Merry Christmas to All!

Well this is the evening of December 25th. What an amazing Christmas! We have been so blessed this year. I have finally got the girls in the bed. Almira is still back there listening to her new MP3 player. We've been downloading Russian music and pictures this evening. We started last night with Katherine spending the night with us and going to Jon's parents' house for Christmas Eve. We opened gifts and had dinner together. Then we came home and we let the girls open one present each. It was really tough getting everyone into bed. The threat of Santa passing by our house finally worked. I think by 11:30 I had everyone asleep, even Katherine. I finally got to bed about 12:30 last night. Then Sarah woke up at 3AM and couldn't get back to sleep. She finally woke me up about 6:30 and said she wanted to open presents. I told her to go back to bed for a little while. I let her wake up Almira and Katherine at 8 AM. I barely got a cup of coffee down before the present opening started.

Almira was so funny. She got roller blades from Santa and a couple of movies and an MP3 player. She said she had never seen so many presents. She started rollerblading around the house. I thought we went light this year. It was so much fun watching Almira, Katherine and Sarah open presents. The true gift for parents is the joy we see in our children and the magic of Christmas. This year was truly special..

Then this morning after opening gifts I started some gumbo for our traditional Louisiana Christmas. We started doing this a few years ago, all Louisiana foods instead of turkey and dressing, which is Thanksgiving. We had shrimp jambalaya, gumbo, stuffed potatoes, oven fried catfish, hot French bread and some fried oysters. We had all this at Doug and Katy's house. What fun!

I'll attach some pictures which will tell the best story of all. Tomorrow we leave for New Orleans and then on to Gulf Shores for a few days. Almira doesn't know yet, but we're meeting up with Nina, who was adopted this summer from the same family. Nina lives in Alabama now, with some wonderful parents. We will be spending a few days together in Gulf Shores. I can't wait to see the look on Almira's face when she realizes we will be staying with Nina. The best Christmas present of all, seeing a friend from the orphanage in Kazakhstan. Who would think that a year ago these two lonely little girls were sitting at the orphanage wishing for a family. Now they have Moms, Dads and siblings that love them. They will be spending the holidays together with families at the beach. What a precious Christmas this has been.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year! Let's hope for more precious children to find a family in 2008, that is my New Year's wish!

Kathy B.

Christmas Time is here

Счастливое Рождество каждый!

Hello to all,

Things are buzzing around here, quite busy we are. Just came in late from the mall and lots of Christmas shopping. I think we've just about got everyone finished. Maybe one or two left to finish up. I did our Christmas cards done this year and just had to scan them. We had to do a variety. Almira wanted to make sure Molly (the kitten) was in our Christmas card.

I wish the quality of the scan was better, but my scanner does not do a great job.

I hope all is well. This is going to be such an exciting Christmas this year!

Kathy B.

Happy Holidays!

Pictures: Mom and Dad at school with Sarah for Grandparents' Day. Meme and Almira at lunch this same day. Molly and Simon, playing in the kitchen. Molly was about 6 weeks old in this picture.

I cannot believe it has been so long since I posted. It is not from lack of activity. We have been running around like crazy people. Almira and Sarah are doing well. The girls had a great Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to have Almira and Katherine here for Thanksgiving. Katherine made a wonderful fruit salad for all of us, her Russian/Romanian/Ukrainian offering. On Thursday we all went to my mom and dad's and had such fun. Then we went to my company, CenturyTel, which was built on a pecan orchard. The kids picked pecans for about 30 minutes, but it was really cold. Then we headed to our house. I took all three of the girls to the movies on Thanksgiving night, a tradition of mine and Jon's. We went to see Enchanted and it was so good. The girls loved it.

Then we headed home and the girls had a fun sleep over. On Friday morning we were packing up to go to Natchez, Mississippi for the day and night. Katherine was speaking to her mother on Skype and using the webcam, so I got to see her mother and talk to her. What a precious woman - she must be to have raised such a wonderful daughter. We shopped and walked around the city of Natchez, which is a great old city on the Mississippi River. The next morning it was cold and raining and we decided to drive north along the river to Vicksburg, MS to hit an outlet shopping mall. We did some shopping and then drove home that night, on Saturday. It was cold and storming really bad on Sunday morning and slept in and played hookey from church. We woke up Sunday morning to a bad storm, booming thunder and then a hail storm. It was so loud, I had forgotten what those sound like.

