January 4

Jan 4
I think I am fresh out of clever ways to start this thing. Oh well. Things continue to go well. Just 5 more days 'till our court date. I am hopeful that the days will begin spinning fast now.
Gideon continues to do well. He allows Bruce to carry him for longer periods of time and spend almost the entire session this morning on my lap :-) He seems to be gathering more and more comfort and strength from us and even seemed to be trying to extend out time together this morning. He also ran to us with a big smile! During the afternoon sessions it is quite dark so the noises of people moving around outside our little room can be a little scary, Gideon quickly backs into one of us for comfort when he hears those scary noises.
We now know that N is indeed in Russian with her Aunt. N called the inspector here at home before the new year and told her (the inspector) that she (Nina) was going on the trip. The inspector had left Sveta's number at wrok, which is closed this week, so we did not find out until last night when Sveta called the inspector. It is good to know, but we still are going to have that talk about knowing plans ahead of time :-) [In Nina's defense, she may not have known] We are glad she is taking this trip. This may be the last time she will have with these relatives, at least for a long time.
Thank you so much for the emails and prayers. I wish we had time to send each of you an individual email to say how much we love and miss you. But this will have to suffice.
Here is today's humor from Ukraine: Pickles seem to be a major food item over here. They put them in everything. I have seen pickles on pizza and in soup. There is in fact "Pickle Soup" think about that the next time you are eating pickles on your hamburger.
Peace of Christ,
BLN&G