Days of Elijah Day 23 & 24

Merry Christmas again!  Our Christmas Day is almost over. I hope you all enjoyed your day. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

To be honest, I was too emotionally spent last night to blog about our day. That happens sometimes. :-)

Yesterday, we had our normal two visits with Elijah. I think I mentioned the other day that he is starting to push the limits a bit. That hasn't changed much the past two days. For whatever reason, he pretty much refuses to walk outside on his own. I'm not sure why. He even refused this morning when the nanny (Tatianna) took him out of the stroller as we walked up the driveway. I think as he is coming more "alive" he realizes this whole orphanage thing isn't all it's cracked up to be. Soon, my son...very, very soon. But he did, however, take off several times today while we were chatting with the Dave and Summer outside. Yep, he's just a normal kid. :-)

Ok, onto our day yesterday - Christmas Eve day.  Sarah sent several crocheted hats and a large, thick blanket along with Debbie when she came. We brought them in yesterday morning. (Oh, I should mention that all of these photos were taken with permission. They seem to have really slacked off on the "no photos of other orphans" rule.) Sarah, I'm so very proud of you for all of the time you have put into making all the hats and blankets you sent over. May the Lord continue to grow and nuture the desire you have in your heart to serve and help the orphans of this country and this world.



Here's one little guy with one of the hats on.




This is Elijah's half of the sleeping room. His crib is on the corner.



Where he sleeps...#14

Elijah modeling of Sarah's hats

And another...

**(Image removed for privacy reasons)**

Yesterday afternoon, we had a little a party for the grouppa boys. I brought in bananas, cookies, a bunch of theses spiky balls, and this fun pop-up tent for them to play in. They had a BLAST!!!!

The tree in Lenin Square is finally lit! Very pretty1



We went out to celebrate Christmas Eve last night to the Shazka restaurant. This is the unique presentation of chicken kiev I mentioned in an earlier post. It is VERY yummy! The sauce is a creamy dill.



I bought these socks from a sweet old babuska near the market.  I wanted them for the boys in the grouppa. They are hand-knit.  She only wanted $6.25 for them!  I totally felt like I was ripping her off. I looked for her today as I was going to buy more and make her take more $, but she wasn't there. I'll look tomorrow.




When we closed out Elijah's bank acct, the money is donated back to the orphanage. It was transferred to the company that is replacing the interior doors on the second floor. This would not have been my first choice, but they were in tough shape. This is the outside of his grouppa room.




Two of the blankets Sarah and her friend, Rachel, sewed together. I will try and tell the nannies that the blankets are for the boys, not the chairs...


Ok, onto Christmas Day! I had told myself last week sometime that if his passport didn't come on Friday, I was going to buy myself some lilies (or liliums as the flower lady says). I LOVE lilies! So, I did buy some today, but I didn't keep them. :-) I brought them to Dawn, the sweet missionary that hosted all the missionaries for Christmas today! They invited us to be part of their Christmas celebration today. We were so honored and thrilled to be there. It really made for a wonderful day! Since we couldn't be home or have Elijah today, the Lord blessed us with wonderful Christian fellowship!  And they all speak English! I hadn't realized how hard my brain was working to listen/decipher and try and say a few Russian words. I really felt my brain relaxing, and it was pretty much mush by the end. LOL Debbie and I are SO grateful!



Only $5 for this beautiful bouquet!



Swinging fun with Auntie Debbie - It's about time I got behind the camera!

Intently studying our family photo

Elijah and Rachel will have a blast on the teeter-totter next summer!

Group photo at Christmas dinner! We were so blessed!