Short Pause in Kaz

There's no picture today because Jo Ann was supposed to quickly take a picture of me standing next to the Christmas trees at the supermarket we visit every morning, but before Jo Ann could get it taken, the "bouncer" at the store told her that taking pictures was not allowed. You know you're in a strange country when grocery stores have bouncers. For all of the money we have spent at that store, that bouncer should have let her take the picture. In fact, he should have been singing Christmas carols next to the tree in the picture!

We had to go out and buy gifts for all of the people that have helped us in our adoption. Buying gifts is expected, and we even had to buy some stuff for the evil care giver. We figure that maybe she'll be nicer to the next adoptive family that comes along. Just for fun, I forgot to bring my Russian dictionary with us, so it was even more entertaining to watch the Americans point and use what little Russian they knew to communicate. What's really funny is when the discussion gets really difficult, I break out into Spanish.

It snowed again today. Everything is covered in mud again. The dirt road we use to get to LG's orphanage is getting worse to travel on each day.

LG is doing very well in English. She knows about 40 flash cards of English nouns, most of the alphabet, and a lot of greetings. She has a very good memory. Sometimes she uses words that she has only heard once. Now if we could only get her to eat.