Loveble Losha

The past couple of days have been a lot of fun for all of us. Monday I was off work and was able to spend the day with him. While I was getting ready, I heard the wii "Just Dance" songs on, so I knew he was secretly practicing his moves. I tired to open our bedroom door really quietly and spy on him, but he heard me and instantly stopped and ran over to the couch like he wasn't doing anything at all. I guess just laying on the couch makes you all red-faced and sweaty...... I tried to get him to dance for me, but that just embarrassed him more. We had a couple of errands to run, but then we went to Wal-mart so he could spend his gift cards and money. He ended up buying some play skateboards, a play BMX bike and carrying cases for both. And there went his money......but he thought he was big stuff paying for it himself. We ate at McDonalds in Wal-mart while we were there and we giggled over him being silly. When we were leaving Wal-mart I asked him if he was ready to go home (assuming he was since we had been out several hours) but he said something like cheese, and when I asked him to repeat it.......yep,  Chuck-E-Cheese it was! So we went, thanks to my parents for their gift card and he played and played. He would give me some tokens so I could play some games too. And heaven forbid, if one of the games didn't give him any tokens, he instantly called it a "cheater" - another little endearing thing he picked up from John. We were there for 2.5 hours and by the time we left I was tired and had a headache. He picked out some prizes and he gave me his stickers that he had gotten. Very cute. I made him sanitize his hands when we got in the car, and of course, he squirted out a huge blob, followed by "Oh No!". I told him it wouldn't kill him....and that he would be fine.


Tuesday he spent the day over at John's parents. He played wii most of the day, but they were able to peel him away from it for lunch at shells BBQ again, and playing with the slingshot outside, and playing with the dog. He also bonded with John cousin, who is 16....and knows a few Russian words. They were play fighting by the time we went to pick him up. We had Christmas with John's parents while we were there--and homeboy racked up again. He got a model car, some puzzles, clothes, a kazoo, and other fun things. John's mom and dad did a little project with him last week, where they had printed out a bunch of pictures of all of us. He chose which pictures he wanted to use, cut the pictures out and made a scrapbook page, complete with stickers, and they framed it for him. This was his gift to John and I. He was very proud of it. We were very proud too. On our way home, he said "I eat two hot dog" and that was pretty much his first full English sentence. We went over some English vocabulary and then went over our names. He called John "Mee-ster John Herltwon" or something like that. I was  "Meee-sis Karrr Herltwon" or something along those lines. He told us his full name was "Alexey Losha Tsiganov" so apparently Losha is his middle name and thats what he goes by. And apparently "Alexey" is translated to "Sasha" in English. We asked him what Losha was translated to and he said he didn't know.

I made him a bubble bath last night, thinking it would speed up the bathing process since he takes forever. I was wrong. He soaked for about 10 minutes, then drained the tub and started the forever long bathing process. Thankfully we had already said our prayers with him, hugged him and said our "I love yous" before all of this, and we went on to bed. Then the little sneak went to his room and started putting together his model car. When John caught him he said "I no sleep" and then John turned out the lights. Nothing like a little subtlety to get the point across.......This morning, like every morning, it was like pulling teeth to get him to wake up. But I got my morning hug before rushing out the door to work. When I left, him and John were having a little spat over him not brushing his hair or at least trying to do something with the major cow-lick he had going on.... that is our #1 battle with him. Apparently he thinks cow-licks are cool and the bigger, the better. He just refuses to brush them down! I don't get it. Usually we just let it fly, except for church. So if you run into us- just overlook his hair- and at least now you know the reason behind the mess!

Christmas in America

This year I had the most special Christmas of my life. There's just something about having an orphan live with you that puts everything into perspective. Its not about getting, at all. And its definitely not about giving either. Its about celebrating the fact that we were given eternal life through the birth of a Savior. So, Happy Birthday Jesus! I hope it was one of your best birthdays too!

