A Fun Bay Cruise

PaPa's Birthday

Tomorrow is papa's (Greg) birthday and we just found out that Andrew and Marina had no idea of what a 'surprise birthday' party is supposed to be.....so they leaned over the dining room table and said, "Papa you are going to have a surprise birthday party on your birthday tomorrow when we go to the restaurant". Well, that was quite a suprise for the rest of us EVEN before it was to be a suprise for Greg! All this made for auite a bit of table chatter over the matter and at least we had a good laugh over it.

The children have been learning to play American baseball with the new baseball and bat we bought the other day for them. Andrew likes it so much that it may one day give his soccer 'a run for it'! Running around to all the bases is quite easy for the children but quite a challenge for yours truly.....but I do a good job at cheering so Andrew says. Papa really gets the workout. This afternoon they went to a local soccer fun day and were completely garbed in their soccer gear. I thought they would freeze but with all the running they do - they kept quite warm.

Andrew and Marina are half way through their month of summer school and liking the opportunity to continue to make good friends here. They only have a 3 hour day at school and then home again to ride bikes, do special projects or just enjoy being kids. Marina has really learned how to groom our old St. Bernard dog named Sim and they both really enjoy each other.

Both children are learning new ways of doing things here in America and are trying their best. We all are doing our best and the ups and downs of new rules, new places, new foods have all taken their toll at times; but they are coming along and believe it or not....Greg and I are too!!! It is not an easy task but really is a challenge each day to see what new adventure is going to come our way. We will let you all know WHEN we make it!!!

JUNE IS BUSTING OUT ALL OVER

The children are well into the activities of our local area and we are doing are best to try and keep up with them! Having a tutor for learning English is so important and know that our daughter is adapting so much better now that she has an even better 'grip' on her English. Turning 10 years old for her on Mother's Day was a real learning experience as she had never really had attention focused on her as an
individual and immediately wanted to give away (or share) everything she received as a present. We explained to her that it is perfectly okay to wear or play with her gifts. Apparently at the orphanage being 'special' on your birthday was an unknown. We downplayed the Mother's Day part as that would have been truly confusing to her; however our former translator has advised us that Ukraine is now recognizing Mother's Day as somewhat of a holiday along with the many other days of observance Ukraine has.

Our son is blending right into the community and loves to ride his bike, play pool and shuffleboard and of course he and his sister enjoy soccer and basketball. Next month they will be involved in some of these sport camps along with other community activities.

They are gradually learning more about Respect toward others; acceptable behavior and that everyone in America doesn't own Humvee's. Now that we are all through the 'honeymoon period' and feeling the attachment and bonding process taking hold a little more every day...we can now see the positiveness of Hosting Programs training
methods being given to well-meaning Host families who in some cases (without realizing ramifications)end up fostering a fantasy of these children being adopted by them. It happened to our children and now they are acceptive of the fact that we are not 'sending them back' again to the orphanage. So, all in all, very glad better training methods will be available for future hosting couples.

We really miss our friends, Jerry and Jennifer with whom we shared our common ups and downs while we were all in Ukraine together. They indeed have a beautiful daughter also.