Vacation begins . . .

This morning I woke up. I am a morning person and that is when my brain kicks in. When my eyes open I put my armour on and then I start to pray and think and reflect. I have learned so much in my prayer class and so I start with the praise, I have so much to be thankful for so that takes a little while, then the reflection begins and that goes hand in hand with conviciton and confession and what I can do differently today that would honor God. This morning in this time I thought about how incredibly God has blessed me with these two little girls. I thought of my mistakes yesterday and how I wanted to be better today. I thought about being here and how I asked God to waive the 10 day wait, and how my agency and other people told me that no one was getting their 10 wait waived, but I knew if God wanted it done, it would be done. Well this morning I was thinking how he did not want it done. He has a purpose for me to be stuck here, and quite honestly it has been a great time to get to know both of my children better, time to spend with my mother, and time to adjust to our changed life. So this morning I decided that this week would be special even more than the others have been. I am going to try to enjoy every single second this week with my girls. So this week we are on vacation in the spectacular city of Vladivostok at the supreme resort, the Vladivostok Inn. Wish you were here!

We started our first day of vacation by sleeping in until 8:15. Then we were a little lazy and it took us a while to get around. We had breakfast and a long bath and out the door to our playground and walk at a little after a 11:00. It was a little colder here today but it did not slow us down. We did our beach combing and ice cream stop at the store and walked home marveling at the many colors of the changing leaves. When we got back to our room we had quiet time. That is a delicious time when we all get a book or something we want to have and go to our own corner. After quiet time we had a little squeal and wrestle with mom time. We got a little loud so I thought we should take it outside. Back to the playground. On the way we stopped and had an impromptu soccer game. Nonny and Jillian against Jordan and myself. It was a very close game but Nonny and Jillian beat us by one point. This was Jordan's first taste of soccer and I believe she will be a key player when she figures out which way her team's goal is and when air planes go over you can not stop and ponder where they might be going. Really though her kick packs a punch. When Nonny and I were close to heart attacks and exhaustion and we pointed out the swing sets and begged off of the game.

While the kids were swinging several people walked up. You have to wait around here until people speak to see what nationality they are. A lady with a little child and two twin boys came running on to the playground. The twins spoke English and immediately Jillian was out of her swing to go play with her new friends, like it or not. They did, they were very cute and only two months younger than her and they hit it off immediately. Their mother walked up and introduced herself and looked at Jordan on the slide and said I know her. She said my husband kept asking about her when we were visiting my daughter this summer. About that time he walked up and she asked him if he recognized her. He said that is that little girl that had the back pack on and talked to us this summer at the baby home. Anyway they were so excited to see that Jordan had a home. We now have a standing playdate every day with Ethan and Daniel, the twins. Everyone is happy!

Tomorrow we are going shopping in the city. I hope I can control Nonny since this will be her first time off of the place in two weeks. She might be hanging out of the sun roof screaming in case something comes across the ap wire.

Love to all,

Julie