This year for Christmas Eve, and every year for that matter, we were so busy visiting family, immediate and extended. Losha was dragged along- and I can say that he was none to thrilled to shuffle from one house to the other. We did explain to him that's what families do. He did manage to get some type of gift everywhere we went, so I think in his eyes, it made it a little more bearable. He still enters into shy mode immediately when surrounded by a group of people he doesn't know. However, if my parents were there or John's parents were there, he did do a little better with smiling. Side note- he has really warmed up to both of our parents. John's parents kept him for us last Thursday- they played wii all day (poor them) and Losha had a blast. He apparently called my mother-in-law a "cheater" all day....hmmmmm.....wonder where he got that from {John}. They filled his belly with 2 hot dogs plus fries from Shells BBQ and he was in hog heaven. They said they really enjoyed their time with him, and I know he sure enjoyed his day with them too. Its amazing how quickly he warmed up to both sides of parents. He must have felt very safe and secure with them- because he took  a little longer to warm up to us. But regardless, its such as blessing that he did! He just fits into our family like he's been here all along. By the afternoon, when we got home, John's aunt and uncle had left a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper by our garage. His eyes locked on that Dr. Pepper and he tried to escape the car before we had stopped trying to get to it. John had to hit the locks really fast and told him to stay put. As soon as the car had stopped he was outta there in record time and scooped up "Pep-aire" and was as happy as a clam! Christmas Eve he opened one gift from us early, and appropriately he chose to open his new wallet. The boy had managed to get $30 cash from various family members and loads of gift cards as well. He busied himself putting his loot into his wallet and by the time he was done, his wallet was about 6 inches thick. Not really- but it is so thick he can barely get it out of his pocket once he puts it in.

Back to Christmas--- well, someone must have been a very good boy this year, because Santa visited him in America. Santa's elves got up at the butt-crack of dawn to make sure Santa's gifts were all displayed and stockings were stuffed. When his eyes hit the tree and his presents, his entire face lit up. Unfortunately the part captured by my camera was the part where he was still trying to focus his eyes, so this endearing part was missed completely. The "houston" in me made him recreate it- but it was nothing like the real thing. The rest of the morning was filled with Russian squeals and laughs. He took FOREVER to open his gifts, because he didn't want to tear the paper, so he carefully undid all the tape and tried to preserve the paper the best he could- even after we told him just to rip it to shreds. After he would open any article of clothing, he would take it and hug it to his chest, and close his eyes. This made me tear up. He got lots of clothes, a hat (he picked it out) a radio control Jeep, a howling sling-shot monkey, a wallet, model car, loads of money and gift cards, and lots of other things......... He said he liked Christmas in America! I can't imagine why!

We went up to my parents for the annual Christmas morning breakfast and more gifts. He ate really well- two eggs, a sausage patty, about 20 pieces of bacon, 3 glasses of Dr. Pepper, a biscuit and just a taste of grits. He didn't like them- we'll have to work on that!! He is in the south, after all. He opened up more presents and he loves to get his picture taken. I was so busy taking his picture with our camera, and his disposable camera, that I forgot to open my gifts. Its funny how that happens..... It had started snowing as soon as we got to my parents. By the time we finished eating and opening our gifts the ground was completely white. We came on home because the roads were slushy. We had plans to go to John's parents house that afternoon, followed by dinner at my Memaw's......but we got snowed in. Losha spent most of his afternoon in his room putting together his new model car, then we all spent Christmas night watching movies by the fire. It was a very low-key Christmas, but a special one. We had a wonderful time with Losha and it snowed on top of that. A white Christmas!

Sunday morning after Christmas was over, we were, of course, snowed in. 7.5 inches of snow and counting! Losha decided to play a little prank on us this morning. I had woke up early and started to clean up the house. John woke up about 9 and went in to wake up Losha. Well, John came out to me and said "Where is he? Is he not in here with you?" with panick in his eyes. We went back to his room and his bed was made up, but he was no where in sight. I knew I hadn't seen him all morning, and I honestly thought he had ran away. My heart sank and then Surprise! He jumped out from behind his bed. We told him that was NOT funny, that it scared us to death!I made a pancake breakfast and we all snuggled by the fire. Since we couldn't go to church we had church in our living room. John read the story of Jesus' birth. We asked Losha if he knew the story, but he acted like he didn't know what we were talking about. I prayed while John read, for God to make John's words understandable to Losha. I hope God answered my prayer! Later that afternoon we got him back for his little prank. He was so fixated on the wii, that we were able to sneak up on him and cover him with Silly String. He squealed and ran, and I threw him a can, and he joined the fun. The only problem with this, is that I didn't think it though very well. I definitely didn't think about how big of a mess we would have to clean up....... And a huge mess, we had. Silly string was ALL OVER the living room and kitchen. I wasn't able to capture too many pics of the fight, but this one sums it up.....John is hiding in the laundry room- his can was empty and Losha went after him with a vengeance.

