Great day- frustrating computer

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.
Helen Keller

Before I forget:
Ross, we looked immediately on the first day for the 'unhappy' slide but we have yet to come across it.
Amanda, Kym, I want to hear some word from Jimmy and Kevin and no secondhand messages. You vwill tell dem diis! What they don't panimayu parooski!?
Oma and Opa Lance, thanks for the update on our pups. Chris had gotten an update on Pooh and we were very jealous to hear about Mattie and Rookie. By the way, we are starting to think Lance will be very curious of the dogs so Rookie is goin' to have to recognize his movement down the totem pole.
Lurkers!! If you read and don't post, you are a LURKER! Sometimes in the internet world this comes with negative connotation. If you want to continue lurking then I guess thats just how you were raised. If not, you simply click on the 'Comments' link at the bottom of each blog and it will be simple from there.


As you have read Lance Ivan has basically become a new child....or they keep giving us the 'good' one. Well we got the 'good' one again and we have more 'good' reports. There was absolutely zero crying today. 'Are we mixing in discipline you ask?' Not so much. I'm sure crying will come when we finally decide to stop letting him walk over us in about 12 years or so. Just kidding.
Much progress has been made on the speech front. Attention: Judy and Children's Therapy Services speech therapists!!! He is making several different sounds, slobbering a lot, putting his hands in our mouths, and putting together some sounds. Some could actually be words but, if they are they aren't in pongleeski. And for those of you that don't gavaryu parooski that means 'English.'
Any suggestions on what actions to take regarding his speech will be greatly appreciated. He's liking the watered down O.J. and not liking the Cheerios. So to recap...cookies, apple juice, orange juice good; goldfish and cheerios bad.
We also swung for the first time and this is where he was making most of his sounds. The third visit today he got back on the swing and loved it and even made a steady 'da-da-da-da-' sound. We conferred with officials to get a ruling and this sound was rejected as his official 'first word.' Ha. He also began to interact somewhat with the other 3 boys being adopted. They are in the gym the same time we are in the evening. Time flew as usual during the 6-7pm session and it seemed like we were barely there when we were already putting his shoes back on. So ended another 'best day so far.' At this rate he'll be moonwalking onto our Luftansa flight to Frankfurt. Yeah!!
In other news we hade a short informal meeting with the chairman of the courts. We were there but most of the conversation was not understandable to us. It got tense at times but Olga said everything went well. There was a small chance that Alex would be off to Kiev with our documents but one paper was not completed by the inspector even with Olga checking on it continously. They are being so helpful and in our eyes doing great jobs and more importantly being great friends. There are still some cultural barriers but it feels like we usually understand each other. Even Alex and his limited English....(he knows more English than Chris and I know Russain/Ukrainian.)
They are definitely doing a lot of God's work even if they don't know it. Today we went to DaVinci to celebrate Alex's passing of his exams to complete his bachelor's degree in economics! Good times, had by all.
Guess that is it for now. We always forget to post certain things but you can tell there is plenty to read even with forgetting so much. I really hope we have pictures in this post also because we have not only had trouble with the video but, now there is trouble posting the pics. A girl showed us two days ago successfully and now after having trouble and asking again they say it won't work!? We'll figure something out hopefully, just bare with us.
Once again thanks so much!! Continue with the posts!! Dasvidanya!!
Love,
John Michael and Karen

PS- Addison keep up the great late night typing. I am really proud of you getting to the computer all by yourself!
PSS- Truman I am so glad you like our little boy