I have a few minutes to update again, so I will write as much as I can.  We are trying to post pictures to our blog today too. 

Kerch is such a beautiful, cozy little city.  It is right on the black sea, and our walk to our apartment from the city is so nice.  We walk right by the water and to our left is an amusement park (it is not working right now though).  The weather had been nice so far and pretty hot during the day and cool at night.  Today it is chilly and it looks like it is going to rain.  Our apartment is very very nice!!!!  We have hot water and a washing machine so I am in heaven :)  I cooked a meal in our apatment last night (baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, and garlic bread).  It was very good.  Oh, and Alyssa has become very good friends with a baby kitten outside of our apartment.  The kitten is so cute, she is black and looks just like our cat, Casey.  Alyssa has named her Casey James :)  I told her her name was Casey Junior, but I guess she forgot and is calling her Casey James now.  This morning she gave her some milk and put her back to bed (a small shoe box with a shirt inside)  For now our translator is staying with us, but will go back to Kyiv during our 10 wait day after court.  Speaking of court, we won't be able to have court until the Thursday the 12th.  Unless for some reason we can get our paperwork before then, but it will definately not be before the 9th. 

OK, about the kids........

Sergey(Brayden), let me just say that he has got to be the sweetest little boy in the whole world!!!!  As you know, he has the measels and is in the hospital..............well, we went to see him yesterday.  Poor thing has been by himself in a small room with nothing except for a bed, a window, a chair and a peice of candy.  They do feed him, but he had NOTHING else.  When we got there, Sergey smiled so big when he saw us, it was like he was releived or something.  We couldn't go into is room to get close to him, but we stood in the doorway.  We had a goody bag for him (cookies, juice, mini magnadoodle, and a kids magazine)  He was SO excited to get that, you would've thought it was Chrismas :) Sveta had told Sergey the first day we saw him that it was Alyssa's birthday on the 29th.  And you know what he did?  He walked up to Alyssa and handed her that one peice of candy that he had and told her happy birthday!!!  I just about cried, it was so sweet :)  He had been waiting for us all day to get there so he could give this candy to Alyssa :)  We are going to see him again in a few minutes, we have more goodies for him.  I can't wait!

Dina (Abigail)..............she is SO much fun :)  Never a dull moment around her :)  She is so energetic, but proved yesterday that she could be still and cuddly.  I fixed her hair in little pigtails and it was so cute :)  We tried some of Alyssa's clothes on her and they fit her perfect. But the sad part about that was she thought the clothes were for her to keep, so she took them to her cubby and we had to tell her that she would have to wait until she was with us to wear them. We are going to see her today at 4 after we vistit with Sergey.  Alyssa can't wait because she loves playing with her :)  Abby will talk to Alyssa in Russian and Alyssa will talk to Abby in English, it is so funny, but they seem to understand eachother.  Abby will talk to us in Russian too, although she knows we don't understand.  She just laughs when we shrug our sholders. She is such a great little person and I am so blessed to have her, Sergey (Brayden) and Alyssa in my life!!!!  I'll update more tomorrow when I have some more time, we have to leave now.  My sister in law is supposed to be putting pictures on our blog for us, so maybe you will get to see them today.  Chris has put one on here(takes forever).

THANK YOU ALL for your suggestions and advice about Alyssa's croup.  She is getting much better now.

Love,

Chris, Julie, Alyssa, Abigail, and Brayden