Phone Calls and Emails

Every once in a while, I might post some of Gvido's emails. He is doing such a great job writing in english. You have to read between the lines and sound things out sometimes, but eventually, you catch on! Some things cute, but some weigh heavy on my heart. I've told you throughout the blog that God must have let Gvido in on something because he has certainly chosen us! You will read evidence of that. Precious one, he is clinging to hope and what we felt we were able to tell him with certainty, that yes, he'll be coming back in summer. Of course, he still wants to know when it can be "forever." He doesn't exactly realize it, but God has all three of us walking in faith!

Feb. 20, 2008 Email
hay mam am so hapy dat you are my mam and ay praud det you are may mam ay faster at home with you and JOHN and MOTJO JUNIOR FRENK GOLDIE and BEAR ay love them so much cal cal cal cal be please love your san GVIDZ bye
Translation:

Hi mom. I’m so happy that you are my mom and I proud that you are my mom. I faster at home with you and John, Motchio, Junior, Frank, Goldie and Bear. (All the pets) I love them so much. Call, call, call, call me please. Love your son, Gvido. Bye.

Feb. 19, 2008 Phone Call
After sensing that I was sad and maybe crying, Gvido said to me, “Mom are you crying? Please don’t cry or you won’t be beautiful. When girls cry, they no longer be beautiful.”

Feb. 15, 2008 Email

hay mam hapy vilentain day hay are you du you fil gud ay hope yes yu nou ay wath de movie titanic and nau ay anderstend det GOOD give to as life det we ken live in this wold ay love you

Translation:

Hi Mom. Happy Valentine's Day. How are you, do you feel good? I hope yes. You know, I watch the movie Titanic and now I understand that God give to us life that we can live in this world. I love you.

Feb. 8, 2008 Email

sily boy you are sily mam tenyou for misiges ay hope ay wil home sum mam ay mis burger and latsay tings ay hope you haye a great time with me ay love you and dad to ay wan faster may bike to wride with Timi and may friends ay wan faster at america ay mis you do you mis me yo

Translation:

Silly boy, you are silly mom. Thank you for messages. I hope I will be home soon. Mom, I miss burgers and tasty things. I hope you have a great time with me. I love you and dad too. I want faster my bike to ride with Timmy and my friends. I want faster at America. I miss you, do you miss me too?

Jan.25, 2008 Email

ay faund the pikcurs its yery kuul ay love you ay mis you sou much ay yan faster home you kul mam and ay hay kul dad its yery long time to see you agen ay dont have pasion to yeit tel nay friends ay mis them ay mis you to and dad so muth

Translation:

I found the pictures, it's very cool. I love you. I miss you so much. I want faster home. You cool and I have cool dad. It's very long time to see you again. I don't have patience to wait. Tell my friends I miss them. I miss you too and dad so much.

Jan 23, 2008 Phone Call

Gvido is sick and is running a fever, so no school. I could tell as soon as he came to the phone that he was terribly congested. Take a funny little accent and make it congested and it's really quite comical then! Anyway, as I finished up the conversation, I just told him how much I wished I could be there to take care of him and help him feel better. He said, "it's ok, I feel better now because I got to talk to my mom." How can you not love that?

Jan. 19, 2008 Phone Call

Viktors is a friend of Gvido's at the orphanage. He does not behave well at all. In fact, I was rather hasty in my judgement about Viktors until Gvido set about explaining to me that he acts bad because he feels like he is bad. His mom died at 6 and his dad told him he was better off without him too. Feeling as though he did something wrong, he's ventured into every bad thing he can get his hands on. However, since Gvido returned to Latvia, Viktors has been making changes and Gvido shared with me today, "Mom, Viktors said he's going to be good like me now, no smoking, no drinking and he tells me he believes in God now. He said he would come to church with me next week." He's being salt and light without even realizing it. I'm so proud of him.

