No,

I didn't take a flying leap of the top of our 19 story apartment building after a wrote my last blog post, just in case any of you were wondering.  I am feeling better than I was, but still pretty blah.  We haven't heard any courtdate news, and I keep holding on to hope of good news with that, so that has kept my spirits up some.

What we've been up to:
Saturday afternoon we had visitors!!  The Hagler's(another RR family that is in region right now adopting from a different orphanage that us) came over for the afternoon.  Their SDA appointment was the same day as ours, so we spent some time with them our first few days in country while we were in the capitol city.  They are an awesome couple and we were thrilled to get to spend some time with them.  Keep them in your prayers!  They have court this Friday and their judge is not familar with international adoption and is very wary of Americans who WANT to adopt children with special needs.  He just cannot fathom WHY anyone would want to do such a thing, therefore he assumes that they have bad motives.  His way of thinking is the same way that many in this country think, so please keep the Hagler family in your prayers this week as their court date approaches.  Pray that God will open the judge's eyes to see what the Hagler's see in the two precious children they are trying to adopt.(Which is two lives who are worthy of love, a family, and a chance to grow and learn.)

Saturday evening, after our friends left, we had to move apartments.  Same building, just a different room.  The change of scenery is nice.  It's a distraction.  This apartment is a little bigger, but the downside is that the internet is veeeeerrrrrryyyy slow.  Because of that, we haven't been able to skype with the kids.  We haven't talked to them since Thursday.  It's a bummer, but it might be helping Ray.  She gets pretty homesick when we skype.

Our visits with the Daniel, Josslyn, and ???(We have been calling him Alik/Alec/Alek, because that is the only thing he'll answer to....), have been going well.  Parker/Alik is like an onion and at every visit we peel off another thin layer and get a little closer to him letting us in.  We are making progress and I think he is genuinely starting to like us, but the progress is in baby steps.  Parker and Josh are futher(relationship wise), than Parker and I are.  Josh just knows how to connect with him better than I do.  Josslyn is still very attached to me.  She is warming up to Josh though, and she actually does really well with him when I'm not there.  If I'm there she is glued to me.  I don't mind at all though.  She is doing better about sharing me, which is good since she'll have to share me alot when we get home.  At first she didn't want Kellen or Daniel near me.  She has learned that it is not okay to boot baby brother out of mama's lap just because she wants the whole thing.  She still may prefer to have me all to herself, but she is ok with sharing me if she has too.  She will even give Kellen hugs when it is time for us to go.  Daniel is doing great too!  He is doing well with the boundaries that we have set(although he still tries to test them from time to time).  I think he is also closer to Josh than he is to me.  He isn't a super affectionate kid, like Josslyn, but he isn't uncomfortable with being loved on, like Parker is(he is getting much better about this though).  He just usually doesn't take the initiative to give hugs and such, but he doesn't mind when we hug him.  He is a busy little fellow and he only sits still to have a snack, so he isn't much for sitting in laps.  He is learning like crazy though!!  I find it rather amusing that his own country deems him unteachable, yet he has learned the most english and sign language out of all three of the kids.  Today when his snack was gone he started signing AND saying in english, "more please"!!!  That kids is amazing!   Also, we call him "Daniel" about 95% of the time now because that is what he is answering to.   Josslyn still hasn't caught on to her new name yet.  I think she thinks that WE don't know what we're talking about when we call her Josslyn.  I've even tried combining Joss with her birthname(because her birthname lends itself to being able to do that), but she doesn't really answer to that either.  She doesn't try to say much in english, but she does sign language for "more" and "please"(she needs promting to use please).    Parker doesn't use any english at all, but he understands a good bit of what we are saying to him.  We know this because he will give us the right answers in Russian to a question we ask him in English.  With all the kids we try to use what little Russian we know.  Once we know that they know a word in English, we try to use it mostly in English after that, just to kind of help them remember it. 

I'm going to go for now.  I tried to upload some pictures, but the internet was too slow for that.  I'll try again later.  Right now I am about to go finish painting my nails and drink some fanta out of a wine glass.  We only have 4 glasses and two coffee mugs in our apartment, so I could either choose a coffee mug or a wine glass.  The wine glass looks alot cuter with my hot pink nails, so I'm choosing that.

Thank you Thank you Thank you for all your words of encouragment after my last blog post.  It means the world to me to know how many of you are faithfully lifting us up in prayer.  I was very humbled by your outpouring of support.  I guess any nay-sayers were scared in to silence by your positive comments.  Thank you again!!