Ice Cream for Dinner?

Mrs. Beaver:

Yesterday Mr. Beaver invited us to come to his work as his day finished. He wanted to show Daria, Alexander, and Oksana where their Papa works, but the rest of us also benefited because he offered to feed us ice cream.

Mr. Beaver, who works in Research and Development (as well as Marketing) even let us try some ice creams that won't be out on the market for few weeks yet.

Joe and Lissie are chocolate ice cream connoisseurs, and they declared the new chocolate to be the best they'd ever tasted.

We all enjoyed our unusual and NUTRITIOUS dinner!

Alexander was down-right gleeful!

We weren't surprised by his reaction, however. We first met him in Moscow in January, along with about 10 other orphans. They'd all been given the opportunity to leave their orphanages, 400 hundred miles to the east, for nearly a week and spend time with a group of American adults interested in ministering to them. Some of the adults would go on to adopt, although we were not allowed to tell the child or children that outright. However, the kids who were likely to get adopted began to suspect as the week went on. When Alexander learned that the man he hoped would be his papa "made" ice cream, his face beamed and he ran from friend to friend telling the other orphans of his good fortune.

Oksana was even eating two-fisted at times.

After our feast, Mr. Beaver gave a us tour. He showed us the kitchen where the culinologist does his creative work. With Daria's love of cooking, she immediately decided she'd like just such a kitchen for her own.

We then visited a freezer that is kept at 20 degrees below zero.

Tessa found that a bit chilly, but Joe came quickly to his sister's rescue.

We saw Papa's cubicle...

...and while we were in the office area of the building, Lissie walked by an antiquated piece of equipment and innocently asked, "What's this?" (We staged the photo.)

All-in-all, the evening was a great hit with everyone...

...contributing to the growing family closeness.

Today, 22 December 2010, we celebrated our one month anniversary as a family of 14. God has been so very good to us. This past month just couldn't have gone more smoothly. He is the Giver of All Good Gifts (James 1:17), and He's given us three new gems to add to the nine He had already given us!