Do I have to post?

The longer I wait to post, the harder it becomes since I feel like I've got so much to catch up on. But I know a few of you out there who are probably wondering what happened this past week. I usually don't go quite this long without writing...

Brief summary (that's relative, of course):

• Clothing drive for Ukraine with Master Provisions on Saturday (a week ago), in which we packed 2.5 tons of clothes to send to Ukraine. We love this ministry and have seen firsthand the work that MP does in Ukraine. If you are looking for a ministry to support, I would highly recommend them! The boys did great and we got some good laughs out of it, especially when Zhenya told me he was going to Ukraine for 5 minutes and then would come back and take his nap. :) :)
• I was in a training class for work this week that kept me pretty busy. On top of that, I have to test for some software training certification by the end of this week, and study time has been scarce.
• Mark has started a new job. I hadn't posted much about the whole process because we weren't sure where everything was going, but now that we're settled I feel comfortable going public. :) He continues to work at Children's part time, but he is working full time for a physical therapy outpatient clinic that specializes in hand therapy. He did a clinical at this clinic during grad school, so he's very familiar with the clinic and they with him. It's going to keep him busy, but is a really great opportunity.
• I have some potential options at work that could use some prayer.
• Zhenya bashed his head at school on Tuesday and ended up with a nice goose egg that has run the full range of bruise colors. According to him, it didn't hurt, and he will cry if it does so he must have hit it in just the right spot.
• Dima had his first actual OT appointment this Friday, and it went really well. He was still very unsure when we first got there, but warmed up quickly and really enjoyed it.

I had posted previously about trying to incorporate more Christian music into our time together, and to that end I received a CD from Matt Maher which I've really enjoyed. Contemporary and upbeat but not too heavy for me. :) We also picked up a worship CD at Target (of all places) today. All of the songs on it are ones that we sing at church, so we help the boys learn the words and melodies. Speaking of singing, Mark and I will be ever so happy when Dima learns the alphabet song beyond D. He can recognize almost all of his letters now, but he doesn't know the song so we hear "A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D" in varying tones and with an occasional "W" thrown in (usually as "A, B, C, W...").

Zhenya has been more of a challenge lately. I really think he's testing some boundaries unrelated to the adoption other than that he hasn't had the opportunity to test them earlier. We're working on being consistent with discipline with him. As an adoptive parent, it's hard to balance the desire to give the boys all of the attention they've missed out on in their earlier lives and the need to raise them to behave appropriately (or what we think is appropriate).