I have a cold and have been feeling a bit miserable. I opened my blog today and read my comments from all of you and it helped me feel much better. I have decided the only reason I like this whole blog thing is because it makes you all feel close and I don't feel so alone over here in this strange world. I think everyday what can I write that will make you want to keep reading and not abandon me. So please even if I start saying the most boring awful things please keep the comments coming. They are my life line.

Thanks to my friends in the neighborhood I appreciate you all so much. Hey Mary and Dona did you see my best friend Jenny growing up has been following. Jenny, I have been talking about you to them for years and they always give me a hard time for not keeping in touch. Thanks for following along Anna (our awesome translator when the girls were in Utah) also our social worker Mckay, and our families. You are such a support and I love you all. I don't want to forget my friend here Wendy who has been a tender mercy and all the other families who are adopting. I appreciate your encouragement. It is nice to have comments from people who know how I am feeling. I have had a few requests to view the blog from families who have adopted in the past, I would love to hear any feedback or experiences you have as well.

Well back to my life here. Yesterday we did the usual hang out in the morning and then get the girls at two, and spend time with them. We went to Wendy's apartment. It is a dive. Poor Wendy! She's happy though she has Alex with her and he is clean and smells so good. I kept sniffing him and saying how good he smelled, he thought I was a bit crazy. The sign for that is international I have found. Alex is our little translator he has picked up a lot of English in the last four weeks with Wendy. It is good, it has been encouraging my girls to speak English. The girls say English words and then look at me for approval. It is really cute.

They are doing much better at English than I am at Russian. Our attorney Oxana lives with us now since Masha left and she tried to help me with more Russian words last night. She did more laughing than anything. I remember from my mission that the only way to learn a language is to have no shame and let yourself be laughed at. I am getting plenty of that. The girls always laugh when I try to speak Russian. Jeff and I spend a lot of time laughing about our Russian, our charades with the girls and our broken English with those who speak it a little. We don't know how we will speak when we get home- some mix of broken English, hand motions and Russian.

I put some of the picture on today's blog that we didn't post before. Our boys Chandler and Parker wanted more video so I put a video of Lena singing for us. Hope you like it boys!





This is the train ride with Masha. I was the only one willing to sleep on the top bunk, so Jeff and Masha slept on the bottom. It was really funny. To those who hate small spaces I would recommend not taking the night train.


This is the outside of our apartment with the door that says, "If you piss here I will kill you."


This is the bathroom in the orphanage and it is like this in some of the old Russian buildings. I made the mistake of going with someone for the first time. It is not fun to squat, yet alone with a crowd. Yikes!