January

It's February already? Nice. We've been doing well with school and regular life, but I haven't had time to think or write. All of our busyness went really well, with all kinds of complications thrown in to parts of it... does that make any sense?

Today I'll post some random photos and quotes from the past month, and then I'll try to do a more factual report on some of the busyness that happened last month later.

Bogdan has been hilarious lately. He's talking so much! It's still his own brand of language, but we easily understand him. Here are translations of just a few things he said to me one evening recently:

• "Can I kill a cat with my fingernails? No? Then I'll have to use a sword."
• "How do ants go to sleep?* What hats do ants wear? But they have to wear hats in the winter!"
• "When it's dark my eyes are scared." Your eyes? "Yes, they tell me that there are monsters there and there and there and there." A few minutes later.... "May I go outside in the dark?" Won't it be scary? "No, I won't let my eyes tell me about the monsters."

*A favorite theme here lately: "How does [whoever/whatever] go to sleep?"

Now, photos....

Being silly with new slippers

Beautiful, blue sky! It's been very rare lately.

A friend's photos of the fog, down by the river

It's been almost all fog and clouds for at least the second half of the month. An American engineer was supposed to come and start on plans for the homes for kids who grow out of the Tsyurupinsk orphanage. My friend went to Odessa to meet his flight, and had to stay there waiting for him for three days, while he was stuck in Turkey because of the fog on this end. I tried to help from here, and spent a few crazy days tracking flights, facilitating communication, and seeing about different plans. At the last minute, because my friend was still in Odessa, I also got to be the one to make the trip out to pick up Oksana and another boy who was coming to Kherson to visit for a holiday week. That ended up being an interesting trip. That's a different story, though. The engineer finally made it on a flight straight to Kherson, and had a packed 36-hour visit to do what he could.

I said to get ready for school...

He told Bogdan that he has four eyes.

We also had Oksana over for one FUN evening, after all the busyness here, and before she left for America:

Like I said, sunshine has been rare.

He just wanted to eat outside.

So, that's some of what has been happening around our home. I can write about other events later.

Oh, right now there's a mama adopting a little girl I know. She's also working on two other adoptions in two other regions. Please pray for her and her family! I am so excited to see this little one get a family. She's like a toddler, but she's actually 16 years old, and has waited a very long time for this. The pictures of her with her new mama are just precious. I'll see if there are any that I can share, after the adoption is final.