Dear Friends,
How is everyone this great Lord's Day? We are doing well. It's 7:15pm here (11:15am in Alabama). We're sorry it has been so long since we have posted, but I was trying to wait until we had our official first meeting with the boys on Monday. We felt like you all would like to hear from us and we would love to hear your comments and sweet words, so I went ahead and wrote. We did go to the orphanage yesterday (Saturday), but it was not an official workday so we did not get to meet the inspector yet. Our meeting with the inspector will make it 100% official that we are pursuing adoption of these boys. However, this is Sasha's home town, so he felt confident that we could at least meet the boys. We went to the orphanage director and she allowed us to meet the older boy (Slavic--for now). Let us just say, he is absolutely precious and gorgeous. I cried a little, but didn't let him see. There were 2 other little boys out there with us and they just grabbed our hands and pulled us with them. We played for a moment on the playground while Sasha and the director talked. But, our short visit had to end and we took them back inside. Then, we were leaving and he was outside with his class. They all ran to us and asked who we were visiting. So, I told them we were there to talk to everyone. But, Sasha got down on Slavic's level and spoke with him and asked if he liked us and he said "Da!--yes!". Then he asked if he would like for us to come back and he looked at me and said "Da!--yes!". So, we are so excited! Today (Sunday) we got up and packed up and left our room in Kiev! We drove to Zhitomir and met up with Sasha's friend Sasha. Seriously. That is a very popular male nickname in this part of the world. He had found us a house to rent! We really did not know what to expect, but the house is absolutely great. It is really large and brand new. The owners built it for an investment to rent it out. And the next 4 weeks here will cost us less than 1 week at the hotel in Kiev did! (we hope we don't use it all-hee hee) Praise God from whom all blessings flow! He has truly provided above and beyond all our expectations! We ate a delicious dinner...I mean it when I say I have loved the food and I think Greg, Jackson, and Carol have all enjoyed it too! We just want to tell you all how wonderful Sasha has been to us. He has spent so much time and energy making this go as smoothly as possible and we really appreciate him and his staff. Well, we will sign off for now. I will post tomorrow afternoon after our first official meeting with both boys! Love to all!