Olia loves driving our tractor!  Our other three kids always loved driving it too until they were forced to mow the lawn.......then it wasn't so much fun!  But Olia is too young to mow the lawn so she enjoys driving the tractor around the yard.  Today she drove the tractor and Katelyn rode in the cart attached to the tractor.  The girls sang loudly while riding! Then Katelyn called her dad and got permission to drive the tractor and Olia rode in the cart.  They had a lot of fun!

     My friend Maggie is in Ukraine now. She has been visiting the orphanage where our host child is coming from.  Maggie told me that Olya is cute and funny and smart and adorable.  We can't wait to host her. Maggie also told me that she thinks that kids from Olia's orphanage will come next summer(09)to the U.S. for hosting.  The woman who was in control of permitting or not permitting the children  to be hosted no longer is in that position.  So our facilitator Dima thinks he will be able to bring kids from Olia's orphanage in the summer of 09.  Hosting is not supposed to be used for preselection of children, but most families do not want to host children who cannot be adopted.  Most of the girls in Olia's group were not available for adoption or had older siblings.  Much of that could be changed now because new children come to the orphanage all of the time and childrens' status changes as their older siblings age out or if parental rights are terminated.