Week 2

Whew!  It's hard to believe that it's already been two weeks with our young visitor, and there's so much to tell!  Last weekend we traveled to Richmond, VA to visit with Casey's parents.  Friday night, Casey's parents hosted a get-together for their friends who have supported us in this endeavor.  All things considered, it went very well.  Not to our surprise, Dmitrijs was very quiet but was very willing to meet everyone.  We did provide an escape for him from potentially being overwhelmed by having the Wii set up so the kids could play while the adults chatted.  After the party was over and we went through our nightly routine, we learned that Dmitrijs actually prefers to be called "Dima" (the 'D' in this case sounds like the 'dg' in "edge," so if you say "Gima," you get close enough).  According to him, Dima is a shortened version of Dmitrijs, similar to Bob being a shortened version of Robert.  It has taken some effort to make the switch in our heads, but after a week of the "corrected" name, it has set in pretty well now.

Saturday Dima proved once again that sleeping is not a problem for him!  Thirteen hours after going to bed, he graced us with his presence around 11 AM!  We spent the rest of the morning and early part of the afternoon at home, but spent the rest of the afternoon at a local Putt-Putt, where he was able to play 2 rounds of Putt-Putt, drive a go-kart, and get COMPLETELY soaked on the bumper boats.  He had a blast and everyone came home very tired and hungry.  As a result, Dima got to show off his eating capabilities when he consumed a 1/2 pound hamburger, 2 hotdogs, and tater tots for dinner.  We clearly cannot be accused of starving this kid!

Dima enjoying Cheetos during a break from Putt-Putt.

Sunday we went to church where the sermon was on The Story.  Check it out at http://knowthestory.net/.  What an awesome sermon for Dima (and us!)!  Casey sat through the service with her phone trying to translate each of the points of the sermon.  He seemed to understand and later said he knew this story.  After church we had a great lunch at Outback.  As we've mentioned, we learned that Dima was not your typical Latvian boy since he LOVES spicy food.  However, the Bloomin' Onion didn't quite suite his taste buds!  All in all, Dima had a wonderful time getting to know Casey's parents and her brother, Kyle.  Just before we headed home Sunday, Kyle was able to display his guitar skills which greatly impressed Dima.  In fact, Dima was so impressed he later did an impression of Kyle while doing an "air guitar jump" at the pool.  Check out the video (he is saying "I am star, Kyle!").

On the way home we started singing "Dima, Dima, bo-bima, banana-fanna fo-fima...etc." and Dima was so amused!  He had never heard this name game song before and had us singing it slow and fast and taking turns and on and on!  He tried to follow us to learn it and eventually he just got ridiculously silly.  Check out those videos as well!

This week was Dima's first week being on our regular schedule with King heading to work M-F and Casey and Dima going to her nannying job.  He definitely did not like the requirement of getting up at 7 AM and did give Casey a little bit of whining in the process.  To counter this, we quickly made the adjustment of getting ready for bed earlier in the evening.  So far, Dima has spent many hours swimming (no disappointments there), watched a few movies (including Cars 2), and played games.  He enjoys spending time with the other two children and has really started teasing and playing with them more over the past two days. 

Casey took a daring step by taking all of the kids to Carowinds today.  They spent most of the day in the water park since Dima stated that he did not like roller coasters.  However, at the end of the day, Dima agreed to try riding one roller coaster.  Much to Casey's surprise, he chose Thunder Road, one of the wooden roller coasters at the park that is really rickety.  Despite his initial hesitation, Dima loved the ride and hopes to come back to ride more in the future.  In fact, at the end of the day he said that the roller coaster was the best part of his day!

Perhaps the most exciting update is regarding Dima learning to pray.  So far we have introduced two steps of praying: thanking God and making requests.  He has gradually grown comfortable with these concepts and has prayed out loud with his four times (in English!!).  We plan to teach him about the qualities and names of God this coming week and introduce the concept of praising God and giving adoration during prayer. 

All in all we have been very busy, but we are having THE BEST TIME!  This has been nothing short of life changing and every day is filled with challenges and numerous joys!  Please continue to pray for and with us.  The next three weeks will continue to be a significant opportunity for us to minister to Dima and teach him about his Heavenly Father that has chosen him and loved him unconditionally despite his past experiences with family.  Pray that he will understand what we share with him and that he will believe it.  Additionally, pray for us as we continue to grow SO attached and know that we are unable to adopt Dima.  We pray each day that God give us peace about his future and wisdom about how to maintain a relationship with him when he returns to Latvia.  We are both committed to doing as much as we can for as long as we are able to continue to love and invest in Dima.  We appreciate the prayers and support.  Thank you!