Looks like I need to post for a whole month gone by. Yesterday, October 19th, Michael and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary! Wow, how is that possible? We went out to dinner and then came home to our children. I think we've forgotten how to have fun together without having our children along. The two of us need to go out without our children more often. Michael spoiled me with a beautiful diamond necklace, which I'm wearing in the picture. I'm pleased to inform everyone that Michael finally has gray hair on his temples. I've been coloring my hair for years to hide the gray. It's just really not fair. Twenty-five years ago on our wedding day, it snowed like crazy. This year the weather was much kinder. I am loving this beautiful autumn weather.

I kept bugging Gage to get his car on KSL so we could get it sold. I didn't want it hanging around here for months after he leaves on his mission, knowing Michael and I would be in Ukraine and it would just be sitting in the driveway out in the snow. So we put it on KSL, and about two hours later it was sold! OOPS! I had no idea it would sell that fast. Obviously the price may have been too low? Now Gage is without a car for the next two weeks. OOPS, OOPS! Now he has to borrow my car. He really hates not having his independence. He's a bit upset with me. I snapped this picture right before the new owners drove it away. It's alway kind of sad to see one of our cars go. They become a part of the family. I will not miss paying the insurance, however.

Every October we celebrate my mom's birthday by going to the Logan Temple together and then out to dinner. This year we celebrated her 81st birthday. Here is the clan at the Copper Mill in Logan. I hope we can all do this for many, many years to come.

Last week we called Sasha again. At 11 p.m. sharp we got Riley, our translator, on the line and then placed the call to Ukraine. No one answered after about ten rings, so we decided to wait ten minutes and try again. Maybe the staff was late getting to work.

On the second try, a woman answered and said, "Please call back in ten minutes." I'm sure she needed to go find Sasha and bring him to the office.

Ten minutes later, we placed the third call to Ukraine. This time a man answered. When Riley asked for Sasha, the man said, "Do you know you've called an orphanage?" Riley said, "Yes, we do." Then we heard a click, and the call ended.

Fourth call, the woman answered again. Riley asked for Sasha, and she said, "Just a minute." Then Sasha got on the line! Yahoo! We had a nice conversation with him. Of course, one of the first things he asked was, "When are you coming?" We told him hopefully in November. "We're waiting for Ukraine to invite us to come." We asked him if he was waiting for us to come. "Yes." We asked him if he had been riding bikes. "Yes." He sounded very excited about this. Maybe the orphanage always had bikes; he just didn't know how to ride before he came to our house. We asked him if he had been working on his English. He said, "Yes, every day." We asked him if he got the package we sent. He said, "Yes," but he seemed unsure. I asked him if he would write us a letter. He said, "No. How could I do that?" We told him we sent paper and envelopes in the package. He said he didn't get them. Now I'm wondering what else he didn't get in his package. I asked him if he liked the gum. He seemed unsure again of what I was asking. Did he get the package at all? Did he get my long computer-translated letter that took me two hours to write? Who knows?

He was anxious to tell Marissa, "Sister, I love you." He said, "Mom, I miss you." We told him Quinn was in bed; Gage was at work. We told him Gage was leaving soon, that the next time he saw Gage, he (Sasha) would be fourteen years old. We asked him if he was being a good boy. "Yes." We asked him how school was. "Fine." I told him to pray to Heavenly Father that everything would work out okay and we would be able to come soon. He said, "Okay." I don't know if he knows how to pray, but at least I tried.

Each time we talk to Sasha, we become more excited to go get him. We received word on October 17 that our dossier had been successfully submitted to the SDA and to expect to receive our invitation in one to two weeks, with the travel date being most likely the middle of November. It looks like Michael and I will be spending Thanksgiving in Ukraine. I think the Carrs were in Ukraine last year for Thanksgiving.

The host 2009 Ukrainian children arrived on Saturday, October 17th, at the Salt Lake Airport. The whole thing made me a little sad. I kept thinking about Bogdan and about greeting him a whole year ago. I wonder if he ever thinks of us. I hope he is happy, whatever he is doing. This year we will be hosting a 14-year-old girl for the second half of the time they are here. We met her at the airport on Saturday. She was shy and very tired. We will see what the next couple of weeks bring.