We Made it to Simferopol!

We made it here safely Sunday night. Today we went to the orphanage to see Dasha. It was so great to see her again! She remembered us and was happy to see us again. :) She is such a sweet little girl! She fell asleep on me during our morning visit again. I loved it! We have court on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. and we will appreciate your prayers that everything will go well. We have the same judge that we had last time and I think that will be a good thing.

We are going back to see Dasha again in the morning. I can't wait to see her again! She really opened up to Rick a lot more this time. Last time she didn't seem to know what she thought about him. She still keeps an eye on him. lol! I assume it is because she has never been around men. All of her care givers have been women. John Paul loved having a man around and still does! Dasha however, is just now coming around. I've spent a lot more time with her, so I am sure that is a factor. I'm sure when we get her home and settled in she will be all about her daddy. There is no telling what she thinks right now. She's probably thinking, "This lady just keeps coming back. I wonder if she'll ever take me with her. And who is this man that comes with her for a week and then leaves? I don't know, but they bring good toys and snacks. Everyone keeps calling her mommy. Mommy sure is soft to sleep on. Wonder where Roma is? I can't figure out how to get him out of that book she keeps showing me." lol!

Dasha loves to see John Paul's pictures! She licked his face twice and laughed. lol! I can't wait to get them together!!

John Paul is doing really well at my mom's house. We talked with him earlier on the web cam. He started laughing at us. I guess he was happy to see us. Either that or he thought we were funny looking! lol! He's probably trying to figure out how we got in the computer screen. He was grabbing at the screen. He helped my step dad make a new crate for their small dog today.
My mom told me that at one point John Paul even picked up a drill bit and put it in the drill, just like it goes! Maybe he'll be my little handy man. :) I have pics of it. I'll post them on his blog tomorrow. He is also scooping his own food! Way to go John Paul and Grammy!! He's been putting his spoon in his own mouth for about 2 months now, but he has only scooped himself several times. Apparently, I just needed to make a home made banana pudding and he would have scooped more often! lol! April, we have another cookie pudding lover in the family! Better guard the cookie pudding at Easter! lol! My mom sent me video of him feeding himself. I am so excited that he is doing this!! It's just so awesome! He did feed himself a broccoli chicken casserole meal too! So I guess the banana pudding got him on a roll! I had hoped and prayed that he would be feeding himself before we brought Dasha home. I knew he was so close, but he just wasn't interested in scooping. I knew he could because I have seen him do it. I just couldn't get him to do it for me consistently. Hopefully, he will continue to get better over the next 3 weeks. I'm just so proud of him! And I am proud of my mom too! Last trip he played her! He acted like he didn't know how to put his spoon in his own mouth at all. I told her that he did when I left my instructions, but he apparently was VERY convincing! lol! I have seen it myself! He is a very clever little boy! He conned her into feeding him is what he did! lol! When I returned home, get got busted! lol! And then the little stinker tried the same number on me. Didn't work! This time my mom had his number and he gave her hard time when she made him put his spoon in his mouth himself. She didn't give in this time and I guess she won the battle of the wills because not only is he putting his spoon in his own mouth for her, he is scooping too!! Thank you mom for being so patient and good with him! :) It is VERY difficult to be away from him so long, but it sure helps that I know he is happy and thriving!

I will put all his news pics and video on his blog tomorrow night. It will take me a while to do all of that and right now I need to get some sleep. I am still jet lagged and haven't adjusted very well yet.

I haven't proofread this and I am too tired to do so. Please overlook any errors due to exhaustion. :)