Tick, Tick, Tick.....

Today is day 7 of our 10 day passport wait, but who it counting? Me!!! We are so anxious to get home. Our friends, June and Dennis, are leaving tomorrow. They finished up with the US Embassy today. We are going out to eat tonight to celebrate. The children are doing very well considering their regular routine has been thrown out the window. We are just trying to get through the process in Kiev. At the orphange their bed time was 8:00pm and they got up at 7:00am. The first couple of nights they were asleep by 8:00pm, but now we stay up until 10:00pm. Our apt. has one big room with two beds (one is a couch that converts to a bed) and a tv. It's hard to tell them to go to sleep when we are still up getting things ready for the next day. We have been sleeping until 8:00-9:00am every day. The kids need the sleep. They are eating alot more now than they did in the orphanage and are enjoying walking around Kiev and seeing the sights. They like the simple things too like going to the grocery store. We usually give them the change from our expenditures and they save it to buy candy or cheap toys (and I mean CHEAP). They usually break after playing with them for an hour.

Right now Tim has them on the computer next to me and they are playing an online computer game. But out of all of the new experiences they have had their favorite thing to do is take a shower/bath. They really like being clean. I'm sure this will all fade once they get home and realize that they have their own bathtub and shower and that it's required that they shower every day :-).

We talk to V every night. If we don't call him, he calls us. The kids love telling him about their day and what new things they have seen or done. We went to a part yesterday and Elizabeth got slide on a big air slide. You can jump up and down and hurl yourself down and bounce like a rag doll. She went down forwards, backwards, sideways, rolling, on her head, on her back, and summersaulting! Is that a word? Anyway, she had a blast. Michael chose the small merry go round where he could sit in the middle and we could spin him around. He did it for way longer than I could do it. I would have gotten sick. The day before we came across an air pellet gun range and Michael was a sharp shooter. He had never shot a gun like that and he knocked of can after can after can. We called him "the sniper".

Tim is having a hard time finding a connection for his computer so he can get online at work. He is doing the best he can with his blackberry, but he needs to be able to download his emails and respond. We have talked to our faciliator about finding a location with WiFi, but we haven't had any luck yet. Tim is having difficulties with his new computer. He is very frustrated and wants to get home so he can get to work.

Shane - THANK YOU!!!!!

Kathi - Thanks for the call and the birthday wishes. Bon Voyage!

Stephanie - You crack me up! Thanks for the Rosetta Stone. Please tell Cathy thank you!

Marilyn - good to hear from you.

Becky - I hope to see you soon in Houston!

Brenda - Thanks for the update. We can't wait to see how much Hayden has grown. Any news on when Stephen can come home for a visit?

Bobby - Thanks for the message! I hope you don't beat us home :-)!!!!