The point of that picture is to show the silly string- not to show you the mess that is my house. Just nevermind the crap in the foyer, or Banjo's blankie!

He is such an enjoyable kid. The past couple of nights when we pray at bedtime and hug him goodnight, I've been saying "I love you" to him. He hasn't said anything back yet, but last night when I told him I loved him, he just beamed at me! He knows what that means :)

For your viewing pleasure.....

Here is a little taste of life right now.....

Tacos and Archery

Tacos and Archery- by far Losha's favorite things so far.....besides Dr. Pepper. Which, by the way, has now been restricted after dinner, due to the crazy side-effects. I made the executive decision, and I'm sticking to it. You have a crazy, hyped-up Russian teenager run all through your house and see if you don't restrict it too!

He ate the heck out of his tacos and chips and salsa that I fixed for dinner tonight. He had some lettuce on them, so I'm counting that as a serving of veggies :) He was one silly kid last night. After dinner, he helped clean up the kitchen- after being a teeny bit forced strongly encouraged- but he did it regardless. John had to work a basketball game at Foard and Losha didn't want to go- and neither did I- so we stayed home together. We played wii for what seemed like an eternity. Once I reached my limit- I let him keep playing while I wrapped the Christmas presents. He was squealing and yelling the whole time. He was playing the resort sports game and found the one with the airplane where you shoot balloons. Yeah- the noise is soooooo annoying. I listened to it for about an hour and I swear I got an eye twitch. I made him some chocolate chip cookies- and he loved them. He wouldn't drink any milk with them though. He moved on to archery that all three of us played the night before- and let me tell you- he has now perfected it. He got to the point that he was getting the bulls eye on every one, so now if he doesn't get straight 10s he yells "Oh No!" like a 9 is bad or something. I made him turn it off at 9:30 and it took me an hour to get him to take his shower. He was running through the house like a maniac. Terrorizing the dogs, turning off all the lights and trying to jump out and scare me, bouncing and flying off of the ab ball (and popping out the stopper), jumping like superman onto his bed.......need I go on?

Update on the trash situation in his room.....remember me telling how he is eating a ton of snacks, but I had yet to find any trash? Well, he gave it to me last night. He was keeping it all in his shoe box from his new shoes....which was hid between the dresser and the wall, underneath his fleece pullover, underneath his "Welcome to America" sign, underneath the comforter to his bed. Uh, no wonder I couldn't find it. He did throw it all away. He came out of the laundry room (where we keep our trash can) with his old stinky shoes in his hand. I had put them in there to wash them (and haven't gotten around to it yet) and he thought I was going to throw them away. I had to reassure him I was just washing them and he was finally OK with that after a few minutes of explaining to him why they were in there.

We prayed with him again and asked him if he wanted to pray. He very quickly said no. So John and I prayed and hugged him goodnight. This was about 11pm and John woke him up at 6:30 and he wouldn't budge. So I had to pull the mean momma card- but first I tried to be sweet and rub his back to wake him up. He just grunted at me.....I kept telling him to get up and he wouldn't............so I finally rudely yanked the covers back and he squealed like a little girl- but he got up! He's spending the day with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephew. I called at lunch and they were at Chuck-E-Cheese and he was having a blast. Hopefully the Russian maniac will be worn out when he gets home and we can have a relaxing evening with him.......

I promise I will try to get some pics uploaded tonight....I suck, I know..........

Meeeeesss!!

