12/23/07 - Wireless Solutions and Daily Routine

Hello again everyone.

We finally have our wireless solution up and running. It's a 3G DVDO USB modem running off of peoplenet here in Ukraine. It took about 4 taxi rides and 6 hours to solve all the issues (including returning a pc/mca card which was not compatible with my computer...the blonde "helping" us is pictured in Webster's alongside the definition for "Dumb Blonde". Does anyone have a prescription for high blood pressure meds they can send to me?). On the up side, The DVDO Modem should be compatible with our wireless broadband providers in Duluth. If not, it will go to somebody else in UA Angels.

Not a whole lot new to report otherwise. Our Daughter is cute as ever and getting a lot more comfortable with us. Today we had our first battle of wills ending in tears for her as I "held her" in time out. All was forgiven in a moment and I got a hug and a kiss after our little disagreement. She has the "1....2.....3....or else" thing down and comes running when we get to "Dva" or two in english. She is quite the strong willed pistol and really will fit in perfectly with our family.

Our routine for daily visits is play for about an hour, send her to breakfast (zaftrak), go outside for a while, then come in and play until noon when she goes for lunch (obed) and we leave to run daily errands and so forth.

Today we found a couple of children's books in english at a sidewalk vendor near the orphanage. They are quite old but one in particular is quite appropriate as it has rhymes for teaching the alphabet. This will be very good for our daughter. She is picking up a few words of english here and there already. Today she changed the batteries in the camera with almost no help at all. She is quite the budding photographer and in fact anything electronic is a big winner with her. I think we are going to be in the market for an MP3 player this week.

Our best to all,

Mike and Donna