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Lara and Svetlana were very shy and scared when they first met us, but soon adjusted to living in our family. We have done our best to pick up Russian as they have with English, but they seem to enjoy signing better. They absolutely adore little Sun or Sunny as we call her sometimes. One day, we joined a family singing class and much to our surprise, Lara began to sing the most beautiful Russian song! She will not speak, but she has an incredible singing voice that we occasionally hear drifting from her bedroom she shares with Svetlana. Some how, Svetlana picked up the fact that Tryfina was also blind and the two are now almost as inseperable as her and Lara. We actually put all 6 girls in a huge bonus room with bunkbeds that have curtains over them to give them their own space. Aria and Lucinda had a little trouble with Lara and Svetlana at first, but now they all play together nicely.

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Our beautiful boys, Patrick Kofi, Jordan Tafari, and Alex Kwesi are growing up happy and healthy. While not blind, Alex does seem to have problems with his eyes, probably due to mal-nutrition. The girls love their "living dollies" and I never have to look far to find help. They have a nursery a bit apart from the girls room. (we didn't make John-Mark share his room with 3 babies, he lives in an alcove where all his computer stuff is safe from little hands)

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Sunny is exactly what her name is to us. Bright and shiny, she has only cried once since we've had her and it was when Jonathon accidentally left the oven on and open and Sunny reached in to get a cookie and burned her fingers. It was very sad and he hasn't done it again. Her little doggy Silky is very spoiled but is extremely dedicated to Sunny.

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Our family is big and busy and thats the way we like it. John-Mark would love more boys with similar intrests, and we would love more little girls Tryfina's age.

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Thanks so much for our great kids!
Jonathon, Maria, John-Mark, Lara, Svetlana, Lucinda, Aria, Sunny, Patrick, Jordan, Alex