Good smiles today!

We made some great progress in our visit today with Alexander! Wow…..what a great time it was! He cried when they first brought him into the room, but only for a minute or less. Then we all sat on the floor and got some toys out. He settled in right away and was great for the rest of the visit. He was smiling, laughing and babbling. We played with a xylophone for quite a while. We’re convinced he will be some sort of musician! Then we got out the goldfish crackers that we brought for him. Wow, those were a hit! We also took a sippy cup with some water for him. That probably ended up being one of his favorite things to play with. He doesn’t quite know how to use a sippy cup yet, but he sure did have fun with it! I think it also felt good on his teeth to chew on it. We think he is starting to feel better, too. He didn’t seem quite so congested today and his nose wasn’t as runny. We’re so thankful for that! And one of the best things that happened was when the caregiver came back into the room to take him away from us, he cried! :O) Today was such an answered prayer! We haven’t heard yet when we will get to go back to the orphanage, but we’re hoping maybe tomorrow. There are more and more families arriving every day and our facilitators are getting very, very busy.





The weather changed drastically from the sunny 70 degrees that we had yesterday. Today it is snowing lightly (probably about 32-34 degrees F), cloudy and pretty windy. This is the kind of weather we’ve been expecting! We’ve done a pretty good job keeping boredom at bay. Grandma and Grandpa have especially been good at keeping Marina busy while we are out and about. We all had a nice walk down mainstreet yesterday, we had ice cream at Baskin Robbins (they advertise 31 flavors, I think more like 16 or 20…) and then we visited a very large children’s store. Dadushka and Babushka bought a new Ariel Mermaid Barbie Doll for Marina. She absolutely loves it! There is a museum just a short walking distance from the hotel that we are planning to visit this afternoon. There is supposed to be a good Russian restaurant next door to it that we want to try for dinner. We’ve been eating pretty well. Breakfast is at the buffet they have here in the hotel. Quite interesting… corn, cabbage, beef, hot dogs, mashed potatoes, deli meats and cheeses, green beans, pasta, etc. They also have cereal, breads and rolls, and hard boiled eggs. The juices are interesting, too. Peach and cowberry are two of our favorites… Lunch is usually sandwiches in our room, and so far dinners have been at two different Italian restaurants, the Balkan Grill, and the German restaurant. It’s all been very good!

We are all doing well so far. We are all staying healthy and none of us are going stir-crazy yet! Being able to get out of the hotel, even if just for a walk around the hotel plaza, has been a real saving grace! I think that’s about it for now. Pretty soon we’ll have John and Joyce add a post from their perspective! We’ll be in touch…..