Final Day

Here we are. It is our final day here in Russia. Although things have not been bad at all, we are very ready to come home. Right now, nobody has home field advantage. The boys are away from what we know and we are away from our own food, our own beds, etc. They boys will still be starting over when we get home, but at least we will be home. We will have home field advantage finally. We can make food (and buy food that we can read), and do different things with them. We have been doing the same things over and over and I think we are all ready for something new. Nothing has really happened to report in the last couple days. Same schedule, different day. All the days kind of run together.

Silas has been afraid of lots of different things. Dogs, water, big trucks, street cleaners, vacuums, and far away trains. Not sure how he will react to our dogs at home. We think he will love them after he gets used to them. He does love to watch dogs and cats, just from a distance. He also has been extremely whiny. Because he is so small, we think he has been babied his whole life. He expects everybody to bend over backwards for him. That will have to change. Sawyer also has been babied a lot. He wants to be held all the time. When he is crying to be held, Silas is whining about something, and Kelsey is antagonizing...it gets to be extremely frustrating. This happens a lot actually. Still, the boys are doing great. They are really a ton of fun. We are enjoying them so much. Kelsey has done well too, but is finding it really hard to interact with them without one of the boys screaming at her (many times her fault and many times not). This will be a long learning process!

We leave here tomorrow at 3pm (the 24th), this is 11pm on the 23rd for you mid westerners and 10pm for our Colorado family. We should arrive home in Mankato about 11:30pm on the 24th. Weird, I know. But we gain time going back! We have the best possible sinerio for flights and connections if it all works out. Even with great flights and connections, it will take us about 20 hours. So keep us in your prayers during that window. Adults will be tired and cranky and we dont even want to think about what it could be like for the kids. God will get us through. We can't wait to be home. Miss all of you.

This will most likely be my last post from Russia. Thank you so much to everybody who followed along with us on the blog. And most of all, thanks for praying. We are so blessed by our incredible family and friends. Thank you all.

Sincerely,

Nate
(on behalf of Nate, Julie, Kelsey, Silas, Sawyer, and Milo)