Jan. 18, 2008 Email
michelll ay mis you am yery sad kam back to latvija ay mis may pets ay mis hause ay mis john mam ay wil be kam back in ameica on sumer ay you and john kol me
Translation:

Michelle, I miss you. I'm very sad come back to Latvia. I miss my pets. I miss house. I miss Jon. Mom, I will be come back in America in summer... I, you and Jon? Call me.

January 16, 2008 Email
hay MIshell tank yow for mesidž say tu john hay ay love yow say to me abaut du you uil be tek me in your hause for oll d time okay bye bye
Translation:

Hi Michelle. Thank you for message. Say to Jon hi, I love you. Say to me about do you will be take me to your house for all the time? Ok, bye bye.

Departure Photos

Once the children are all back at the gates, a group photo is made before they depart. Thought you might like to see the two group photos. The smaller group is the Russian children who returned Wednesday. The larger photo is all the Latvian children who left Friday night. Gvido is in the back next to Gatis. Gatis is the 17 year old who came as a Jr Assistant, his mother is our Latvian Coordinator. He's the tallest in the background and Gvido's head is peeking just along side his.

Up, up and (sadly) away

Well, the kids are in the air as we speak. Delta flight #58 is their first flight, which has a layover in London. They will arrive in London about 3:30am ATL time and have a pretty long layover. Lucky for them, it's 8:30am London time and they are actually going to take the kids outside the airport to do a mini-tour of London. Then, about 1:30pm Saturday ATL time, 6:30pm London time, they will leave London on Air Baltic #652 for Riga. They arrive in Riga at 4:20pm Saturday ATL time, 11:20pm Latvia time. All total, they are traveling about 21 hours, but it will be broken up at least.

Please pray for Jon and I. Coming home to a quiet, still house is an incredibly lonely feeling. You know it's coming, but there's no way to prepare for that first night apart. Also, please pray for God's guidance as we get on our knees and seek His face to know our role in Gvido's future. Jon and I both feel alot of peace about this time with Gvido, he honestly never had a bad day. For a child that has endured so much in his short life, he has the most amazing spirit. I was able to share with Gvido God's specific word about hosting him this winter. For a child who sometimes feels forgotten by God, I could tell it meant alot to him. He has great difficulty believing God has a plan for his life. If I was him, I'd likely have a hard time seeing it too. If God would have us move forward, I want to share with Gvido this new word from God, as a testimony that God hears us when we cry out and ask His will. I'm learning... as a parent, I can offer my child no guarantees. I'll have good days and bad days. Some days I'll be the superhero, other days I'll be the villain. There is nothing in life that is concrete, aside from the very presence and sovereignty of God. So, we would offer him nothing less than the assurance that we sought God and it's not on our own confidence that we move forward, but because the spirit of God has willed it within us and shown us that He is the light to our new path, one that possibly bears three sets of footprints instead of two.

Thank you for continued prayers over this amazing young man. As God directs us in the coming days and weeks, we promise to update you as we can. Blessings for your new year!

Last Night

Tonight is Gvido's last night with us. The Latvian children head out of Atlanta around 7:30pm Friday night. Today, we went up to Jon's school to show him around. He got to see inside the school, the field house and the stadium. He looks like a natural in a set of shoulder pads, even though I put them on him backwards, my bad!

He's wanted to take gifts to a myriad of people. We are sending small gifts to his orphanage director, social worker, one caregiver and another caregiver that "told him about God" as he explains it. She definitely gets something! He's also taking back pencils and stickers for his classmates and a gift for his class teacher and his school director. A few friends from the orphanage are getting flashlights. That was his choice for them after I explained that, no, I couldn't get them all mp3 players! Bless him; those gifts are taking away from his minimal luggage space, yet he very much wants to do it.

