Does anyone know how to say “the pig and chicken stayed home” in Ukrainian?

We noticed from the first meeting we had that Anton is very detail oriented. He did not take his eye off the paperwork that was being reviewed, signed, stamped, and exchanged. Later, when we gave the children toys to play with, he kept taking one toy apart and putting it back together. (he wasn’t disassembling it; it has three or four parts.) And then, this afternoon we all got a longer visit together on the playground. During that time, we got out a little container that has farm animals in it. The container has a picture of what belongs inside (this is one way Shannon is training our kids to clean up after themselves.)

wait just a minute......

Well, Anton had a question about these toys: Where are the pig and chicken? You see, they were in the picture, but not in the container. We had to tell him the pig and chicken stayed home. Interesting!

Lena seems to be a big, playful adventurer. She got over being shy muck more quickly than Anton, and she was all go, no quit when we were playing on the playground. And just like her sister Maggie, she seems to have no fear. When combined with Anton’s shyness and focus, she seems to be quite able of running all over her new brother.

However, she also shows strong nurturing tendencies. When she and Anton hijacked Carson’s crackers (a fact that stretched our youngest boy more than a little), she made sure that whenever Carson called for a cracker, he got one.

here, let me give ya another one

Of course, she always held the bag, but she continued to give them to little brother until they were gone. Anton was on his own; I guess she figured orphan rules applied, and he was big enough to either get his own or go without. No worries, though: at the end there was an empty bag, three sets of cheesy cheeks, and even a cracker or two for Momma and Papa.

o.k., that’s all for now.

we’re gonna post some late-breaking prayer requests tomorrow morning (our time), so stay tuned.

Thanks for being a part of this adventure! We might have been able to do it without you, but I’m so glad we won’t ever have to find out. May the Lord bless you more and more and more each day because of the prayer, encouraging notes/posts, and many other ways you are joining in our journey to Joy...and her brother.