Testing Boundaries

Hi Everyone. We miss you soooooooo much. Britt, I haven't heard from you yet!? I talked to Livi and Mom on the phone and sang Livi a song. I miss her. Well, we are doing good. Things felt like perfection this morning. Last night I stayed up really late and organized all the suitcases. good thing too, we are moving tomorrow. This morning I was able to straighten my hair and use many other conveniences. It makes such a difference being on our SECOND trip. We learned what we needed on our first trip. We went to visit the kids this morning. We picked up Jones as usual and went to Mollie's orphanage and played outside. It was challenging. Jones wasn't really interested in the toys (we bring new ones everyday) but he liked the snacks, especially the snacks we brought for Mollie (little fruit cereal puffs.) He respected our backpack full of toys and asked with his actions if he could get inside. Joey said "Da" which means yes. He then felt more comfortable and started to play with the toys. Joey chased him around and they seemed to bond he even rested his arm on Joey on the way back. In the middle of our visit he started climbing up this structure and I would say "Nyet" meaning no and he would laugh. I did it over and over and got down on his level and looked him in the eye and said "Nyet." Joey took over after that and distracted him. Mollie wasn't too happy this morning. She seemed tired. She just wanted to crawl on the grass which she is not allowed to do especially with shorts on.

For our lunch break we walked to 12 chairs which we have been to on our last trip a couple times and we enjoyed our meal, we then went to the grocery store and bought more water and some sausage for our top ramen we are having for dinner. Then we were picked up for our second visit. We picked up Jones and learned that we will have custody of him as of Monday but can choose to pick him up any day. This may seem weird but we may wait a day or two so that we can establish Mollie's schedule first and allow Jones extra time with his friends. He is going camping tomorrow so we will only see him in the morning. We will talk with his caregivers about his schedule and such. I can't wait. It was pouring rain so when we got to Mollie's orphanage we were able to go inside and play in her groups toy room which is only used about 15 minutes a day for psychologist tests, music time, and such. Wow, I was hoping they would get to play each day in there. I can't believe they have all these toys and instead they are stuck in their play pens all day. We had a great time playing and Mollie was walking everywhere on her own. We returned both kids to their group and returned to the hotel and here we are.

Earlier today Tatiana called and said they finally found an apartment but it is $2500 and 4 bedrooms. No thank you!!! We can't afford that. That is more than our mortgage! She said the only other option is her relatives apartment. They are leaving tomorrow morning for Moscow for two months. She said they didn't want to rent it out but she told them we were really young and nice. We felt weird but what choice do we have. We went and visited and I think she liked us. It has one bedroom, one kitchen/laundry, a living room, hall, and bedroom. THe kids will sleep in the living room on a pull out bed. Good news is we will have phone and internet, stove, fridge, and laundry. We move in tomorrow morning and it will be $1000 which is about what we were counting on. We hope this is the right decision. It is not in the location we wanted but it is down the street from a little grocery store and a lake. It is near Tatiana's house. She said we can call if we need anything. I will try to give my mom the phone number tomorrow.

Tonight we are just going to rest and watch a movie and make top ramen. It sounds really good. Email us when you can at missnloveyou@yahoo.com. Talking to all of you by email is like life to us. We love to hear about your daily lives even if it seems boring. It reminds us of home.