It has been a blur since our last post. Elliott was in town all of 12 hours when he had a root canal! Welcome to America! One week into the country he went to a school dance with two other girls that came from the same orphanage (picture attached). When the girls came to the house to pick him up he just stood at the door with his mouth opened looking at them! Finally, I said..."Let them in!" (It will be interesting when he can really communicate to hear his take on his first week in the country) He is in school at Williamsburg Christian Academy and loves it. When ask what he loves the most he says "Girls and Basketball"! The basketball coach has let him practice with the team since the first week and he is dedicated (even though he cannot play) which means 6 am practices and late night practices. The school is 20 minutes from our house so we have done a lot of driving back and forth the past 6 weeks! Nicky has been translating for Elliott up until the past week when he finally broke loose and started to talk to us! Just a few words and short sentences but it was so exciting! Speaking of Nicky...the boy is a force to be reckoned with. He is a TON of fun and a TON of work! There is nothing he won't try. A few weeks ago he bet a boy in his class that he could run the mile track in 4 minutes. He had one practice run (that night) and the next day everyone gathered around the track. The teacher timed him and needless to say, he didn't win the bet. BUT, he did run it in 5.01 and beat the school record of 6 minutes! His teachers are happy with his progress in class so far and so are we. He is very excited and NOT waiting so patiently to start gymnastics in April! Tyler is doing well in school, playing basketball
(picture attached) and letting his hair grow, which he is his latest obsession. He is 10 years old and just spent the last of his Christmas money on a pink stuffed dog for a Valentines Day gift for a girl at school. Uhmmmm. All the boys seem interested in girls, food, basketball and their MP3 players. As for me, my identity seems to be wrapped up in 3 boys repeating the same thing over and over again "Mom or Nan Nan, I'm hungry"! As most of you know that isn't music to my ears (And I so wanted to be the queen of the castle and not the slave)!
All three of the boys have bikes now and Papa had a great time helping them get all the biking paraphenalia! The first day Nicky got his new bike, he and Papa took a 15 mile ride and he was ready for more! Nicky has been attending Royal Rangers (a christian version of the boy scouts) at our church with Tyler on a weekly basis and loves it! Last week I attended a meeting and Nicky volunteered
to lead prayer. He did great - I was very proud of him. Both Nicky and Elliott love to sing have enjoyed praise music at our church. The words are projected on a screen in the front which is helpful. We also belong to a church that lingers in worship which gives them an opportunity to master the words! Elliott has not got involved with the youth group yet because of the language barrier, but we see that changing soon. As we expected, Nicky is acquainted with half the church on a first name basis and we expect by the next post he will be introducing us to the other half!
We are taking our first "road trip" as a family of five this weekend. We are going down to Atlanta, GA to see our daughter and new son-in-law, Tobi and Tom Veri! Tobi has yet to meet Elliott and we are all excited to get the family together. She even has a co-worker who is Russian helping make Borsch for dinner as a surprise for the boys. We traded our PT Cruiser in for a Ford Explorer and it conventiently has a DVD player which we are banking on helping us survive the 10 hour trip!
Until next time...
(picture attached) and letting his hair grow, which he is his latest obsession. He is 10 years old and just spent the last of his Christmas money on a pink stuffed dog for a Valentines Day gift for a girl at school. Uhmmmm. All the boys seem interested in girls, food, basketball and their MP3 players. As for me, my identity seems to be wrapped up in 3 boys repeating the same thing over and over again "Mom or Nan Nan, I'm hungry"! As most of you know that isn't music to my ears (And I so wanted to be the queen of the castle and not the slave)!All three of the boys have bikes now and Papa had a great time helping them get all the biking paraphenalia! The first day Nicky got his new bike, he and Papa took a 15 mile ride and he was ready for more! Nicky has been attending Royal Rangers (a christian version of the boy scouts) at our church with Tyler on a weekly basis and loves it! Last week I attended a meeting and Nicky volunteered
to lead prayer. He did great - I was very proud of him. Both Nicky and Elliott love to sing have enjoyed praise music at our church. The words are projected on a screen in the front which is helpful. We also belong to a church that lingers in worship which gives them an opportunity to master the words! Elliott has not got involved with the youth group yet because of the language barrier, but we see that changing soon. As we expected, Nicky is acquainted with half the church on a first name basis and we expect by the next post he will be introducing us to the other half!We are taking our first "road trip" as a family of five this weekend. We are going down to Atlanta, GA to see our daughter and new son-in-law, Tobi and Tom Veri! Tobi has yet to meet Elliott and we are all excited to get the family together. She even has a co-worker who is Russian helping make Borsch for dinner as a surprise for the boys. We traded our PT Cruiser in for a Ford Explorer and it conventiently has a DVD player which we are banking on helping us survive the 10 hour trip!
Until next time...