Please pray for Gvido's safety while traveling; all the children. Pray they will ban together on the flight home and behave. Pray their faces are radiant when they step off the plane in Riga to see there caregivers and directors. I want those adults in their lives to know they are different and it's because they are highly favored by God and some Americans! I think it's such a testimony to them to see how different some of the children are when they return. Pray that God will cover Gvido and protect him. May he always make a way out for him, an escape. May God continue to feed the spirit inside him to keep him from the evil and oppression that is in his environment daily. Also, that God's conviction will be ever present in guiding his choices when he returns home. Most of all that Gvido will continue to persevere and endure, until God delivers him permanently from there, if that is His plan. I know the temptation to run away is very strong sometimes. Thank you for following the journey of this very special young man. A gift for us all this Christmas season. We can't wait to hear from God as to His plan for his future.

"Never in my life"

This was the statement that led to Ice Skating... today we checked off another "never in my life" box. Tatjana was able to go Ice Skating with us today and again, with everyone being back in school, they had some wide open space to roam. He was pretty much a natural, but being a bit of a skater boy, I figured it would come quickly to him. He has been inline skating here in the neighborhood so it was just a matter of transitioning from road to ice. He did really well and enjoyed it very much. He's outside playing basketball now, trying to soak up every last bit of America. It's a beautiful day here in Atlanta. Enjoy some of our shots from today!

The Aquarium

First of all, big high five to the GA Aquarium and Missy Davis for providing free tickets to several hosting families to attend for free. Missy was then able to escort each family into the Deepo 4D movie for free. Awesome experience for the kids and a gracious gift by those at the Aquarium; many, many thanks! Needless to say, awesome day. He loved the aquarium. It was just he and I. Seeing as all Atlanta area schools were back in session today, there was a light crowd so we had the run of the place and got some really cool photos. These are just a few. We are going Ice Skating today, so check back in later for that. He saw a picture of one of the other host kids Ice Skating and asked if he could do it, telling me "never in my life!" Well, how do you turn that down?

Out-takes

I felt you finally needed some out-takes... this kid is crazy goofy sometimes. You don't get the benefit of seeing 90% of his personality. The hand stand, funny face and attempt to dress up as a Jedi were over a couple of nights. Tonight we were sitting on the front porch enjoying the stars and watching planes go by. We had the farewell dinner on Sunday night, that went well. It was good to talk to more of the kids and find out how their stay in America has been. All the kids have the same sentiment, they are somewhat ready to go home because they miss their friends and want to see them, but are a little sad to be leaving their new friends and "family" here. Gvido and I have a few more things to do that will be cool. Tomorrow we are hitting the GA Aquarium. He wants to ice skate, telling me "never in his life" has he done it. We'll see if that works its way into the schedule. Anyway, I should have a few more posts before he leaves on Friday night... sniff, sniff.

Bowling Champion

Not much in the way of great excitement around here. We spent yesterday taking down the Christmas decorations. That wasn't great fun, but had to be done nonetheless. Gvido said goodbye to the tree as we lifted off each branch! He used the word Grinch at the thought of us packing it up, not in a mean way though. I explained that it just wasn't socially acceptable to leave it up all year long! He did however want to leave his decorations in his room up, so I guess I'll be taking those down once he leaves.

We went bowling with some friends today. Caleb, Kenzie and Bethany joined us at US Play for a couple games of bowling. Gvido won both games. I didn't play, I watched, otherwise I believe I could have swept both games. (Ha) We still have a full week to go, thank goodness, I'm not ready for him to go yet. He's such a good kid, he hasn't had a bad day yet! Granted he's a little clumsy and has broken several things, but on accident, never on purpose. When I hear a crash, as I did just a little while earlier, I usually hear right behind it, "I think it's not broken!" Too funny. Today he bit his cheek when he was eating and from the back seat I heard, "my cheek is broken." I turned around and he said, "yes, a piece of my cheek." He speaks English, Latvian and Russian and has helped us translate for some of the other kids! He knows I know a little Latvian, so he's trying to teach me some Russian. I tend to protest because there's only so many languages your brain should be responsible for! I'm including some pictures from today.