

We had a very happy Fourth of July. We saw fireworks, went fishing, and finally got to go swimming on Sunday. Even as I am typing this out at 10 PM on Sunday night, I still hear lots of fireworks going off outside.

From the pictures, you can tell that Coy caught his first fish this past weekend. I don't think he was as excited about the fish as he was the part of throwing the ball (the bobber) out into the lake and then reeling it back in. But he had a good time. He still doesn't like fireworks all that much but he tolerated them pretty well this year.

It is hard to believe that the summer is almost half over already.

I sent the e-mail to the ladies in Ukraine that helped us to adopt Coy. I just sent them some pictures of Coy and the other children but I also asked them how/if we would know if Coy had siblings in the orphanage system. I am guessing the answer is that they wouldn't tell us/contact us officially but someone that knew would have to pass the word on to us. To be honest about it, I would be leary of someone that I don't know telling me that my child has brothers/sisters. I trust these people and will believe what they tell me though. I will let everyone know what I hear back.