The girls are both doing well in school and Almira is about to wrap up soccer for the season, just 2 more weeks. Sarah is starting off with basketball season and they have already started practicing. Everyone is so excited about Christmas this year. Sarah and Almira are painting Christmas cards for our front yard and I'll post pictures when they are finished.

Almira has only asked for Russian books so far, but we have so much more planned for her. I can't wait for Christmas morning and to see the surprise on her face. She told me in the past she might get some sweets for Christmas, that was the standard birthday and Christmas presents. I think they tried to give them a little something at the orphanage. I know they did the best they could.

Molly the kitten is doing well, just growing so fast. I'll check on Almira at night when she is sleeping and Molly is right next to her, sometimes sleeping right on her neck. It never seems to wake up Almira and she just loves her.

We did have a hamster tragedy the weekend before last. We went to Walmart and picked up an extension for Almira's hamster cage, because I was worried her hamster (Tisha a/k/a Mousie) was going crazy from the small cage, she just ran back and forth along the front most of the time. Putting her in her ball for some time didn't seem to help much. We got home from Walmart and I went to help her do the cage and she was dead. It was horrible for Almira and she just cried and said it was her first pet. It was awful and we had a hamster funeral that afternoon. Sarah cried as hard as Almira. The next day Sarah had cleaned out her hamster cage and was putting it together when she broke it. We went back to Walmart and got her a new cage. She was in the process of putting her new cage together when the section of tubing that Simon (her hamster) was in, fell off the chair and hit the wood floor. I was standing there washing dishes and I heard them say, I think he is unconscious. I knew something was bad right away. I grabbed a paper towel and went and picked him up. He died shortly thereafter and I kept him covered up so the girls wouldn't see him. Two hamsters in two days. It was a very sad weekend. Two hamster funerals in one weekend was just too much. Almira immediately wanted another hamster, but Jon vetoed any pets for a while. Sarah cried so hard that night and then Almira got started again and Jon just couldn't take it. So we are back down to 2 cats, one kitten and a big black lab. Almira has mentioned several time she wants another hamster, but we've convinced her Molly is enough right now.

I have some pictures to post, but don't have them loaded right now. I'll try and post them before Christmas, but the way things are going who knows. I will finish my current class on December 17th and then I'm off until January 8th. Then I have 3 classes left to graduate!! I can't wait.

Kathy

Almira's First Halloween

Tonight we had such a great time Trick-or-Treating for Halloween. Katherine (from Moldova) went with us and we went to the church for a little while for the Fall Festival and then we headed out for real trick-or-treating in some relative's neighborhood. I am about to crash for the night, but I just had to post some pictures.

These are some friends of ours children, Kellen and Kaysen (scarey scientist and little lamb princess). The girls had a great night and got quite a bit of candy.

The picture of Almira with the big man is her math teacher from school.

Kathy

Kathy

Happy Halloween to everyone!

I can't believe it has been a month since I posted. Things have been crazy but fun here. We have been so busy with school, choir, soccer and just life. The girls finished their first 9 weeks of school a few weeks ago and the report cards have come out. Sarah did well and Almira did wonderful. She had all A's and only one B, and that was a B+. 93 is an A and she made a 92 in math.

Also Almira joined the soccer team at school and I really think she is enjoying it. They had their first game last night and the girls won 3 to 1. It was my first real soccer game to see and I'm afraid I don't know the rules very well. It is a learning experience for all of us. Almira has soccer practice on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but now that games have started, she will play more games than have practice. It is great for her to be a part of a team. I hope she will make some friends. That is the only part she is still struggling with really.

We also added a new family member. I will attach a picture of her. I have been feeding a stray mama kitty up here where I work for about 3 months. She had kittens on Labor Day weekend, first weekend in September. The second week in October, when the kittens were about 4 to 5 weeks old, the mother was moving them across the parking lot and a girl that knows me saw this baby kitten left sitting there. She went and picked her up and brought her to me at my desk. She is quite adorable. She was very skittish at first, but the Mom is pretty wild. Now she is totally tame and is quite a cutie pie. She has so many colors on her she looks like a patch work quilt. She is mostly black, but has patches of orange tabby fur and then also some white patches. The girls decided to call her Molly. Of course she is Almira's kitten and living in Almira's room until the big cats get used to her.

