Saturday, December 30

We have had a nice last few days. Yesterday morning we had a good visit with Sasha and then went out to lunch with the other americans. It was nice to be able to talk to someone else here. They have had an even harder time than we have had, and have been here even longer than us. After lunch we went to a deparment store and picked out a few more toys for Sasha, and then went to a bigger supermarket. We were very excited to find peanut butter, Cheerios, Nescafe iced coffees, and frozen pizza. We then walked back to our apartment, which was nice to get out and get some exercise. Last night when we returned to the orphanage they were having another performance, by some high school girls (scantily dressed I might add). Sasha came and sat with us for some of it. Also today he had his first peanut butter and jelly sandwich! He liked it, but so far he likes everything to eat.

We are getting more familiar with the orphanage and the people there. The orphanage is actually very nice and clean. We have been impressed with it, and it seems to be full of people that care about the kids. His orphanage has about 40 children aged 4-7 years old. The kids are all so sweet, I wish adoption wasn't so hard- we both feel like we could bring that whole orphanage home and between our church and friends all of these children would be adopted! It is also difficult to be with Sasha in front of the other children, but prayerfully they will also be adopted. Unfortunately, as they get older their chances of being adopted are less and less, and at age 16 they will just be let out with no help.

To answer a few questions- we officially named him Alexander Kent Snow (Kent is Chris and his Dad's middle name), and plan to call him Alex eventually. At first, though, we will probably continue to call him Sasha as that is what he has always known. Since we are already changing everything else and speaking a totally different language we don't want to just start calling him something else. We cannot tell his clothing size yet, none of his clothes have tags. He looks like a normal-sized 4 year old, maybe a little on the small side. He is definitely skinny. We'll try to get a better idea soon.

We hope everyone has a happy New Year's Eve, and we certainly hope Georgia wins its bowl game!