[SEL] Off topic. Our new family

[Aermoter at aol.com]

Steve Sewell sent me an email this evening asking about our new boys and it 
occurred to me that I have really not posted anything about them since we 
arrived home.  The following is a brief bit about how things have been this past 
month.

They are doing very well.  It has been an adjustment but a good one.  About 
the hardest thing we have had to overcome was the issue of what will they eat.  
We didn't learn much Russian that dealt with eating except for being able to 
ask them if they were either hungry or thirsty.  We have had them for 5 weeks 
now, 4 weeks at home and have been able to get them to eat quite a bit of 
different types of food.  At first all they wanted was mainly bread with little 
else (that was their main food in the orphanage) but now they will only eat 
bread if it is stuffed with something in the middle i.e. sandwich.  We had big 
plans on teaching them English as best we could and have succeeded somewhat but 
we also have been picking up more Russian from them as well.  Yuriy, 4 years 
old, seems to be picking up on English quicker than Nickolai, 5 years old.  
Nickolai it turns out was raised on the streets for the first year and a half of 
his life and then when he was put into the orphanage they put him in with the 
babies since his brother was only 6 months old at the time.  After spending 3 
years with babies he had adapted to lower motor skills and his speech suffered. 
 He is just now starting to talk more but is still slower on the English.  
Their health is in excellent shape considering where they had been and everyday 
is a new adventure for them.  They came from such a remote part of the world 
that even the simplest of things is something of a wonder.  

They both just love to spend time with me in the shop and are now able to 
understand what tool I am telling them that I need and they go and get it.  They 
won't quit until they find it.  They will be engine men in no time.  I plan on 
pulling an engine out in the next month or so and start it up for them to see 
what they think.  I want to wait until they have a better understanding of 
things before I put them in front of an engine with all the parts just waiting 
to grab a finger or two.

One super nice thing that we didn't have to deal with was their neatness.  
They were taught to make their beds, pick up their toys, remove their plates 
from the table and to wash their hands and faces after a meal.

It took almost two years and the cost of a new Hummer to get them but we have 
never been happier.


Tim Christoff
Basehor, Ks.
Aermoter at aol.com