Contact

Everyone is asking us if we've had any contact with the kids. We sent them a photo album with the pictures from the trip, a pair of shoes each, and some Orbit gum (which they often asked for while we were there... "Or-beeeet, pleeeeease?"). We also called them a couple days after we got back, but that seemed pretty much useless because they wouldn't use their English, and though they understood us, all they said was "mm hmm" to everything. LOL We think there were people listening to them and they might have been bashful. Someone picked up another phone while I was talking to Katya, and I asked who that was (in Russian) and she said (in English), "group." Meaning someone in another group in the orphanage picked up the phone to use it and heard that it was being used already.

Jason said to Katya, "Learn more English so you will say more than 'mm hmm'!" And she responded with an emphatic "uh uhh!!" Funny how we can joke around with each other with so little language skills being employed!

We've also sent her emails but they are at one of their summer camps right now so she hasn't checked them yet. I hope we get letters or emails from them. The wait is not getting any easier. We feel like we're losing valuable time. We don't know how we're going to handle things they have to learn before they go to school. There is so much we want to explain to them, and they're not going to have much time before they get shoved into the culture and lifestyle here. We'll get by somehow, I guess!

All for now. Nothing else new going on. Just waiting!!

Anyone who wants to write anything to the kids, either for their albums for when they get home, or for an email, feel free to email it to me (or write it on paper if you want it to be for their books). I can translate it and keep it for them or send it to them. :)

Love,
Molly