Musika

First off, the group we went to Ukraine with is simply called Oleg's Team by everyone who uses him as facilitator. He and his translators are professional, fast, efficient and fun to be with. If you are interested in doing an Independent Adoption, you can get a social agency like Catholic Charities to do a Home Study for your family, and then sign up as one of Oleg's families. His people will guide you through the process at significantly less cost than going with an agency or another group and much faster too, from everything I have heard.

We believe God heard the many prayers offered up on our behalf, because the US Embassy told us we were done in record time. Oleg is the one who can help you, especially if you have a specific child in mind. E-mail him at ukradopt@yahoo.com.

Today we needed to shop for some clothes for the boys and to make the few items they'd brought from the orphanage disappear because they, well, just looked 'early orphanage'. Besides, the kids have grown! James says, "I, at internot leetle boy. Now in America I am beeg." He put on a 12-14 shirt today and looks great.

So, giving the boys the usual instructions about not touching things and staying close to mom in stores, we drove off to McRae's to look for jeans for him and a Sunday shirt for Peter. I do not want to overwhelm them with too much stuff, so I wash a load almost every day and try to keep things well organized.

We had fun, but I had to hide my smile and hustle them back into the fitting room, when they came out in their undies to look at their muscles in the big mirror. And I needed to tell Peter that we also do not sing opera lustily in the fitting room. " I loove opera," he said, and between lines of a more subdued "Figaro, Figaro Figaro!" he helpfully tossed the socks he had tried on over the door top to me. Unfortunately his basketball arm is pretty good, and the rolled up socks landed back in the boys' department. "Oh, I'm solly, Mom." He was only trying to be his usual tidy self.

On the way home they got singing the first verse of "States Song" about the southern border of the United States, over and over. Once they tired of that one, James asked, "Please sing, 'He is Alive'?" their other favorite. So we put on the cassette tape and listened all through the peppy Christian songs to 'Beloved, let us love one another,' which they have memorized. That was followed by the one that chokes me up, 'I am His child and he's my Fadder, and His banner over me is love.' They have the words to that one down perfectly.

The other day I heard Maggie say, "No, James, no Britanny Spears in our house." They know it's different here with no MTV television, and he simply responded, "OK"' and stopped. Since then I have been surprised and touched to hear him and Peter join Keith Green singing about how God woke him up from the longest dream, changed him, and...

"You Put This Love in My Heart...
When I think of all you've done for me,
I just have to believe...
And when I get depressed and get down so low,
Then I see you comin' to me, and it's all right."

During kitchen clean-up tonight they turned it up loud and dried pots and bounced, singing along with their Russian accents. "You put this love in my heart, woo woo woo, You put this love in my heart."

I think He has put His love in their heart. There's less and less of the old stuff in there every day, Praise God.