I can't believe it's been five months since I last posted here. For those few of you who have diligently checked back every so often, I apologize for the lack of updates. Here's the whirlwind recap...

First and foremost, Suzanne is doing wonderfully well. As reported previously, Suzanne started chemotherapy this past August, while I was still in UKR finishing up our adoption of Cory. Chemo, which lasted four months, was very tough for Suz. Some people just get hard by it, and Suz is one of them. Of the 18 weeks of therapy, I think it's safe to say that she was either in bed or on the couch for 14 of them. For those of you who have been through chemo, or who know friends or family who have gone through it (unfortunatley, far too many of us), you know of what I speak. Suzanne finished chemo one week before Christmas, and just 12 days ago, underwent a double mastectomy. She came through the surgery with flying colors, and the best of all: The doctors found absolutely no cancer, and her pathology report came back completely clean! This is huge, and her surgeon told her it is not commonplace--typically, some cancer cells are detected after chemo and during or right after surgery, but Suzanne was a "complete responder," which is a medical way of saying God completely healed her. Suzanne will rest for a few more weeks, and then go through a bit of precautionary radiation. After another stint to recoup, she will have reconstructive surgery.

Cory is a different person than when I last posted, for many reasons....

First, he speaks near-fluent English now! Also, he has grown more than two inches and his health has improved significantly (we had to treat two different parasites in his system, as well as deal with anemia). You can see in the attached photo what a difference a few months of good food and medical attention can do for a little boy!

Cory is truly thriving in his new life. School has been a real journey, as he started K just two weeks after coming from Ukraine, which means he only knew a few English words on the first day of school. His teacher, Laura Halloran, is awesome, and from day one was very reassuring, letting us know that every year she has at least 2-3 kids who start the year not knowing English, and by the end of the school year they are all fluent. After just four short months (by Christmas) Cory had basically mastered the basics of English. He's still learning to conjugate his verbs, navigate vowels, and master the verb tenses (now I sound like a book editor!), but he's getting there. He is a sharp kid, very intelligent, and extremely athletic and coordinated. The kid can do things naturally that I could only dream of doing as a kid. Standing flips, hand springs into handstands, etc.). This Spring he will run Rec track followed by soccer, and nearly every day he asks me if he can start riding his bike again (it's currently 2 degrees outside, with snow and ice all over the roads, so you already know my answer).

More perhaps next week. Thanks for your prayers and love.

Kyle