HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Sandra & Wayne

Beth & Curtis

Kerri (winning at Scrabble) & Anna

Sierra & Andrii (not winning at Scrabble)

Missy all dressed up for a party!

Check out some of the updated pics along the right side of the screen too.

Happy New Year, blog followers! We spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home with our kids and my parents, well it was sort of quiet! We had lots of yummy snack-food and the kids played games. Big Wayne was in bed by 10pm; he's never seen the ball drop unless you count seeing it on the news the next day. I would have turned in that early too, but Wayne Jr. & Kerri were visiting and they stayed to ring in the new year with us. Slava of course was in bed at 7:30pm and Jordan turned in with Wayne. New Year's Day we had our good friends (and next-door-neighbor's) over for dinner. Sunday we declared a low-key day after church since Monday things would go back to normal...or some kind of new-normal for us!

The Lord is so good to me. Today I had to leave by 7:15am to have both Jordan and Slava to the eye doctor. Andrii is my hero! He helped me have both boys dressed and out the door to an already warmed up car. He went with me to help with Slava since this doctor's office always takes forever. I had been dreading this appointment, but it went very well. Both boys even had their eyes dilated and both did a great job. Slava was very compliant with the exam and the eye drops. He will eventually need surgery like Jordan did, but he also needs glasses because he has vision issues. On the way home from the doctor we stopped and picked out some spiffy frames. His glasses should be ready on Thursday, so the next pics will be of a bespectacled-Slava!

The Lord is so faithful to us. Slava is bonding with and attaching to us. He is settling down, his English vocabulary is expanding every day, and he's playing more with toys. His new favorite food is "chocolatka cereal" which is chocolate Cheerios. He eats his cereal the American way - with milk and in a bowl with a spoon (so there, Andrii!). He loves pretend play and tonight we had to pretend we were at the eye doctor. Slava actually initiates the pretend play games which I think is a sign of good intelligence.

We also started school today, sort of. Tomorrow will be our first full day of doing school with Slava bouncing around. I've set up a schedule similar to the way we did things when we first brought the other 3 kids home. Everyone will be on a rotating schedule of 30 minute time slots with Slava right after we do our Bible lesson. We will rotate through so that I can work with Jordan one on one and be able to do history & science with Andrii and Anna as well as check everyone's work. This is my ministry, it is what the Lord has called us to, so I am trusting Him to work it all out.

Wednesday Jordan gets his cast off at 10am (so much for back to a normal school schedule)! Next Tuesday is his surgery. I am praying that it will only be an adjustment and not a major surgery. Please pray about this. The major surgery is in the near future, but 6 months from now would be much better than next week. Slava needs more time to settle in and major surgery has a huge affect on family life.

Jordan has been enduring much change as well. For the past few nights he's now been sleeping in his own top-bunk bed above Slava. He's been promoted from "baby" of the family to big boy, and he's not always thrilled about it. Sharing with Slava is not his new favorite activity either. I'm praying that he and Slava will bond and become best buddies once Slava matures a bit.

Over all things are going pretty well. Missy and Andrii have colds. Big Wayne is just getting over a cold and he and Curtis are working late tonight on a water-main break. Anna is not happy that school has resumed while Sierra has decided to become a neurologist thanks to today's Biology lesson about REM sleeping/dreaming. I've tried to at least mention everyone in this post since Slava and Jordan have been getting most of the attention!

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. And thank you for your continued prayers. God is faithful to answer. Last night I even snuck out to prayer and worship at our church. The cry in my heart during prayer was, "Lord, I want YOU and whatever YOU are going to do."