A Little "Ruski"

Rosetta Stone?  No. 

Oxford Dictionary? No.

Families that have travelled before us?  No.

Some of the greatest kids in the world?  YES!

It was the mouths of babes that I had my most successful Russian language learning session today.  Armed with my 16 page cheat sheet of key Russian phrases, I sat down at a small desk in the lobby of the orphanage to spend time with LA, Nastya, and her friend Vika.  Low and behold and totally by surprise, I was soon surrounded by 5, 6, and sometimes 10-12 kids trying to teach me Russian. 

LA was busy entertaining Nastya with the Ipad.  Uno, a drawing app, and photos were more important to her at the time than Papa learning a little bit of Russian.  But the other kids enthusiastically helped and were very patient with me as I chopped it up a bit.  A couple "Very Goods" and a couple "Good Jobs" from the 2 main "teachers" in the bunch gave me a brief sense of accomplishment.  I must admit that I didn't retain all of it, but I did soak in every moment!  I can now only imagine the task ahead for us to communicate with Nastya once we leave here and head home and now completely understand how she is going to feel learning English.

In addition to my impromptu Russian lessons, LA and I spent some alone time with Nastya and Vika.  They are like bossom buddies.  Nastya leads and Vika follows.  With Mama and Papa a little behind.  We walked out into a wooded area off to the west of the castle that is being reconstructed.  We realized what a treat it is for them to walk out this direction as they aren't allowed on a usual basis. Having us there gave them an opportunity they surely couldn't pass up.

While out there, the girls enjoyed climbing trees and swinging on 2 rope swings attached to 2 separate trees at each end of the woods.  The first one was a make shift swing that you hang from, self made by some rather ingenious kids.  2 pieces of burnt wood tied together with some rubber hose and flung up and over a high limb.  Perfect for swinging back and forth and twisting in circles and becoming dizzy.  The second was an old tattered rope that was once again so neatly concocted and designed and used more for upside down type swinging! They had a blast doing it and we had a blast watching!

LA and I met with Nastya's oldest sister today and her 5 month old daughter (Nastya's niece).  We shared some laughs and photos and ensured that we had the best intentions in giving Nastya her forever home and would love her forever!  The human element of family really entered the picture today.  We have the joy of adding Nastya to ours, but we could also see the other side today for the first time.

Dinner was super fabulous tonight!  LA prepared one of her greatest dishes as we returned to some good ole' American comfort food. After last night's dinner, we were looking forward to a little less stressful dining experience.  Perfectly grilled ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches accompanied by some of the best pan seared hash brown potatoes a man could want!  I think LA has been sandbagging it the last 11 years because her culinary skills are definitely surpassing her efforts on the other side of the pond.

Side bar...we are having a little difficulty...no, big difficulty... uploading pictures and connecting with Skype now.  We were okay the first couple days here but as of yesterday, we are experiencing extremely slow speeds and are not able to upload or stay connected to anything that requires any significant amount of bandwith. So,with that said, we are able to blog no problem.  We are able to receive emails and surf the web no problem. But other communications are a challenge right now.  Keep the emails coming as we love to open our inbox and see notes from home. 

Gonna call it a night and recharge for another full day tomorrow.  Good night to all and may I leave you with one message.  Children are God's most precious gift to us.  Some of you have biological children of your own.  Some of you are single and children aren't even in your vocabulary yet.  Some of you are unable to have biological children of your own and may have "given up".  Some of you have adopted and experienced this similar journey.  Whatever your situation, please pray for these kids.  Even though we don't speak the same language on our visits, these kids communicate with you in other ways.  Each of them is special.  Each of them has a lot of love to give.  Each of them deserves to be loved.  Pray for them.  We will continue to love on them.  And please consider what God is calling you to do in your life to help these kids.