Grant's 8th B-day

First, I want to ask to please let us know if anyone knows someone who can translate Inna's letters from her best friend at orphanage to us from Ukrainian to English and Inna's letters back to her (I type what Inna wants to say in English and then we will need someone to type up in Ukranian). We of course, will pay someone to do this, but would prefer that it be someone that maybe other adoptive families have used and know can be trusted or someone that can be highly recommended :) We do have Ukrainian friends and contacts that live here, but they seem to be all IN Ukraine at this time and we have a friend/translator that we have been using for this that lives in Ukraine, but for someone reason he said he can send out money from Ukraine, but we had a hard time finding a way for it to reach him last time (long story). We hate to keep asking him to do this not knowing if he will ever be able to get paid. We really are not looking for info on just other Ukrainians that live in our area...we have several Ukrainian aquaintances in the states, but do not know them well enough yet to trust them with translating letters from Inna (although probably great people)... we really just need recommendations from other adoptive families that have used someone or from anyone that has someone they would highly recommend to translate at a reasonable price.

On to the birthday-
Grant has turned 8 yrs old and had a fun celebration! He had a swimming party and then 3 of his friends spent the night for a campout. Of course, I called it the "City boys campout" as Jason thought it was too hot to put the tent outside, so papaw "Yo daddy" on the blog) let us borrow a huge tent and they set it up in the sunroom, which had a fan to cool off in this Alabama summer heat. Then later they roasted marshmallows on the gas STOVE! They had a great time playing in the tent and they lasted all of about 30 minutes once lights were out and time for bed. Once they all laid down, Jason said he kept his eyes open just waiting for the first one to be ready to go inside (at least he was praying someone would want to go inside :) And then, it happened....the first boy said, "I'ts really hot", then the second one said, "I'm uncomfortable", and then the third said, "Let's go inside" to which no one had to ask twice...Jason was up and leading the way inside, ha! I had actually already moved some mattresses in the living room with the feeling that at least one of them would be there before the night was over. We hope to have an outside "true campout" when some of this scorching heat calms down :) Then, the next day, we somehow got 7 kids dressed for church and arrived in time to work the nursery (I guess it does help that we live across the street). The 3 boys that spent the night also go to church with us and they thought it was cool to be able to walk this time!

Also this past week...we got to spend 10 days with my brother Caleb before he left for Iraq for 2 years. We werent sure he was going to get to come home first, so we were thankful for such an extended time to spend with him. We sure are going to miss him, but so glad there is technology to keep us in touch! I think we may all try the Skype thing. If you know Caleb, please pray for him during this time or if you are someone who prays for our military, please remember him!