We Are Off

We will be leaving in about an hour and I don't know when I will have Internet access again.  Thank you for caring about us and for praying for us. Please continue to do so.

I thought I would leave you for now with a funny story or two.

A few weeks ago Pa, Valera and I went to play some soccer. We stopped at a roadside stand on the way home to get some lunch and some drinks. Pa and I needed Valera to do some ordering for us as the employee did not speak English.  Valera ordered our food and continued talking with the employee. I could tell that she asked Valera, "who are these people?" and I am most certain that Valera responded with:

"oh, some Americans!"

It has become a running joke as we shared this story with Anya and Den.

Hopefully, as time continues on, we have become and will continue to become much more than "some Americans".

Last night, Den and Anya gave Valera a clever gift...a soccer referee's kit...including a whistle and two plastic cards (red and yellow).  My dad and I joked that we could use the cards to explain to Valera when his behavior was becoming inappropriate. We could hold up the yellow as a caution, a red when we were at our limit.

Valera has a small nerf gun that he likes to shoot, he isn't always careful about where he shoots. Yes, that would require a red card!

And most definitely, if he refers to us again as "some Americans", I am pulling out the red card!