A Leap of Faith - Adopting Her & Him 05

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Friday, September 23, 2005

Friday Night

Friday, it seemed like Friday was so far away, but here we are at our last weekend. Today we took Anna with us to see Jenna. Vanya went with us as well, and our favorite driver was able to take us. I’m not sure if its psychosis or numbness to stress, but taxi rides aren’t the white knuckle adventure they used to be. The weather was beautiful and Jenna’s group was just getting ready to go outside. Jenna was still shy towards us today, but Anna and Vanya were able to speak to her and I believe it was comforting to her. Also, it was insightful for us because they were able to ask her questions about her new Mama and Papa and brothers. Anna told her all about her new family who were waiting at home for her. She seemed very happy about being a “Russian-American” princess, she said. We explained, through Vanya, that in 3 days we would be taking her with us. She is very smart and I know she will be speaking English in no time. She was also happy to hear about her new room, with pink bed quilt and flowers on the wall. This time next week, she’ll be sleeping in it! It sounds a little cliché to say “to see things through the eyes of a child”, but the newness and sense of hope and wonder is truly overwhelming.

We got back a little after 1:00 and walked through the marketplace. Not much happening there. Once we made it back here, Anna cooked us a wonderful lunch and then we just hung out the rest of the day. We have some shopping to do tomorrow. Joseph’s caregivers asked for some help getting diapers and cloth to make bibs from. May sound funny, but we’re also trying to plan our strategy with luggage and kids for the trip back to Kiev, the train and train station are not “luggage friendly”. Also, tomorrow is Kostya’s birthday and we’ve been invited to his party. His wife Olga has been cooking for 2 days so that’ll be a nice diversion for us.

Sally, we’re thinking of you and everyone there, you can come to Swansboro to stay you know. Pamela and Paul, I wish we had known earlier so we could have been praying for you, our hearts are so heavy for you and your family. Please tell Sue that she is constantly in our thoughts and prayers as are you. Mom and Cathy, thank you for the updates from home. Char, kiss our boys for us and tell them we’ll be tucking them in before they know it.

4 Comments:

  • The waiting for the next phase of your journey is hard...but stay in the moment....it will never come again and is precious...look through those eyes of the child every chance you get...being "grown up" is highly over rated at times.

    By Anonymous, at 3:05 PM  

  • In case you haven't seen the lastest here's today's news on Rita...and "Aunt Mary" just told me she heard Aunt Sally made it to her Mom's....
    9-23-05 weather channel
    Hurricane Rita will make a final approach to the upper Texas coast/western Louisiana coast today and is expected to make landfall by mid-morning Saturday. Rita should make landfall as a large Category 2 or 3 hurricane with impacts extending well away from the center. As Hurricane Rita comes onshore, the destructive winds and surge (a water level rise of 5 to 15 feet) could especially target the coast from Galveston, Texas, to Cameron, Louisiana. Large waves (peaking 15 to 25+ feet) will affect most of the coastal areas around the entire Gulf. Once inland, a rapidly weakening Rita could move northward and then stall in easternmost Texas and extreme western Louisiana and possibly drifting back to the south or southwest. Rainfall across easternmost Texas and southwestern Louisiana may exceed 12 inches initially, but if the stalling scenario plays out then well over 20 inches of rain is possible

    By cathy, at 5:54 PM  

  • Hi Guys,

    So, Miss Jenna is well aware of her princess status!!! That doesn't take long for any little girl to realize that. I can't wait till our little princesses can meet and play together and do all the cute princessy and royal stuff little girls do. I agree with the previous post - aside from being able to do cool things like drive and stay up all night, sometimes adulthood can be less than fabulous.

    Rita has been downgraded to a 3 and is expected to hit Port Arthur or Beaumont tomorrow morning. On our local weather here this morning the weather lady was talking about some ideas people had for how to lessen the storm's force before it hits land (my favorite was the "Nuke Them" theory). It seems weird that this huge thing is coming and everyone knows it and has exactly a certain period of time to decide what to do when it hits. She explained that nobody has been able to figure out a way to keep Mother Nature at bay at this time. Anyway, hopefully it won't be as bad as they think. You guys missed Katrina and all that stuff. I'm not sure how much you've read about it, but people are still trying to put New Orleans back together.

    This may sound kind of silly, but are all the kids in Jacob's groupa boys? I didn't want to assume anything, but it is kind of hard to tell by their clothing ;-) I was just thinking how cool Halloween is going to be for them. You guys have to stop by our place for trick or treat!!

    Have a fab weekend. Love and hugs,
    Mandy, Eddie, Liam, and Princess Dayna Siobhan

    By Anonymous, at 7:04 PM  

  • P.S. In Re the Above Post:
    I meant Joseph's groupa, not Jacob's. I'm assuming Jacob's football "groupa" are all boys, but I coud be wrong there too, maybe. Uniforms and clothing in general can be quite confusing!!

    OXOXO
    Mandy

    By Anonymous, at 7:10 PM  

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