April 7 - April 30

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! I John 3:1

Saying "Goodbye" to friends and constant companions from the orphanages.

Wow! We have had Sasha and Valera at home now for 3 weeks. What all has happened and how are they doing?

Andy and Masha, our facilitator, after the judge approved our petition to adopt!

Alexander Paul and Jonathan Valera reunited after being separated for two years.

Well, a century ago (actually, just a month ago) I was working hard to get the house ready for two new boys. I moved Kjersten’s bed and related bugs downstairs, and dragged a full-size bed up. No one was home to see me do this, so you just have to trust that I didn’t get another hernia. Beth Pester and friends had collected some clothes and toys, and she came over with 4-year-old Tara and did an extreme makeover. That was so great!

Meanwhile, Valera was battling a tough illness. For 3 days he didn't eat anything and had a fever. He's in the 5th percentile of weight for his age, so he didn't have a lot to fight with. Most importantly, the members of Christ Church as well as many friends and family here prayed for him, and we are so thankful for his recovery. Pam wasn't sure he would be ready for a 24-hour journey on Monday, filled with taxi rides and terminal lines and long flights and time changes, which is hard on healthy people, but he really perked up later Sunday and Monday he was his usual happy self.

I met Adrienne, Rachel, Pam, and the boys at the Omaha airport about 9:30 pm. The boys were wearing flight goggles, so I didn’t recognize them. (Не правда!). They had so much to tell me: how much they loved flying, and drinking Coca Cola, and eating airplane food, and getting bowled over by the terminal rush of people oblivious to pint-sized kids at JFK, and how Sasha only threw up once, but that it was okay, because it ended up on the seat of someone who was complaining about the rhythmic tapping on the back of his seat.

After a sleepy drive back to Seward, Nienke couldn’t believe her doggy eyes that Mom actually came home again after a 6 week absence. Nor could Nienke believe her doggy brain that we were about to change her life. Let’s put it this way—she no longer begs for treats or attention from me. The boys loved their new room and all the toys and love that Beth had put in it.

They woke up to a warm spring day, and quickly discovered Adrienne’s old scooter (along with Kara Einspahr’s, who was graciously willing to give hers up if her parents would buy her a jeep). We share a long driveway with Dolores, so you would think they could safely scooter away the day. Not quite so. Speed, challenging turns, and trick riding are all highly valued. We are on our second box of bandaids.

They discovered we have a soft-sided waterbed. As I said above, Valera is a lightweight--he weighs about 42 pounds if he’s wearing 2 pounds of clothing--so I can easily flip him head over heals onto the bed, and it makes him giggle and the dog go crazy. Sasha requires that I do the same for him. I still have not had another hernia.

I have given up noon basketball so I can come home for lunch. It’s fun, because they run to greet me and tell me all about the new experiences they had that day with Mom: “Папа! Папа! Я супермалчик! Мама машина банк и пошта и магазин и библіотек и парк!” I wish I had subtitles. That one was “Papa! Papa! I am super boy! Mama took us in the car and we went to the bank and the post office and the store and the library and the park.” Anyway, I think I’d rather hear this than “Air ball. Air ball.”

How do we teach English? We’re trying the “Triangular ESL Curriculum: Swedes Teaching English to Ukrainians” In other words, we play ABBA’s Greatest Hits.

And we mix the Russian and Ukrainian we know in with English and pantomime. The boys do the same now for us. They realize that to get us to understand, they have to add big gestures. Usually they don’t care whether we really understand or not. They can prattle on between them and we occasionally nod our heads, smile, and say, “Да, да, да.” They keep on prattling. Actually, since they are mostly interested in concrete things, like “Papa, can you show us how to jump start a car whose lights have been mysteriously left on?” or “Papa, can you show us how to unlock a bathroom door when no one is inside?”, or “Papa, can we disassemble Kjersten’s dashboard and CD player because *somebody* stuffed 3 CDs and a quarter inside?” communicating is pretty straight forward. You home schoolers out there, how do you like our curriculum?

Playing in Stas's old car.

Working out a puzzling world.

Eating is fun. They like pretty much everything. Except ketchup. For the record, I have seen them clamour for cauliflower, beg for broccoli, eat entire pears, work through half a loaf of bread each, then eat whatever Pam had designed for the meal, and still have room for potato chips for dessert.

Now they are sleeping. If it is not a bath night, we start putting them to bed around 8:00. We’ll read some stories in English, and then Sasha will read from a Russian children’s Bible to his brother. Then prayers and lights out by about 9:00. They go right to sleep, unless they have squirreled away some new toy for nighttime fun, like flashlights. We have to cajole them big time to get up by 8:00 am.

On Saturday April 11th, Sasha had read the crucifixion and resurrection story in Russian and explained it to Valera. He seemed to know something about Easter already. We asked Inna Tereshchenko to ask him how he knew what he knew. He said that a ministry team left a children's Bible at the orphanage and he had been reading it. Our first church service, then, after 6 days in Seward, was Easter at St. John. That means over 700 people pressed together, trumpets and handbells, the Hallelujah Chorus, and lilies everywhere. On the way home they were chattering about “Alleluia.” I think they know what it means, but they also know they can get a reaction out of us if they use it in an unconventional context, like after “Let’s have ice cream.”

Next week we will have a baptism. Now we know that we have been blessed beyond all that we could hope for. But seeing our children blessed as members of God’s family will be super special.