He enjoyed his afternoon with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew. He played with a remote control car and a sling-shot. He apparently is a sling-shot king! My sister got some pretty cute shots of him that I'll post in a bit.

You mammas out there will be proud of me because..dun,dun,dun......I fed him vegetables tonight for dinner! Yay! Hoorah! If only Losha was this excited about them, we would be in good shape. He actually didn't even touch his peas, but to be honest, I can't blame him. I HATE them, but had to put on a front like they were delicious. I was thinking about chocolate the whole time......He did eat some corn and of course he demolished his chicken tenders. Then we had him help with the dishes and I told him if he ate his veggies from now on, he didn't have to wash dishes. He just laughed. That wasn't the reaction I was going for......

Last night was a loud one! Losha, John and I played the Wii again and this time played the resort sports games. We started out with wakeboarding, then moved on to archery. His favorite was when we missed the target. The wii annoyingly (is that a word?) puts a huge MISS on the screen, as if you didn't know you missed it. He would yell Meeeesss! And he would either point his finger, do a twirl, a happy dance,or jump up and down. We played, and played, and played until we had to cut him off at 10pm. He was a Dr. Pepper filled maniac!!!! Oh the squealing! Oh the yelling! And I'm pretty sure I heard some things that were probably some naughty Russian words :) He had the time of his life! Then him and John got into a hide-and-seek-and-scream/yell-scarily game. John got him so good at one point that he jumped a mile high and jumped right into the wall. Oh it was hilarious......then he "tooted" and said "Oh No!" He disappered into the bathroom for what seemed like an hour. I heard the pages of a magazine being ruffled, so we didn't stick around...we headed to bed. We laughed that John had literally scared the poo out of him. We did get up to pray with him- even though he is sneaky and has tried to get out of that the past few nights.

He is such a fun, sweet kid! I just heart him so!!!!!

First Weekend in America

Well, let me quickly run you through Losha's first weekend in America......

Friday night I had grand plans of taking him to Tanglewood, but that just didn't happen. We ended up watching Toy Story 3 (very cute, by the way) and then we had a couple of visitors, so we just had an evening in- staying up late watching Disney/Pixar movies back-to-back. He seems most comfortable at our house, just laying on the couch covered up with a blanket and a Dr. Pepper in his hand!

Saturday morning I let him sleep in. I wrapped Christmas gifts and when I woke him up about 9- he was cuddling his teddy bear, fast asleep. Totally melted my heart. He had a cinnamon roll for breakfast and spent the morning watching American Gladiators- which he loved! We took him to Foard's wrestling tournament (John had to work it anyways). He wasn't too impressed and to be honest, I'm pretty sure he was completely overwhelmed by all the bigger American kids. He turned on his "shy mode" and barely said a word, wouldn't eat lunch, etc...After lunch we went up to Boone, thinking he would love the mountains as much as we do. So not the case! We did buy him some things for Christmas- which took FOREVER because the kid is sooooo picky about what types of clothes he likes. It seemed like everything we suggested got the "russian snarl" where his upper lip curled up in disgust. Its hard to get frustrated with him though, because then he would giggle when I rolled my eyes at him. We took him to Mast General Store's Candy Barrel- again with the snarl. He put back the basket I gave him, so I politely took it and began to fill it up. We had dinner at Our Daily Bread (our favorite in Boone) and he ate pretty good. He snarled at the broccoli soup, but ate his turkey and bacon sandwich like it was going out of style. And he had 3 Dr. Peppers- BIG rookie parent mistake. Like I said, he LOVES Dr. Pepper and refers to it as "Pep-air". John broke the ice with a smelly fart on the ride home and he thought that was THE funniest thing. He cackled for 5 minutes while holding his nose :) After a quick visit to John's grandpaw in the hospital and introducing him to my Frye nursery girls, we stopped by John's parent's house for a quick visit. He entered "shy mode" again and barely said a word. We went home and within 5 minutes the kid was bouncing of the walls- literally. The dogs were going crazy too and Losha was squealing, running, bouncing from the couch to the floor, laughing, yelling, etc. We had to make him go to bed-usually he is ready- but not Saturday night. And he gave me teenage attitude about his church clothes. He insisted on wearing jeans and that just wasn't gonna fly with me. I'm old school and still believe in dressing up for church. And guess what- I won that battle!

