Stephen waiting for his turn to try the key in the box.

Does it work?

It doesn't. Stephen recieved two Keys of Success cards for his effots in learning at school. He doesn't know how to drive so the car would have had to sit until he learned anyway. Stephen is doing really well in school and now he is running on the track team. Sterling told him that if he read two chapters a week in a book he would bring him a different DVD to watch. Because of his reading his english has improved, so much that the kids at school have noticed.

Troy and Lacrosse

Troy, number 52, plays on West Jordan Lacrosse Team. They did very well this year. They were able to go to the finals. They won there first game against Woods Cross but lost the second one to Skyview. They were hoping they would play in the State Championship Game. They are losing 15 seniors this year. As you can see from the picture Troy plays defense like his brother Kurt.

Nadiya's Award

Nadiya was chosen as Student of the Month for April. Bob and I were invited to a breakfast at the school. It was a surprize for Nadiya. The principal has taken a great interest in Nadiya. Nadiya has done very well in school with a GPA of 3.2 and her english is really good. She has made alot of friends.

I thought I would update you on Stephen's injury from the Team Ukraine game. We took him to the emergency room and they put him on crutches. A week later I took him to the doctor for a follow-up visit. This doctor explained better what happened. Apparently Stephen put so much force on his front thigh muscle that it tore the muscle away from his pelvis pulling bone with it. He has to not run or jump for a week then Mar 15 the doctor will take an x-ray to see if it is healing properly. He won't be able to play contact sports until April 1. So that pretty much does it for him playing soccer for West Jordan. He was pretty upset but I told him if he did what the doctor said he would heal properly and be able to play next year. I asked the lacrosse coach of Troy's team if he could come and help be a manager, and he said that would be fine. Maybe that will help ease the pain of not being able to play. He's a good kid and is obeying the doctor's orders. It helps when his friends come and get him to hang out with them. He has made some great friends at the school.

Kurt has been chosen to play on the Westminster College Lacrosse Team. We are so proud of him. In a couple of weeks he will be flying to Georgia and Tennessee, to play with the team. Stephen has been wrestling with West Jordan and took 5th place in the varsity Region 3 finals. During his second to last match he broke his finger, but he still had one more match, he wrestled anyway and won. He did very well, now he is trying to decide if he wants to play soccer or lacrosse. Nadiya and Stephen are doing very well in school. Nadiya got a 3.0 and Stephen got a 3.2 this last term. We are very proud of them. Their English is pretty impressive, for only being here for 6 months. They are such a joy to have in our family. Troy is now conditioning for lacrosse for the West Jordan team. Megan is in the Mini Dance Company at the studio where she dances. She is preparing for competitions in March. Bob and I get to be grandparents 3 new times this year. Aleisha's baby is due Feb. 20th, Shemay's baby is due July and Kristen's is due in August. That will make 9 grandchildren. We are so blessed.

We arrived back in America. We were so glad to be back, 5 weeks from your family is a long time. Let me add a few things that I wasn't able to tell you while we were in Ukraine. The reason that the KGB was after us was because Nadiya had told her parents where we were staying at. Her parents had called her on the cell phone that they had given her. She innocently told them where we were. I had her tell Natasha what she had done and she called the hotel desk to have them tell anyone that came looking for us that we had already checked out. The next day her drunken father(he couldn't even stand up) came looking for Nadiya. When they told them they didn't know where we were he went to the police and told them that there were Americans in Poltave forcing his daughter to go with them. So the police went to the orphanage, they told they that they didn't know where we were either, the also asked the father if he wanted Nadiya why he hadn't applied to get his parental rights back. So because of this we had to stay in our hotel room for three days until we left for Keiv.

Arrived safely at the airport.