Where does he learn these things?

This morning on the way to preschool Matthew said something several times but I didn't understand him . Finally he said it louder with his finger in his ear "May I hear it tease?" Then I got it! Translation: Will you turn up the radio please?



Matthew knows his phone number now and he knows we live in South Dakota. He can spell papa, mom, cat, dog, on, off, and no. He can almost spell hotwire.com---he loves the song on their commercial h-o-t-w-i-r-e hotwire.com.

This is a picture of Matthew and his cousins Caleb (right) and Ben (left). They were racing their trucks around the house during commercials. They were watching Dirty Jobs.

POP
Today Matthew asked me for a drink of my pop. So I said he could have one. It was coke, not my usual Mr.Pibb-which I love. For those of you not in the midwest Mr. Pibb is coke's equivilant of Dr. Pepper but not as fizzy. So I went into the other room, Matthew came in a minute later with his eyes all watery. I asked him if he got hurt, he didn't. He said "I drank your new pop! I don't like it! It's too bubbly." He is too cute!

We got an e-mail from Vasya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well it isn't actually from Vasya-but he wrote a letter for the missionary to e-mail us.
She is great!
He likes to play soccer, basketball and table tennis, but he likes soccer the most. His favorite color is red, he likes dogs (which is good because we have two)and eats almost anything---just like Matthew. He wants us to come and get him as soon as possible and asked if he has any cousins. For those of you who don't know us personally- he will have lots of cousins- 5 girls ages 12, 10,soon to be 9,7 and 5, 3 boys ages 19,8 and 5 plus Jeff's brother is getting married to a great woman with two girls (5 and7) and a boy-8 and two of my sisters are pregnant - due in July.
Vasya told us that Alex is actually 10 and likes to study, draw and play soccer. Vasya said Alex is almost as tall as he is.
We are so excited to learn more about them.
The missionary also gave us a rough estimate on his sizes too. So I should be able to pack a few things for him to wear-clothes and shoes were pretty expensive when we were there last time. Remember you don't get any clothes with the kids--With Matthew we got a naked baby-we had to provide everything for him to leave the orphanage in.

We recieved a new picture of Vasya a couple of days ago. I decided to post it, I don't think I will leave it up for very long though. I think he is handsome. His hair gets darker in the winter---just like Matthew's.

FEBRUARY 16, 2008
Matthew is really excited about letters and numbers right now. I think if I worked with him more he would be reading soon. But I don't want him to end up being one of those really naughy kindergartenders because he already knows what is being taught, plus it is tax season and I am working a lot more hours. He has a word whammer from Leap Frog on the fridge, you put three letters into this magnetic game and if it spells a word it helps you sound it out. He loves it and is constantly trying to make new words. Unfortunately the word whammer only holds three letters and he wants to spell words like truck, Teddy, water, cookie, tractor, snow. He is an expert at spelling mom, cat, and bug.

This morning as I was getting ready for work (yes on a saturday--it is tax season), Matthew and Jeff were getting ready to go outside to play in the snow. Matthew says "Papa it is going to be warm outside today, It is already 10 degrees" Sure enough the atomic clock above our sink said 10 degrees---but that isn't warm. I wonder if he is still in Celcius =).

We have had a lot of snow and very cold temperatures this winter, almost everyone is ready for spring- even Matthew. He has taken to telling anyone who will listen "pretty soon it is going to be warmer-then we won't need our big coat anymore, then it will get warmer and we won't need our little coat anymore, then it get warmer and we can go swimming and boating. What do you think??? Definate case of spring fever?

We are waiting for our approval from the Department of Homeland Security for the adoption. We sent our I-600A (petition to adopt an international orphan) form in on January 1, 2008. We were fingerprinted in Sioux Falls in January and I mailed our homestudy to them a couple of weeks again. Hopefully we will hear something soon. Although now that we are registered there isn't a big rush. (I say that but in the adoption world it is HURRY UP, then wait)...... so we will wait.

I am soooo convinced that God is leading our journey. First he led us to Matthew after three appointments at the old NAC. When we adopted Matthew we knew that he was the third live birth of his biological mother but we didn't know where his siblings were or anything. So we prayed that if Matthew's siblings needed us that the Lord would lead us to them-which he did. Then he blessed us with missionaries in Odessa to help us "be in contact" with Vasya(the oldest brother). They are great, they e-mail us pictures, tell us what he is up to and give him messages from us. Then he led us to our facilitator--another great blessing. Then the Lord made it possible for me to collect all of our documents in less than two weeks. Now He made it possible for our facilitator to get our dossier submitted before the quota was full for 2008. Plus He provided us with almost $1000 in donations so far to help us on our trip, we still don't have all the money we need but we have faith. God is Great!!!!!!!!

February 13, 2008
Our documents were submitted and we have an official number for 2008!!!!!!!!!!!
Our facilitator is a great guy! He went to Kiev and got our dossier off the train so that we didn't have to wait another week for them to be delivered. He then translated them and took them the SDA for submission. We still have no idea when our appointment will be, but at least we know that there will be an appointment this year!

Our dossier has been delivered!!!!!
I just checked the Fed Ex web site, and it says delivered!! A week early too! Sorry Chris (my brother-in-law who works for Fed Ex). I apoligize for everything I said about Fed Ex this weekend when the site wasn't updating the location of my dossier =). The next step is to wait for an e-mail from our facilitator saying that he actually got it. Then he can translate it and take it to the SDA in Kiev and try and submitt it for a 2008 appointment slot.

I just checked the Fed Ex site, our dossier is in Paris, France. Less than 24 hours ago I dropped it off at the Fed Ex store in Sioux City, IA. Can you even fly to France that fast?

February 6, 2008
It's on its way!! I sent the dossier by Fed-Ex to Ukraine yesterday. I am so happy to have it out of my hands--Now it is someone else's problem. All I can do is pray--and pray I will! If you would please........Pray that the dossier gets there safely, that is doesn't get caught up in customs, that we get an appointment in 2008, that the boys will definately be registered, available and ready to be adopted, pray that we are able to come up with the money to pay for everything.

Febraury 1, 2008
Happy Birthday to my loving husband Jeff!!! Today is Jeff's birthday, Matthew and I already baked him his cake-angel food with stawberries and cool whip. Matthew wanted to eat it as soon as it came out of the oven.

Well, I have almost all the paperwork. I am still waiting for our marriage license from Nevada. I don't know what is taking them so long--I even included an prepaid express mail envelope so it would get here sooner. I was able to collect, notarize and apostille 21 documents from various places in a little over a week. I would love to be able to ship them off to Ukraine tomorrow, but I can't without the marriage license.