"Do you Likey America?!"

Hello to everyone out there. I have not posted in a very long time as we have been very, very busy. My computer time has seriously been minimized:-) Hopefully I can find some time for may favorite computer pastime of ebaying again!! Anyway, we have accomplished much in the past 7 weeks that we have been home and we also have realized how far we still have to go. We have been able to have constant peace from God that He will work all of this out in His time.
Diana and Will have experienced many things in this time so I will give you a little overview. They have met lots of family including some of their cousins, Corin and Christian. The other little cousins we keep up with via their blog. The kids love going to church and Sunday school. Diana has already sang with her choir group in front of the whole church. We have celebrated 4 family birthday parties at our house and they have gone to one friends birthday party. Diana came with me to a shower that my friends from church hosted. Andrew and I had the chance last week to share with our Sunday school class about our trip to Ukraine. (Our slide show didn't go quite as planned:-() They have been to Wal-Mart and Chik-Fil-A, not in the same day! They have had their check-ups and Will had to get for different shots. He did very good though. We have started homeschooling with Diana and on-line ESL lessons with a great lady. I highly recommend her for any parents who may be interested for their children. Whew, sorry for such a long winded detailed list but I wanted to make sure I recorded as much as I could for posterity.
One of the best things that happened or most Providencial I should say would be the arrival of Diana and Will's certificate's of citizenship. They arrived on her 10th birthday! I kind of look at that as a present to her from America:-) We were able to use those to go apply for their social security cards, which leads me to the title of this blog.
There have been many funny things that have been said by Will, Diana and Evan in attempts to communicate in English and Russian. Evan now knows many words and phrases in Russian and sometimes I hear him and Will talking back and forth to each other with mixed English and Russian:-) Bilka (squirrel) is one of their favorite words. I finally figured out after a few days home what Diana meant when she said "eyelets pry", at the table all the time. She was wanting to be the one to pray before we ate! For the longest time Will would add "now you say" to the beginning of everything we wanted him to repeat. He must have thought it was funny that Americans say "now you say" before everything?! He finally understands we want him to repeat a certain word or phrase. Will is definitely the family comedian so this leads me to the last story.
We were in the S.S. office last week and my number was called so Diana and I went to the window to give them all the paperwork and explain Diana and Will are from Ukraine. Well the boys were sitting in the first row of chairs and there was a very nice elderly lady in the row behind them. She obviously overheard the Ukraine part so she leaned forward in her chair to ask them a question and the boys were facing backwards in theirs. She looked up at Will and said "You are so far from home, do you like it in America? I bet you do." Will leaned forward and was very much in her personal space (something we're working on) and asked her a little on the loud side "Do you likey America?" all while shaking his head up and down and smiling. Everyone in the place started laughing, including that lady.
We are regularly working on behavior and attitude and all of us are growing and learning from this. We have asked for and received much sound wisdom in this area. We are the parents and that has to be established firmly and lovingly. We are not friends who supply food, clothes, and shelter. Overall it is a joyful experience and we are thankful that God chose us to be their parents. They bring our house much happiness and laughter!!!!
I know, I know, I need some more pictures up here. Slide show to be posted this evening.