A SPECIAL VISITOR

This past week we had a very special visitor come to our town to visit Marina and Andrew. Lt. Governor Loren Leman and his lovely wife, Carolyn of Alaska spent about 4 hours between our home and the local school for a volleyvall tournament in which their daughter, Nicole was a
team member. Marina had the biggest smile on her face when the Lt. Governor greeted her in Russian and then informed her that he is from Russian ancestory too. That is all it took to 'break the ice' as we say here and it was the beginning of a wonderful afternoon for the family and the Lemans. We served coffee and tea in the original cups and saucers that Andrew and Marina had given to us as gifts from the orphanage and the children were presented a signed book on the Alaska Constitution from the Lt. Governor, a picture of their daughter Nicole and an official Alaska state engraved pencil for Andrew. We were then invited to stop by the Lt. Govenor's office in Juneau, Alaska, our state capital, on our way back from visiting the grandparents and family at Christmas.

October News

We had a final bonfire of the season last week as Seward is getting ready.....we thought for winter BUT THEN unusually large amounts of rain fell and our town was designated a disaster area with flooding. We are okay....but others have many feet of water in their homes. The Red Cross came in and has set up emergency shelters but our property is completely safe. Took Marina around in the truck the other day to assess our neighbors damage and she was VERY happy to return home to a high and dry safe home. Marina has been playing soccer for the elementary school here and is looking forward to basketball season.

Andrew is on a five day school schedule also even though he is in a different educational campus at present. He is learning the fine art of the American way of playing ping-pong and is enjoying that game almost daily after finishing his homework. His daily work at school has it's ups and downs but when he applies himself he is almost hard to beat. Hope the weather continues to stay mild for Andrew's sake so he can still kick the soccerball around outside until freeze-up!

More later but thanks to you who stop by this blog to check on the family!