School, Sports and Hurricanes

We had a busy and fun summer. I can't believe that we have been home almost 5 months. The kids started school on August 25th. They both go to the same school so they ride the bus together. Elizabeth tried out for the school volleyball team and made it! She is very excited. She has practice after school every day. Between practice and homework she doesn't have much spare time during the week, but she loves being on the team. Michael is playing soccer. It is his favorite sport and he is very good. When we signed him up to play I asked Tim if he was going to coach the team. He said, "no way - not with my schedule." The second night of practice he came home with an official coach shirt on and I asked him why. He said, "don't ask." He is now the Assistant Coach! When he showed up for the last practice the coach gave him the bag and whistle and told Tim to run the practice because he had a meeting to attend:-). Oh, and his team is the HURRICANES!

Speaking of hurricanes, we just had a visit from Hurricane Ike. All is well here now, but we were a little bit concerned the closer the storm got to Galveston. The winds picked up around 7:00p on Friday night. The sky was a beautiful purple/red/pink color. We stood outside talking to our neighbors as the sun was setting while looking at neighborhood and wondering what the streets would look like in the morning. The storm hit us around 1:00am. It was a blessing because the kids were asleep and they were so tired that they slept right through everything. We lost power around 1:45am. We could hear the wind and rain, but we couldn't see it. I don't know if that was good or bad. At times the wind was so fierce I thought the house would collapse or the windows would bust, but we had no damage. We were very fortunate. All we had to deal with was the inconvenience of no electricity for two days. Luckily, Stephanie got power at her house the day after the storm so we packed up and spent the night with her. The kids loved it! I think they want to move to Aunt Stephanie's! There are so many people in the Houston area that are still without power or have damage to their homes. I can't believe the damage from this storm. Please keep the people of the Houston/Galveston area in your thoughts and prayers.

Michael and Elizabeth are doing very well with their English. Their friends in Ukraine ask them to speak English so they can hear it. The kids call their brother every week (sometimes 2-3 times a week). He is going to a technical school now closer to his hometown. He was able to find his brother and sister and now he visits with them on weekends. I was so happy to hear that he found his siblings. I don't know how, but it's a blessing because he isn't alone anymore. Michael says that he knows how Vadim found their siblings. Every night before dinner someone says a prayer. One night I say it, the next night Michael, and so on. We always ask God to bless Vadim. When Vadim told the kids that he found their brother we couldn't believe it. For the entire 4 years they were in the orphanage no one from their family contacted them or tried to visit. I asked Michael how Vadim found his brother and he said, "God helped him. He answered our prayers."

One of these days Coach Tim will sit down and make an entry on the blog.