The Powells Can Never Do Things the Easy Way, Can They?

Good heavens.  I'll spare you the details of my day, with all the driving around, waiting in dingy, gloomy government buildings, being glared at, holding my breath while braving the unspeakably filthy Turkish toilets, and sneezing fits.  It looks like we're going to be okay.  The Makeevka committee did not give us the document we needed to break the family, but it looks like we are going to be able to work around it with help from some kind, honest officials in Enakievo who really do care what happens to these kids.  God bless them and may their example spread to other parts of the country.

This breaking the family thing has been brutal.  Poor Victor--I know this is rough on him, too.  We have a few days' break (or I do at least, Victor doesn't), then another trip to Enakievo on Tuesday.

I didn't get to spend much time with the boys again today, but the next few days will be more relaxed.  Anya showed us a nice cafe about 2-3 blocks away that has an indoor playground, ala McDonald's in the States.  The boys had never seen anything like it and approached it gingerly at first, but at the end of our first visit they were dripping with sweat!  After several more visits to that cafe with Anya, they are pros at playing hard.  I'm sure we'll spend lots of time there the next few weeks.

The boys watched Stuart Little 2 with me tonight--in English!  They actually watched the whole thing and seemed to follow it, laughing in the appropriate places and repeating English words they knew.  It's so fun to watch them learn.

Cute Isaac story.  Last night we went to church for the English lesson.  It's taught by Angela, a missionary from Australia.  I was eager to meet her.  The lesson was too high-level for the boys but I think it was good for them to be immersed for awhile anyway.  At one point, the discussion topic was, "When you travel, what do you bring along with you?"  People had obvious answers like passports, camera, money.  Anya translated for Isaac and asked him what he'd bring.  He said "Mommy."  Awwwwww.