Enjoying our time with our girls....day 6 AND 7

**Note - we are having connectivity issues with our internet.  It's working, but VERY slow - so I will be posting text only on the blog until it's back working better - I am able to SLOWLY add pictures to facebook, so please be sure to check my facebook, for pictures.  They are friends only, so if you're not friends with me, be sure to send me a friend request and tell me who you are!**

Saturday update:  

My apologies that this blog entry wasn't done last night, I was pretty exhausted last night and ended up falling asleep pretty early.  One of the crazy things here this trip is how DARK it is.  You might remember on our last trip, we only had about 3 hours of semi-darkness, from about midnight-3 am.  While this trip, it's DARK by about 5:30 and the sun doesn't come up in the morning until about 9 a.m!  It will be even darker on our next trip!  Because it's so dark, it's really hard to stay awake in the evenings....pair that with the fact that it's sitting right about 0 degrees F most of the time, and we don't want to be out and about in the evenings much at all!! :)

We headed out to visit Dasha in the morning Saturday, and from the moment we got there and saw her, we could tell she was in a great mood!!  It turned out to be our best visit yet!  She was extremely engaged and was having so much fun.  She is a "little mama" and prefers to play with things that are real....not toys.  For example, her favorite doctor kit.  I've also taken some hair clips and a hairbrush, and yesterday I had some lotion in my bag. I also measured her and we tried some clothes on her so we know what sizes to bring back.   After I did that, she had a blast measuring each of us - and would take "notes" on my little pad of paper.  It was so funny - and just so stinkin' cute!  She wants to be just like me most of the time - but is also enjoying playing more and more with dad!  She found my lotion and gave him a hand and foot massage and even lotioned up his face! :)

Emily is teething again, and feeling pretty crummy - poor girl!  You can just tell that she doesn't feel good.  But she's sassy and silly still, and showing her independence. She wants to do things herself!   Her little cheeks have been so red and her nose is raw because it's been running - and all she wanted to do was chew on anything and everything.  She's got quite a mouthful of chompers, and apparently some more are coming in!

Sunday update: When in Siberia....eat reindeer....

Originally we weren't expecting to have visits with the girls on Sunday - so this was a nice surprise!!  We visited Emily in the morning and Dasha in the afternoon.  Emily was still feeling pretty yucky.  Poor little punkin.  Teething is no fun!  She'd go back and forth between just wanting to be held and cuddled and wanting to be completely independent and do everything on her own.  We did get to see her take about 10 steps unassisted, which was awesome!!! :)  She's going to be running all over the place before we know it!!

I so wish I could upload pictures here, because her pictures would be a great example to dispel the myth that children with Down syndrome are always happy.  :)  Children with Down syndrome still go through the "terrible two's", they still get cranky when their teeth are coming in, and they definitely get frustrated when they can't communicate what they want - sounds pretty much like a typical 22 month old to me! :)  She's as cute as can be - and we couldn't love her more - don't get me wrong....but she is stubborn and sassy and well, almost 2 years old! :)

After our visit with Emily we met up with a family living here in Krasnoyarsk doing mission work. She is from Canada and he is from Australia originally.  They met us and we went to a traditional Russian restaurant for lunch.  Again I wish I could pictures to upload!  They helped us order a traditional Russian meal.  I had borscht as my soup course - and we both had reindeer meat as our main course! :)  I had braised reindeer with potatoes & cranberries in a little pot and Brandon had a reindeer shish-kebob wrapped in bacon. Both were delicious!!  (as was the borscht)

We had our visit with Dasha in the afternoon, and I had thought Saturday's visit was great - but Sunday's was even better!!  I feel like we have an advent calendar of Dasha...and each day we visit with her we open another little door or window, and unlock another little part of who she is.  She is blossoming and changing right before our eyes.  She was in a great mood again.

A couple of highlights were how much she is LOVING her dad this trip!! They were playing in the ballpit and she just leaned over and gave him kisses - totally un-prompted, all on her own.  It's awesome watching that relationship blossom! :)  I think the other big highlight was watching her learn how to blow bubbles.  I found this really great little bubble set, that doesn't spill - it's amazing!  When she first started playing with it, she would put the bubble wand in her mouth.  We showed her how to hold it a little away from her mouth, and would blow gently toward her to model how to blow.  She figured out that she had to hold it out - but would kind of spit at it.  (We commented that we'll want to work on that before her birthday!  Ha ha!)  Well, we showed her a few more times, and she kept working and working at it - until all of a sudden, she got it!!!  Oh she was SO proud!!!  (and so were mom & dad!!!)

I'm really hoping our internet connection will get better and I can update the blog with more photos! :)  I know that's all you really want anyway! ;)  It's Monday afternoon here now - and we had a GREAT visit with Emily this morning, and I'd love to be able to update with pictures of that. :) I'll try tonight after our visit with Dasha as well!

For those who are wondering about when our court hearing is - it's Tuesday at 2 p.m. Krasnoyarsk time.  We are 15 hours ahead of pacific time and 12 hours ahead of eastern time.  So if you're willing to pray for us at our specific time (realizing it's the middle of the night for all of you!!) we SO appreciate that! :)  The specific times will be: 2 a.m. Eastern (Tuesday morning), 1 a.m. Central, 12 midnight Mountain and 11 p.m. Pacific. (Monday night)    We have no idea how long our hearing will be.

Dasvidaniya!