My perspective on a great day!

Hi folks (everyone we know and don't know that are reading this thing!)

Hi Brandi, nice to meet you, I'll look forward to seeing you at GASC this year! Thanks for your prayers.

Hi Cathy: Thanks for the news on Norman. No, we hadn't heard, but felt is was coming. That man has worked hard for Jesus! I am anxious to meet the new Sr. minister. How old is he? Sorry about the donughts, but sounds like you made the police & fire dept. VERY HAPPY! I love that AD & KH are friends. I don't know what to do about the post office. Love ya!

Nicole: God uses children to tell us we need to adopt sometimes! LISTEN TO HIM...you'll be glad you did!

Kristi: Have fun on your trip. We are so ready to be home, we can hardly stand it. If we were able to take A&D today, we would be outta here. But we wait. There is a reasons we are here. Scott is two computers down from me talking to a foreign exchange student about what God is doing in our lives. So there is purpose still.

We really had such a great day! We met the children at the orpahange at 10:00 am. They were so excited to see us coming so early in the morning. The teachers got them dressed for a special day. We took the kids to a photography place to get their passport photos made. Then we went to a new restaurant called Adriano's (now are food choices with English menus is up to 4). The kids were soooooo excited. On our way to the restaurant we bought nuts from a street vendor which they really enjoyed. When we arrived at the restaurant they were so happy. Their eyes were just full of wonder. They said the restaurant was the most beautiful that they had ever seen. They kept calling it a cafe'. Soo cute! Then we ordered the pizza and we waited. In the orphanage the younger children don't really see the food being prepared, they just walk in from the playground and it is sitting on their desks. So it was very difficult for the children to WAIT for the food. Then when it finally arrived, they weren't quite for sure how to eat it. I will post a picture. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. They were so excited to be eating PIZZA, and yet weren't quite sure what to do with it. We finally showed them how to pick up a piece and eat it. It took some practice, but they got it pretty quickly. Since we get to take the children out for tomorrow for shopping, we asked Dima what he wanted to eat and he said, "Pizza!" and rubbed his tummy. Silly boy!

The kids really had a fun morning just looking around at everything. Then we had to drop them off at 1:00 because they nap between 1-3. We were back at the orphanage at around 3:30 and they were so happy to see us. Seeing us twice really helped reduce Anya's "warm-up" period. It was good. She ran right up to me and gave me the biggest squeeze yet! She is such a good girl. Yesterday when we went to the market, I kept looking for sidewalk chalk, but couldn't find any. Today, our friend Julia, found some. So we took it to the kids and they were estatic. These children at the orphanage make hopscotch boards & pictures with pieces of rock or broken tiles (all white). I wanted to see some color, some rainbows and pretty flowers. Yesterday we took some jumpropes to the childrens groupas. Today Anya worked on her jumproping skills. She successfully attempted at least 3 good jumps. She was so excited and we were excited for her! She asked me to french braid her hair again today. This is something special as most of the girls wear pigtails or nothing at all. So after i did her hair, her two friends asked if I would do theirs. So we have three beautiful little girls with french braids at the orphanage right now. It was precious. Then Anya fixed my hair into the TIGHTEST pigtails I have ever had (yes, that's right A. Wanda, they were even tighter than yours!). It was great.

ADDISON OLIPHANT: YOU PURCHASED 120 HAIRBOWS & SCRUNCHIES FOR THE GIRLS IN THE DETSKEY DOMA, KHARKIV UKRAINE WITH YOUR $. You made some girls very happy!!!!!!!!

Dima was having a hard time today sharing us. He said to one girl, my mama & papa come to visit me, why do you come to bother them when they came for me. This is a very different sub-culture for these children. They know NOTHING about the whole adoption process, and when they see foreigners come to the orphanage the youngers ones yell, "Pick me, Pick me!" The older ones just watch with wide eyes to see who will be "picked" They don't know and it just breaks my heart. So, anyway I had to have a "talk" with Dima. We are HIS mama & papa & Kade, but we can have many friends. He is my son, and Jiana can be my friend. After a few minutes of pouting, he understood. Then he cuddled. My favorite part. We have a saying in our family that after a tough time or "disciplining" we "hug it out", so I got to "hug it out" with Dima without him even realizing that this is family tradition. Good day.

Well now we are at the internet cafe and then we are on our way to dinner. Today we ate at the new pizza place and it was really good. Right next door to the pizza place was a place called the "Potato House". We thought we would try it tonight. Although we were told it is a mexican restaurant. Oh well, we up for adventure this evening.

Hope you guys are having a great day! Know we look forward to seeing your smiling faces as soon as we can!
Kayla :)