February 26 - 27

Back in December, when we were writing Milana about what to do while here, she said she wanted to see a movie on a big screen and eat real popcorn. Andyskel and Pambert were giving thumbs way down to: "I Am Number 444",  "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never Unless You Mean Never", and "No G-Strings Attached."   We had Masha call around for us, and she suggested Disney's "Gnomeo and Juliet," the story of—oops you know the story—but can you imagine it 3D through the eyes of Ukrainian lawn gnomes?  Good stuff J.

Getting a court date is getting annoying.  We had all the paperwork Mon morning, February 21, and at that point we were starting to think, "Wow!  We may be able to go home earlier than we thought."  Masha waited the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday at the courthouse.  By the end of Tuesday they finally explained the "new system" to her (and that ours is the first case using the new system), so come back Friday and your judge will have been assigned by the computer.  On Friday we had the judge assigned, but he would not be available until Tuesday, March 1 to even talk to Masha about what the possible court date could be.

We went to "early church" on Sunday (10:00 – noon) because there was a wedding in the afternoon, and we weren't invited.   We spied on them, however, at the mall.

We were invited to help celebrate Anya's birthday.  It was a great feast.  Anya invited several boys from an Internat Yulia used to attend, and two of Anya's friends from church hosted the event.  Now this was a great idea—each person gave an imaginary gift.  From the teens, she received:

·       a huge, four-story house, with plenty of rooms that they could come to visit her

·       a car, so she could visit them more easily, and one that would be big like a mini-van so it could hold all the gifts she would bring

·       a long life

·       a husband, who is tall, not fat, looks good, is able to easily carry her, and would do everything she likes