Volleyball, Clogs and Blogs

Last summer, Vova came to Fripp Island with the whole family for summer vacation. Judi always makes sure we play our annual family volleyball game at the beach. Whatever team got Corey obviously had a distinct advantage. Whatever team got Vova, on the other hand, was at an extreme disadvantage. He was so bad, that on the final game we left him back at the beach house (with a person of course). Judi and I bought a number of soccer balls, basketballs and a volleyball for Vova's group. Today Vova brought down the volleyball and said: "Volleyball, yes?" Judi and I kind of rolled our eyes and smirked, recalling all those balls we had to run down after Vova would hit them every which way. Well, apparantly Vova must have got extremely offended last year at having been left out of the family game. It appears for the past year, he dedicated his life to learning volleyball and taking his revenge.

He fired 12 straight serves over the net which no one touched. He made one handed saves with either hand. I couldn't believe it. It was pretty funny. Something else funny was the shoes Judi decided to wear to the orphanage.

CLOGS! I told her that it would be tough to play in those things, but she insisted since her new flower sandals gave her blisters yesterday. Then, we all played volleyball and got to see Judi in action in those clogs.

more action

Let's just say Judi didn't have cat like reflexes today on the volleyball court. However, some older boys apparantly thought she had something going on on the volleyball court. The older boys from the orphanage were playing a soccer team from another school today. (Orphanage won 6-2). Some older boys from the other team saw Judi and started yelling: "Americanski...Americanski!" "Hey Beautiful!" "Beautiful Amerikanski! I love you Americanski!" I looked a Judi and said: "Guess the clogs do work!" Judi was very embarrased made me promise not to include it on the blog....... Hey, what can I say? I need material for my blog.

Had a great day with the kids today! Below are some photos:

Suzanna

Vova and his pal Valik

Judi and beautiful Sonya. She is such an angel

Finally, there is this boy named Giem. I just met him today. He was throwing a little football but was having a hard time of it. As you can see, he was not holding the football with the laces. I showed him how to throw the football, and we must have played catch for 30 minutes. The entire time, I mean the entire time, that big smile never left his face. It was amazing. What a great kid! I try to add some humor or funny stories to this blog to lighten the subject matter some. It is very hard not to get emotionally attached to these kids and you want to adopt them all. You want to, but you can't. I find myself having to take a step back, forcing myself to think rationally, rather than on pure emotion. It is hard not to get all caught up in it. Judi is the good cop and I am the bad one. We came here to adopt Vova and God willing that will happen soon. We should hear tomorrow. Keep the prayers coming. Thanks, Jake and Judi