Yulia's Orphanage

We were able to travel to Yulia's orphanage so she could tell her friends goodbye.

This is a picture of the girl's play area. As you can see, they are singing karoke. Maybe that's why Yulia loves to sing and dance. Note the aquarium in the bottom left. Not bad for an orphanage we thought!

Yulia's bedroom. She shared with five other girls!
Her best friend, Anna. Summer Mittig hasn't shown me how to turn the pictures right-ways yet!
Don't know how this picture got here. You'll just have to enjoy it again!
The orphanage director was very excited to treat us to lunch that day! She's on the right. Our driver "Jim" is to my left. I'm hiding him. Svetlana is the translator we've had on both trips. We love her. Lunch was okay. We started with borscht soup which was excellent. Then a mystery meat and potatoes. Drinks(a juice) were served last. The director told us the children eat 6 small meals a day! Maybe that's why Yulia is always hungry.

Time to say good-bye! The orphanage director to the left and the deputy director to the right. They were very loving people. We're keeping in touch through e mail.

Hope everyone has a good week,

Love, Karen, Paul and Yulia

Fall in Missouri(And Texas)

First of all, let me thank Summer Mittig, speech queen, for setting up my blog site. All I have to do is type in and insert pictures, so hopefully I can do that!

Things are going well with Yulia! She's started the 5th grade here in beautiful Wentzville, Missouri and is doing well. She is pulled out an hour a day for reading and an hour a day for English as a second language. Her classroom teacher has had all of the Russian adoptees in Wentzville and is well versed. In fact, she speaks a little bit of Russian! Yulia enjoys school. Her favorite part of the day is getting ready for school. She spends a lot of time on wardrobe selections and "makeup." Could have a little diva on our hands!

I'm not really sure how to do this blog thang, so I'm just going to stick some pictures in. You'll see Yulia on her first camping trip, camping under the Texas State Flag! She was very excited to sleep in a tent and enjoyed her first sleeping bag ever. There's also a picture of Yulia, Pops and Kozmo on a camping hike. Kozmo would like all of her friends in Texas to know she's very happy in Missouri. Really likes the wooded areas and cooler temperatures!

For my sister's birthday in October, Yulia and I traveled to Galveston for a family reunion. You'll see from the pictures how my nieces Julie and Courtney have grown. It was great to see my aunts, only two of five sisters living from my Mom's side.As you'll see from the picture, Yulia loved the ocean. Just walked right in the first day. Fully clothed and NO, she cannot swim! My sister and I had to buy her a swimming suit the next day. She'll be starting swimming lessons here in Missouri next week.

Yulia and I visited a pumpkin patch close to our house. This picture is of us going on a hayride. The pumpkin patch pictures just couldn't quite compare with the patches we were used to in Texas.

Hope everyone's doing well. We're(Paul says he's not getting involved) are going to try and update this blog site at least every other week.

Love to all!