Sunday morning we took him to church, looking all cute in his khakis, dress-shirt and new sweater. Again, he tried to wear his new Nike shoes- and again, I won that battle and he wore dress shoes. I'm not sure how he liked church- I decided to not ask him just yet....I know he enjoyed the singing because he was craning his neck to get a better view. The rest of Sunday afternoon was busy visiting our family- and he was getting really tired of this until I explained to him that our family all wanted to meet him....and that he was a celebrity! His attitude immediately changed and he was OK with it :) We went to my parents house for a cookout and he ate really well- he loves hamburgers, hot dogs, coleslaw, and chips. I had to take the chips away from him because he got into them while we were fixing everything and almost ate the whole bag while slurping down his Dr. Pepper. We went back home and all got our baths. He made himself at home on our couch curled up with a blanket and Tater, and watched a movie while John did the budget and I cleaned up the kitchen.

Today he is with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law and nephew. When I called to check on him, I was told he was fine and was chasing Garrett (nephew) around and playing with him. He had already had several cups of Dr. Pepper and seemed to be just fine.....

Slurpin' Spaghetti

The last couple of days have been really fun, and it is very heartwarming to see Losha come out of his shell more and more. This little man is so darn cute, I can't even stand it. We finally broke down and bought a wii....and I can't even begin to say how thankful I am for that thing! He has said more words playing the racing game than he has since he got here. Some of my favorite include: "Oh no!" "Oh Man!" and "Stupid!"- which cracked us up. He also squeals when he plays the racing game and then he throws in some Russian blurbs...all of which are endearing.

I made spaghetti Wednesday night for dinner. He started slurping it and it was all John and I could do to NOT laugh. Thankfully it was piping hot and the spaghetti steamed up John's glasses, so we laughed at that when in reality we were laughing at the slurping. We have learned that Losha loves Sprite and Dr. Pepper. He also liked my spaghetti and texas toast, and pineapple pound cake. He also likes Peperoni pizza and french fries....and I do promise to feed the boy some vegetables and fruit. But I'm just so glad that he's started eating that at this point, I could care less what he eats. We'll throw the healthy food curve ball in a couple of days. He has also been eating a ton of snacks in his room. The only problem with this, is that I've yet to see any trash.....so I'm wondering where it is...maybe I should check under the mattress pretty soon.

Thursday, we had family time thanks to the ice. I made cinnamon rolls and he told me he didn't want one. So I forced a bit on him and then suddenly- gasp! he wanted one! I gave him a whole one and a glass of sprite..... again, I know I won't win any awards for being healthy. He also ate some pizza for lunch, pizza and fries for dinner (Thanks to Golden Corral). I was hoping he would show me things he liked to eat... but nope! Just pizza, fries, and a chicken wing that he didn't even touch. We have watched several movies with him: Karate Kid, IronMan 2, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles. He is glued to the TV when we change the channel to fuel TV. For those of you who don't know what Fuel TV is- it is an entire station dedicated to dirt bikes, skateboards, extreme sports, etc...... he just giggles when someone crashes.

Also, he started using his Axe body spray. We put a bunch of good "manly" hygiene items in his bathroom, and Wednesday night be actually used the Axe body spray. And since then, every time he goes into the bathroom, he'll squirt another spray on him. But it does smell good, and I think John is getting a little jealous.....

Last night we gave him a book called Good vs. Evil in Russian. It is a comic book style depiction of Jesus' Redemptive story....it tells about all of the miracles Jesus performed, gives the story of his birth and death, etc. John said he has had this nose in that book all day today and has almost read it entirely through!!! I am so happy and I hope he"ll ask us some questions about God....and more than anything I pray that he accepts Jesus as his Lord and Savior and becomes a Christian. The seed has been planted....so I'm asking for your prayers too. Every night we pray with him before bedtime and then hug him goodnight. Last night when he hugged me he rested his head on my shoulder....melted my heart completely!

