"Be strong and courageous." - Joshua 1:9

What a busy week! The boys have gone for haircuts, rock climbing, horse painting, a trip to the beach, and today was filled with baseball, tennis, swimming, and more baseball. Holy cow! I'm not sure where to start or how to describe what we are going through. The first hurdle was the obvious one, language. The first few days, we spent a lot of time reviewing our cheat sheets and plugging simple phrases into Google translator. As the week has progressed, we are getting more comfortable with our Russian, and B is picking up English nicely too.

The effect on the family, let's just say this week has had its tests and we've taken a step back to take a look at how we are acting, or better yet, reacting to having a fourth child in our midst. As I said, the language was tough and of course the first word we learned was niet. Only problem is we forgot to explain what we wanted to be done. I equate this to a math teacher on the first day handing out the textbooks and asking the class to complete the book by the year's end. The students were told to work it out by themselves. When the student finished his assignment and turned it in, the teacher would grade it with a yes or no. No explanation as to what was wrong or how to do it right. The students were destined to fail many times over. So, before we say niet, we have to say what we want, or not want, in Russian. Since coming to this eureka, things have dramatically improved and our hearts are focused more on the moments and not us. We have become less worried about "being on" and are more concerned with getting on. Still, it is four boys. We have also decided that a division of labor is going to exist. Each boy will be responsible for one or more daily chores with Lisa and I taking on the cooking and carpooling. With two working parents and active boys, this WILL happen so we can keep our sanity and help define expectations. We are going to create a chart on a dry erase board with the tasks listed and the person responsible.

Now back to B. This guy has become extremely comfortable with us and I would have to say he feels secure in our home. He gets a little shy when we give him compliments, like how handsome he may look after a bath or his new haircut. However, his accomplishments, he seeks to impress. His mechanical ability to figure out toys or household objects knows no boundaries. He is constantly asking "shto eta?", or what is this in Russian. He loves pictures and does not mind posing. Yesterday in the bath I learned the Russian word for drain, utechka. Why? Because he asked what it was AND what the cleanout above it did. Being an engineer I was happy to explain, so I basically told him that was how the tub breathed air. Next week I'm gonna try thermodynamics! BTW-my keyboard is obviously in English, so when I write Russian phrases, they are the phonetic spelling. The Russian alphabet uses sixes, pies, a couple different W's, and a crosshairs lookin letter. Drink your Olvaltine to get your Little Orphan Annie decoder to decipher the Russia language.

Tonight we had a very simple dinner of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced French bread, cheese, and salami slices. It was a perfect meal to end this very active day. After dinner, Lisa showed B the costumes from past Halloweens. It was awesome! Like I said, he'll definitely pose for a picture.

Lisa's mom came to town to spend the weekend with us and she is Slovak and speaks Slovak, which is very close. She was able to understand some of the statements and questions coming from B. Tomorrow we plan to see a play and attend a soccer match. I look forward to watching B experience both.

B has a heart of gold. To watch him play with Adam, he is very gentle (even though they are close in size). With Alex, they have the common bound for loving crafts and they both swim the same...fearless. With Tyler, he still prods and pokes Tyler, but we're coaching Tyler on how best to respond, which in some cases is to walk away and give B no attention. All in all though, Tyler had a blast playing with B today. Tyler pitched while B hit. He was very patient while we coached him at tennis. And they both had a blast swimming together. As for me, I took B out into the woods to catch lightning bugs and he thought they were the coolest things ever.

While I know this is stressful and definitely draining (the mental fatigue of constantly translating is wearisome), the smiles and joys we are experiencing and witnessing are quite frankly, divine. May God bless this child and our family.