Marsha and the Rain- By Rob

When I was a kid growing up in the thriving metropolis of Ham Lake Minnesota, I watched cartoons and kids shows just like any normal kid. In fact, I remember watching my fair amount of Soap Operas (Days of Our Lives) as well in the summer time, maybe a story for a different blog....

But one show in particular that I really loved for a number of years was the Brady Bunch. In fact, I think I watched every possible episode of that show over the course of a few years from when I was 12 years old till I was say 15. In fact, I even remember mowing the lawn one summer day, looking forward to watching the Brady Bunch later that afternoon and daydreaming about the episode that was going to be on. I had seen it so much that I was actually daydreaming about the exact episode that would come on later that day. Strange I know....

I saw the early years when they just got married and became the clan that they were and Davey Jones visited the house. I remember the mid years when they went to Hawaii and had crazy accidents because of the mystic figurine that they picked up by mistake. I remember the little bit later years when Cousin Oliver came on to the scene in a big way and worked his way into our hearts with that mop of hair. And I remember the classic episodes where Kitty Carryall was taken by the dog, the kids formed a singing group and of course who could remember Marsha, Marsha Marsha episode. Of course this was when Jan was so jealous of Marsha and all the love she got from boys and people in general. I think everyone remembers that episode.

Since we have been coming to the orphanage to pick up Lucy everyday for our visits, the funniest thing happens every time we get there, the nannies start calling out Marsha, Marsha Marsha. Don't imagine Jan Brady doing it, but imagine a 50 year old nanny in a eastern european accent screaming out these words. We just bust up laughing everytime they say it. Apparently the name Maria, which is Lucy's real name, is pronounce Marsha in their language so they just call out her name every time we pick her up. But it always carries Dena and I back to the Brady Bunch when they do it. I would have thought they would pronounce her name like any other country in the world, Maria. But apparently not. It is a great way to start the day though. Dena and I look at each and giggle everytime they do it.

Rain.... For those of you in Texas that might be reading this blog, please skip this part because you are getting killed by a crazy dry spell apparently. But we are just so sick and tired of Rain. Ever since we arrived in our town last Saturday the 25th, we have been getting killed with Rainy day after Rainy day. It stops here and there for a few minutes but overall, the day just gets eaten up by rain. Funny thing is though that it seems that for the two hours in the AM and the PM that we have our time with Lucy, it stops, then it starts again. It stops just long enough for us to pick her up and bring her to a little shelter out of the orphanage where we can play with her adn walk around a bit. Then when we drop her off it always seems to pick back up again. It is amazing. I talked with our in country team the other day briefly on the phone and asked if this was a normal summer and they gasped NO! They said that this is very uncharacteristic of the summer here and we just happened to hit a spell with this horrible weather. The good part is that we get the non rain times when we see Lucy and I guess that is all that matters. God gives us just enough of a dry time per day to see her and that is enough for us.

We have court on Monday the 4th of July. We are excited and looking forward to the day. We appreciate all prayers and positive thoughts on this day so that God would provide a smooth and delay free court day. Someone posted on Dena's Facebook page the other day that it was cool that Lucy will officially become a member of our American family the same day that we celebrate our American existence. Pretty symbolic and a great day to be an American!!!