Friday morning we took Inna to Donated Dental. We were one of the first there which was really good because when she was finished, the waiting room was packed full and Inna didn't want to go out through the crowd. She had never been to the dentist before. She was a trooper. Even Dr. Larsen commented on how amazing their trust is to come in, be worked on and not have any idea what is going on. She has 7 cavities and he only filled 4 - all on the left side. He said that not any of them would have caused her discomfort or pain. Dr. Larsen also stated that if a child, here in America, had not visited the dentist until her age, they would have many, many problems and lost teeth. We were impressed by how good her teeth are, then.

She wasn't necessarily impressed by our grocery store trip afterward. (I suppose we should blame it on the dentist visit...?) When we got home from the store and without lunch, she asked if she could sleep. We had to wake her up after 2 1/2 hours to get ready to go to the SAC Halloween Party. That was the trick and we ended up being an hour late. It is always such a fun event for the kids, but we think Inna was embarassed to be in costume when most of her friends didn't dress up. The food was terrific and the kids seemed to really enjoy playing together. They have so much to do: trampolines, basketball court, soccer, jungle gym and a fire pit. The weather was mild until the sun went down and then it got rather chilly. We were surprised that Inna wanted to go to bed early, around 8:45, even after having a nap.

We went to Temple Square this morning for a Russian tour for Inna. One of the Sister Missionaries was from the same area in Ukraine as Inna is from. The other Sister Missionary was from Germany. Inna can speak and understand German. We were happy that both Sisters could talk with her. It was a very uplifting and inspiring tour and we ended with "The Testaments" movie. They turn the lights on way too soon after it's over. There isn't enough time to dry the eyes and mop the face!

We were blessed to have the rain hold off while we were at Temple Square, but, the heavens finally opened up later this afternoon. It made Trick or Treating complicated. We weren't sure Inna even wanted to go as we were getting mixed signals. My Dad's birthday is October 31 (we will celebrate with dinner Sunday after church). But, this year we were going to go visit after Trick or Treating for the traditional cider and donuts. Since it was raining and we had had only 2 people come to our door at that point, we decided to head off to my parent's house early. During the ride over, Jessica painstakingly tried to communicate with the Russian/English dictionary and as it turns out, Inna DID want to "go door to door for candy". However, every time the doorbell rang at my parent's house, Inna, acted more and more like "Umm...I'm not liking this". She would shake her head slowly back and forth with wide eyes. We cut our visit kind of short (very, very sorry Mom and Dad) so we could be home by 8:15 for some candy-getting. When we got home and took out her costume, she said, "No, No, No, No" several times and sat on the couch. We tried to get her to answer our door to give out candy instead and it took 3 different doorbell rings for her to even come within 4 feet of the screen door. Must be really freaky when you don't understand. I'm sorry, Inna.