Wow this was an action packed day! I think the boys must be exhausted. I know I am.
We warned them that our church would be very different from their church. When we told them 1000 people, their eyes got really big. I also told them that many people would want to meet them because they had been praying for them. They were happy to hear that. They had a chance to practice shaking hands and making eye contact and saying, “Nice to meet you. No English.”
After church we did something crazy. We got a new Christmas tree. I don’t know what was wrong with the one we got Thanksgiving weekend, but all the needles were falling off in piles. It was either diseased or just a bad tree. Jeremy knows how much I love my Christmas tree, & so he determined last night that he was going to come up with a solution for me.
So today, we cut down another tree. Jeremy brought it in, strung it with new lights and we moved the ornaments over from one tree to another. While we were cleaning up the needles, The kids made delicious pretzel, Rolo, and M&M treats. It was great to see the boys joining in to the fun in the kitchen. Of course the benefit of helping with treats is getting to be first taste-testers.
Then, we went to Babushka and Dadushka’s house for dinner. We also warned them there would be nearly 30 people there in the family. They were pretty surprised by that. I can’t imagine what they think about it all. To be without a family of their own and to see so many families gathering together must be painful. They seemed happy though.
Thank goodness for children. They are so not self-conscious. They just dive into friendship with people with whom they cannot even speak. But they can smile, and laugh and play.
While at Grand Central (what we call Grandpa and Grandma’s house), the kids played Uno, and War, and shot some pool. The boys gave tacos a try, but I’m pretty sure they filled up on the ice cream.
When we got home, we played a quick game of High-Low. O. said his highs were church and Uno. V. said his high was winning War. O. said he has had no bad experiences so far. V. said his low was when we left for church and forgot Marissa. At least we only got about 5 blocks from home before we turned around!
The night is winding down. V is drifting off to sleep while O. and Jeremy carry on a Google Translate conversation about school and church and life back in their home country. Thank you for your prayers as we continually desire to know how to best love these boys.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27