We had such a busy week and weekend. Ken's family was in town so everyday we had something going on. We celebrated Grandma Eskelson's birthday, we had a fun dinner at Chris and Tami's new home, we went to the Casino for dinner and a show, we visited a Greek monastery, and hung out watching movies and shootin' the breeze. Lots of fun! If any of you are in Arizona and would like a "touristy" thing to do, the Greek Monastery in Florence is a great place to go. It is an Oasis in the desert, literally! It is surrounded by so much GREEN and the buildings, churches, and art work are beautiful! Greeks monks built it 13 years ago (why they decided Arizona, I have no idea!), and now they live there. There is no cost to enter, they just ask not to take pictures of the monks because it is their home.
Above is a picture of us at the monastery...and no I do not dress like this usually! I would just advise not to go in the dead of summer because the women do have to completely cover up! The website if you are interested is http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/index.php . Here are just a few more photo's:
On the adoption front:
I submitted for immigration approval and am just waiting to hear back! After we get that approval, we are ready to submit our dossier to Ukraine! For everyone in AZ, we were going to do our big yard sale this weekend (May 10th), but I have postponed it to May 24th. We have just SO much stuff that we are going to hold a couple smaller yard sales at our house, instead of taking everything to my MIL's house. We will keep you updated! Thanks for all the donations...they keep coming! We are truly grateful for everyone's generosity!!
Question for all those that have used English-to-Russian software: does anyone know of a good translation website? I found a couple sites that offers free translating, but I do not know how accurate it is! We are writing letters to the girls, but it would be nice to be able to send it to them in Russian so they can read it! But when I test the free sites out, it translates it a little different than how I wrote it (hopefully this makes sense!). For example, I would say "Hi my name is Joy. It is nice to meet you. I like to go to the park and play." (this is not what my real letter says!)
And in response to the translating, I get "Greetings my name - Pleasure. It is good to meet you. I like to go to park and game." Okay, so I know this is funny and I am probably sounding really naive right now, but any help would be appreciated!! I do not know if the Russian language really does just speak/translate differently. HELP!
8 comments:
OMG - the wheels are really turning for you guys! How exciting :D I will have to keep the monastery in mind for our next trip. We generally stay out in Apache Jct, so I will need to look and see how far it is form there.
Ladybug hugs,
;D
Joy, you look very cute covered up!
It's great that your dossier is almost done - hopefully the immigration approval will be quick.
As for the translation sites, I tried www.freetranslation.com, but as you said, it didn't make any sense when translated into Russian. I can help you translate your letter into Russian if you want. E-mail me at adoptinodessa at yahoo.com.
Yeah for you! Funny thing, though... I was looking at your family pic above and wondering why the heck you were wearing a scarf over your head- it's AZ afterall! How interesting it was to learn about them having the women cover themselves up...
Hi Joy Dave Baxter here hey have looked at Rosetta stone software
http://www.rosettastone.com/
it is suppose to teach you any language really fast. I don't know if they have translation software but I bet if you call their customer service they could tell you or make a suggestion.
Thanks Dave! I will definitely look into this!
How fun to go to the monastery. I had no idea it was there. I'll have to go... I love stuff like that. I don't know about translation software, but my brother knows Russian and would be happy to translate anything for you. He would have to handwrite what you wanted to say so it would be in russian letters. If you are interested let me know and I'll hook you up. Good luck with the adoption.
Check out Altavista's Babel Fish translation. Maybe Natalia can tell you how accurate it is. ;)
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
Wow, that was fast! When do you think you will submit your dossier?
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