Hi everyone! Before saying anything about today's adventures, we want to make sure to say a huge THANK YOU for all of your thoughts and prayers over the last several days and weeks. Even through the stressful moments (the flight, the court appearance, etc.) we've been soothed by the knowledge of how blessed we are with so many special people in our lives. We are thankful for all of you in our own prayers daily. Thank you also for your patience in reading these messages! We know that it might be considered self-indulgent to assume that everyone is going to want to receive them, but we have very quickly come to view this e-mail connection as a lifeline back to our lives at home. Being able to tell you about things that are going on here has become a very special part of our daily routine. Having said all that, our first full day with Benjamin has been a real pleasure. One of the advantages of starting out with an 11-month old rather than a 0-month old is that some of the nice sleeping habits have already been developed! Indeed, due to his life thus far in an orphanage, Ben is quite skilled already at putting himself back to sleep on his own! We discovered that this morning at 3 a.m. and again at 4:30. He woke up both times but went back to sleep fairly quickly. He was up for good at 6. As I mentioned in a previous message, however, that really wasn't a problem for us because our bodies still think that 6 a.m. here is sometime in the evening! However, we *were* still asleep, which suggests that we are getting closer to adjusting to the 13 hour time difference. We think Benjamin will very quickly catch up to his peers in terms of height and weight, because he eats very heartily. We're still learning his likes and dislikes, of course, but have tentatively settled upon some staples. He seems to love apple juice, oatmeal and applesauce. Bread and cheerios are not big favorites, but that is perhaps because they are too solid yet. He clearly has subsisted largely on bottles thus far. He sucks down his formula in no time flat, and then cries for more. We're not worried about running out of food any more, because we discovered a market today within walking distance. We created what must have been a very comical scene with our new friends the Smiths (who adopted a 15 month old named Timmy from the same orphanage). In this particular market (I don't know if it's the same everywhere in Russia), you pay *first* and then take the receipt to pick up the food items from a different counter. Needless to say, this method is severely compromised when one of the parties in the transaction doesn't speak the language! Still, we managed to work things out, and came away with plenty of baby food and snack food for the adults at just about 46,000 roubles. That's just under $8 American. We haven't used any coinage at all here because each dollar is worth about 5800 roubles and they come in bills as small as 500. The prices seem to be comparable to American prices, including higher in the hotels and airports than in the grocery stores. We took two long walks along the Angara River today with Benjamin (and the Smith family). They were very pleasant and promise to be a regular feature of our days for the next two weeks. Ben really likes riding in the stroller. He just sits and takes it all in. Outside the weather has been very nice -- just like Fall on the east coast of the U.S. However, it has been miserable in our hotel room. It faces right into the midday sun and becomes very hot. We find it very ironic that we're staying in Siberia and complaining of the heat! They expect their first snow in mid-October, though, so we probably shouldn't complain too much, or we'll get more cold than we would like... While Benjamin is eating heartily, our own dining continues to be an adventure. Breakfast is our best meal by far. We get a complementary breakfast from the hotel, and it is quite good, with fried eggs, bread, vegetables and fruit, and coffee and tea. (We don't drink the water on the advice of our adoption agency.) As I mentioned yesterday, though, the other meals have been more problematic. Last night I ordered fish and (through a miscommunication) received chicken instead. That would have been fine, except that it was chicken stuffed with liver. Uh, that was a short meal. Peanut butter crackers have been a staple since then. Along with good old Coca-Cola. We have established a fairly friendly rapport with the hotel personnel, we think. We're getting a great deal of mileage out of just a few Russian words: "hello," "goodbye," "please," and "thank you." We've also had to learn "excuse me" out of necessity! ;-) It's actually a lot of fun saying things in Russian and having people know what we're saying. (All of our friends who actually speak languages other than English are rolling their eyes right now, I know... ;-) This weekend we plan a trip to Lake Baikal and at some point we plan to visit the local museum. We are finding that Irkutsk is not without its charms. There is a production right now of "Jesus Christ Superstar" right down the street. More on the city in a future message. That's all for today. We miss you all very much, and are looking forward to introducing Benjamin to you, and sharing our stories in person. A warning: don't ask either of us to see pictures unless you have an hour or so to spare! ;-) Cheers, Kevin & Julie