Update from Taldy-Korgan....

Things are still progressing as planned.

It's interesting how many of the buildings are old style Soviet era looking, and then Sunday we went bowling at a
6 lane bowling alley which had a pool table and served pizza and ice cream. Crazy.

Jonathan continues to venture into unchartered water with choice of foods. First of all, he mistakingly asked for some water at the orphanage and after the cook and one of the boys got him a glass of tap water, he didn't want to offend them
so he drank it. He really enjoys all the lamb and, today, dove into some other exotic meat they serve here.

There are two other US families that are staying at the same hotel as us, Hotel Arat, and adopting babies from the sister orphanage that cares for babies. They are great people and its nice we are all in the hotel together. Sunday we had our own little church service up in our room and Chris even played the guitar he brought over here. Taldy-Korgan is over 50% Muslim with the balance Russian Orthodox and other.

The other families also brought over their children. Each family has one little girl already, ages 20 months and 4 years old, who are great fun. They are both adopting another baby. The one couple staying downstairs on the first floor was keeping their juice and coke on the ledge outside the window to keep it cold. Chris noticed that it seemed like the juice
was being depleted faster than the family was consuming it. Then, he saw a little hand reach up over the ledge outside, watched the coke lower itself out of sight and then reappear on the ledge short a few ounces. Chris opened the window
and looked down to see a poor, young, startled girl who he offered the rest of the coke to. There are just a lot of funny little things like that that happen.

We continue to share many laughs with Igor our driver and Zhanara our interpreter. Igor is a big dude who looks like he could have played offensive line for The Cleveland Browns. He appreciates the beer I buy him every few days we go to the grocery store. Zhanara is a kind, 25 year-old who speaks perfect English, won't let me buy Igor more than one beer each store visit, and loves the boys.

I can't tell you how many close calls on a daily basis pedestrians almost get runover. I almost think a number of times people's clothes brush the bumpers when the vehicles pass by. People walking up the road the opposite way nearly get clipped by the side mirrors regularly.

Alena is doing great. Along with Zhanara we are teaching Alena English daily. She is very eager to learn and has made great strides in just a few days. Her friend Verleria also shared in the English lesson with us tonight. We get to
visit twice a day for about 2 hours each time at 10 AM and 5 PM. The little boys in the orphanage light up when they see Jonathan and Jameson come in. The other day the guys were break dancing (more like attempting) with a bunch of the
younger kids, they had a ball. Jonathan did some filming in the orphanage today and the kids loved smiling for the camera. We got some great footage.

Got to get back to my email and make sure we're closing deals at work!

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers!

Joe, Kelly, Jonathan and Jameson