Tonight we plan on taking him to Tanglewood to see the Christmas lights. This weekend is open, maybe a trip up the mountains or bowling..... but I'm very excited to take him to church with us on Sunday. I wonder what he'll think.......

Please continue to keep us in your prayers and thank you to everyone who has been praying, has helped us out in any way and all who have offered to help. We are so thankful for our family and friends and the amount of support everyone has shown us!

Who are these Crazy Americans?

Alexey (pronounced "Loh-sah") arrived last night at about 8:30 pm after traveling for 32 straight hours. Needless to say he was exhausted and through a translator we found out he was very nervous...and we quickly told him we were too. He was silent during the car ride home, and when I looked back at him, he was slumped over, fast asleep. We woke him up as we pulled into the driveway so he could see our house(decked out with Christmas lights) and after a quick tour of the house and a hot shower he (well, all of us) went to sleep.

This morning we had a dentist appointment. We wrote him a letter explaining what was going to happen while we were there. First, let me back up and explain WHY we went to the dentist.....as part of the selling point to the Russian government for hosting programs, we get the children dental and vision exams, and pay for these ourselves. So, long story short, Alexey was very stoic and brave. He has 6 cavities, but they are very small and they said they could fill them without the shot of Novocain and he still wouldn't feel any pain. We go back for the fillings 3 days before he goes back to Russia.

After the Dentist, we went to say hello to John's mom at work and then I took him shopping for new shoes. He picked out Nike shoes and seemed to be very happy to get them. Then like any boy, he was done shopping. We ate lunch at chick-fil-a and he ate every last crumb. Which, by the way, was the only thing he has eaten since he's been here. I told him I was worried about him not eating, so that is the only reason he ate for me. After lunch we went to AC Moore and he picked out a Kinex Big-Rig to build and a model car (police car) to do and we came back home. He went to his room and shut the door- I tried to not get offended by this- and then I realized he was putting together the police car and didn't want me to see it until it was finished. And by the way, I'm gonna pause here to brag about how smart this boy is....he put together the car in less than 30 minutes, without any directions, and he asked me for a screwdriver to finish it!!!! After the police car was finished, he came out of his room to present it to me. Of course I made a huge to-do over it and took his picture (which I've figured out he likes). Then just when I thought we were making some head-way....back to his room with the door shut. So I waited......and waited........until about 40 minutes later he emerged with the Kinex Big Rig completed. So I did the same picture taking process again and bragged on him telling him how smart he is....and he just sheepishly smiled.

The rest of the day consisted of the following: taking the idiots, oops I mean dogs, for a walk, playing Jenga- about 10 times, basketball with John and learning how to dunk, teaching me (well trying to anyways) some Russian vocabulary, riding his bike (and watching John wreck on his, ha!), trying to communicate with us, getting frustrated that he couldn't (all translators wouldn't answer their phones) and go to bed. He wouldn't eat anything for dinner- who can resist pizza? We asked if he wanted to take a hot shower and go to bed and he shook his head that he did. So he went to bed at 6:30 after we knelt and said prayers, hugged and said "Spokoinoi Nocce" (goodnight). And when he hugged us he really hugged us- not the noodle hugs most teenage boys give. I'm sure he is still exhausted from traveling and now jet lag has probably set in.

So from his first day here this is what I've learned: He doesn't like eating or drinking (just kidding!) oranges, fish, pretzels, fruit loops or juice. He does like hot tea, skittles, chik-fil-a, sunglasses, nike, making things with his hands, having his picture taken and then looking at them, basketball, dunking the ball, riding his bike, feeding and playing with the dogs.

Overall, it was a good day and he has warmed up some as the day has gone by. He doesn't say much of anything, but he does smile and nod yes and no A LOT, and furrow his brow A LOT. I can't wait to see how his personality will unfold. I am going to TRY to post something every day. Tomorrow we might try putting up the Christmas tree........

Please continue to lift us up in prayer! Goodnight, or as I now say, Spokionio nocce!

PS- having issues uploading pics, will try again tomorrow :)