Smurfs

Well, we are officially turning into Smurfs - remember those little blue characters from the 80's? We are becoming them . . . Olga bought new sheets for our bed which are royal blue with big daiseys on them. The only problem is that she didn't wash them first before we put them on the bed and the blue is rubbing off on us. Every morning we wake up as blue as blue can be and our knuckles and feet look almost purple! It's very attractive I must say! And if you forget a spot while washing yourself in the shower, the blue just stays with you all day. Last night I got to laughing so hard to the point that I was in tears, because I was looking at James from behind while he was putting a movie on for us to watch, and I noticed the backs of his arms were blue :) We were both laughing, although he was laughing more at me laughing at him than anything. All I could imagine was us showing up to court today, dressed up with blue faces, hands and ears and having the judge wonder what in the HECK?! Oh well, it gives us funny memories to think back on and laugh at!

This morning we went to "center" to buy a few things and get the girls (Natasha and Olga) the things mentioned that they needed. It was kind of neat because there were many other vendors set up in an open-air market that haven't been there on any of the other days that we have gone to center. So, we were able to find everything we wanted and will give the girls their things later today. We also bought Olga here, some flowers - an odd number of course, because they view an even number of flowers as bad luck or something to that effect. She was very grateful and surpised! I was actually surprised at how surprised she was!! I also gave her the package from you Ruth, and she will call the lady in Kharkov (sp?) and get her address and mail them to her. I don't think we'll make it to Kharkov, so I thought that would be the best solution. Olga speaks a little English and said she didn't learn it in school, but from American and Canadian families coming to stay with them. There is a family in Canada that has adopted 8 children from here and stays with them each time.

Remember the other American I told you about who is staying here? Well, he went to the orphanage and they asked the boys if they wanted to be adopted by him and the one boy said, no. Olga told me this is because he has a younger sister who didn't give him her blessing to move to America or at least was wishy-washy about it. Finally she said yes, he could go and then he said no. What a dissapointment for everyone involved! I doubt he'll have this opportunity again, but everything happens for a reason, right? The director told him he could choose another boy, so I guess he will - not sure. He is very upset about it, needless to say. I would have been terribly upset had Marina said no after all it takes to get this far! There are so many cute kids here though that it would not be hard to find another that would want a family to call their own. However, when your heart is set on one in particular, it would be terribly hard to leave them behind or have to choose another!

Well, I guess that's all for now. Not sure if I will have time to post another comment after court or not, but if we can't we WILL CALL someone (maybe the one who loves me the most :) and then you can play phone tag to spread the news. I said"the one who loves me the most" because my brother tried to convince me to call him first by saying that this was the case - ahahahaha! Keep praying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1