I think she can hold her own against the big cats now, even though she is tiny. We took her to the vet on October 12th and she weighed 1 pound. She came home on October 9th. I have so many pictures of so much we have done, but I'll have to put in another post.

Tonight is Halloween and the girls are so excited. We are even bringing Katherine, our new college friend from Moldova with us tonight. She has never seen trick-or-treating before and is excited about going. I will have pictures of that to post later, along with Almira's first soccer game pictures.

Kathy

Updates from Boris

Just wanted to include some pictures of some of the kids getting their back to school presents. Almira was so excited to send a little something back to all her friends at the orphange. Our Sunday School class also pitched in and sent some backpacks and also helped me pay for shipping of 3 boxes to the orphanage.

I also posted some pictures from Roza's birthday party. Her birthday is in June, but I didn't get to send money for it until end of August. Roza and Vika are wearing their new jackets we send them. They look so cute.

Kathy B.

Just an update ...

Anna in the kitchen. Fun on the trampoline.

The girls on the couch looking at Almira's adoption pictures.

Things have been moving right along and the girls have just hit 5 weeks in school. They have 9 week semesters. So far so good with everyone. Almira has done really well with almost all A's and B's. She works so hard and is a really determined student. I've talked to some other friends this week and they've told me that their Russian kids don't really care how they do in school, which must be really hard to overcome. She is very conscientious about her school work.

We have made some more friends here in Monroe for Almira to speak Russian with. We met Anna a few weeks ago after church through someone at the college. Anna is from Petropavolvsk, Russia, which is on the outermost Northern tip of Russia, almost touching Alaska. When Almira met her she was really shy and Anna is very sweet, but a little reserved as well.

We had the CenturyTel company picnic on Saturday the 15th and we took the girls. Almira was a little bit slow getting started because she thought all the rides were for little kids. But she ended up riding a ride that spins you around and turns you upside down. She also did this really tall rock climbing wall. I told her she was my little monkey because she can climb so fast. Right before we left the picnic I found out about a lady that works here that is hosting a foreign exchange student from Moldovia. Her name is Katherine and she speaks Russian. Katherine has only been in town for a month. The lady here at CenturyTel, Karen, said that her host family backed out on her and someone had called her to see if she can help with her. Katherine is at our local university with no car and no cell phone. Karen is taking her most weekends and helping her out, but mentioned she could really use some help.

So on Sunday afternoon, the 16th, I called Anna and Katherine and had them over for a cookout. The girls had such a good time. Katherine is such a delight and so bubbly. Anna is very sweet and almost a little shy like Almira. Both girls were so good for Almira and really pulled her out of her shell. I got some great pictures of the girls together. I'll post later. After dinner Sarah mentioned that she wanted to go out and jump on the trampoline. Katherine got so excited she asked if she could go play too. So, I had all 4 girls out jumping on the trampoline together for about an hour. They really had such a good time. We are so happy that we found someone that Almira can still speak Russian with.

Almira called the orphanage Friday night, she had been bugging me about it for a while. She finally got to talk to Katya her best friend there. I think she was a little disheartened after talking with her and Zhenya. I think Zhenya accidentally hung up on her. She even said "I think Katya doesn't want to be my friend anymore." But the good news is that one of the girls that was in Almira's family is coming home this week. Her name is Nina and Jon and I both really liked her. She is 12 years old. She is coming home to Alabama, maybe Montgomery, but I haven't heard for sure. There is another family there now, the Perry family, I think from Utah. They are adopting two sisters, I think maybe 8 or 10. The older sister was also in Almira's family.

I'm so happy for these kids that are getting adopting and coming home to families that want them so desperately. Almria is really doing well and I can see her coming along every week. She told my Mom one day after school that she really likes school. She has opened up more with me and has told me more things about her childhood and about her past. Things about her mother, it is just heartbreaking to think what some of the children have been through. Hopefully with lots of love and a happy family she can overcome those years.

Well, I thought I had better update since it had been awhile. I'll check back later,

Kathy