Hello everybody! It's February 18th, which was my Daddy's birthday. He has certainly been on my mind a lot today. Just wanted to say how much I miss him.....and I know a lot of you do too! It's 7pm here (11am there) and we have just finished our first McDonald's while here. It was delicious....better than home actually. Probably because we haven't had it for a while. Carol, Jackson, and Greg are playing Trouble, but I opted out of tonight's game so I could post on our blog. I didn't post yesterday because we didn't end up making it to the orphanage. Our facilitator (Andrew) used our driver all day and did all the necessary paperwork, etc. to try to establish us a court date. They did actually pick us up and take us to get pizza for lunch! Once again, it was delicious! Then we did a little walking tour of the Zhitomir area right near the pizza place. Yari (our driver) finally picked us up and took us to the market for a few necessities. Then home. Today, Andrew came over from Kiev and finally got to speak with the judge. We have a court date....11am on Wednesday, the 25th. Not as soon as we had hoped, but we are still very pleased to finally have our date set. We ate lunch, shopped around a bit, then went to visit the boys. Carol went with us today and it was a good day for it. There was a man there who played the accordion while the kids sang and danced. Our boys were not interested in doing it with their classmates. They were actually drawing and coloring with Jackson over on the side of the room and didn't want to stop. They sat there involved with that for about 30 mins. while all that crazy activity was going on.....at least we think there is not any risk of ADD or ADHD right now. Anyway, the man who was singing on the accordion called both boys over and had them sing the song by themselves....I was so excited and was able to get it recorded on my camera. I will post on the blog once the court date has passed. Anyway. he then called a group of 10 kids up to do a specific dance to some Russian song he played. Jackson and I were sitting across the room so I could take more video.....I thought it was so cool, but Jackson said "This is the weirdest thing I have ever seen". I explained how different their music is.....he still thought it was weird. Ha Ha! Then, the man called all the kids up and has me, Greg, Carol, and Jackson come over and form a big circle. Once again, we could not get our boys to participate....too busy coloring. Anyway, he played a song on the accordion that we recognized....it was the Chicken Dance. So there the 4 of us were helping the man teach the Chicken Dance to the orphans. Man, you have never heard the Chicken Dance song until you have heard it played on the accordion! Anyway, the kids were all over us, each wanting to hold our hands. It was so cute. After the room emptied out, we had some play time with the boys and Jackson. The boys were extra crazy, which was "exciting" since it was Carol's fist visit. I can only hope they will be a little less wild for our visit tomorrow. Greg and I just keep referring back to our training (thanks Lifeline) that taught us all these different levels of emotions the kids will go through. Pray for us and our emotions/nerves/moods with our boys and with each other as outside stress can certainly lead to fighting with those closest to you. By the way, we got there today and got into the playroom and there was a huge pile of hair sitting in the middle of the floor. Obviously, it was hair cut day. Then, our boys came in to the room and both had hair cuts that were more like Jackson's current cut....and more like we were expecting them to have from the beginning. I was a little sad to see their hair go, but it will grow out by the time we come home! Love you all!