Tuesday (a day late)

Blogging, I’ll have you know, can be difficult when you’re bored.

Or maybe I’m just not that dedicated.

The days have been wonderful, the same, but wonderful.

Mayah has just wiggled her cuteness right into our hearts.  We are so ready to have her HOME with her brothers where she belongs.  A home where she will have regular baths, delicious food (better up my game, then!) toys-a-plenty, and a fresh change of clothing daily.  And yet, all that seems so small compared to finding part of a missing piece in OUR lives, in our hearts. 

All this from driving home the night before Thanksgiving last year, after having coffee with my BFF and the word adoption was placed in my heart. 

That was it.  God never said another word.  Not one that I heard anyway.  It’s quite possible He has spoken and I’ve missed it along the way.  I stayed up late that night researching adoption.  I had no idea the adoption world was so large.  The morning of Thanksgiving, I showed my husband what I was doing all night and his reply was simple, “I’m not surprised.” 

We didn’t even know anyone that had adopted before.  Our closest tie was Dan’s mom who is an adoptee.  She was adopted as an infant. 

We simply had no idea what God wanted from us, or where it would take us.  11 months later, we are in Ukraine and in 9 days we’ll be the proud parents of 4 children!  9 more days and Mayah will be a Dziagwa. 

We tried to get her to say Dziagwa today…hmm…it didn’t work out so well.  Her middle name she did a better job on.  (Nope, not telling until she’s ours!)

We are thinking about speech therapy for her in the future.  We need to wait to see what is in store for her in regards to her hearing first. 

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted pictures, so they’re below!

Her hair was super cute today in French-braided pigtails.  I can’t wait to get her ribbons at home to tie on the bottoms.    

We have taken the liberty to take her outside on the nice days.  We never asked permission.  The weather was nice, so we just didn’t go directly over to the hospital.  The grounds are huge, so we enjoyed exploring them with her. 

She climbed up these inverted monkey bars, gets to the top, realized she’s scared and with encouragement, she got down all on her own!  I was so proud of her.

Yesterday I was able to find a nice pair of pink and white sketchers at a 2^nd hand store.  They were a great fit for Angela!  I was happy to get her a new pair.  They really wear their shoes here until beyond falling apart. 

Today we took the jump ropes to the orphanage.  The kids were so excited.  Again, we were happy to share.  As the last days here go on, we have more with us to give to the kids and the workers.  I think I’m also bringing back a suitcase full of toys for Mayah’s groupa house upon her DEPARTURE!

Dan and I are returning to the states on Friday the 19^th!  10 more days and we’ll be on our way home!  I’m incredibly excited to see the boys again.  My mother in law also bought my turkey so I wouldn’t have to worry about that when I get back.  I can’t wait for Thanksgiving.

I’ll only be home for a week and 1 day.  Dan and I will get home on Saturday morning if all plans work out the way we’d like them to.  We’re hoping to stay in a hotel before the drive home from the airport.  Planning on renting a car or maybe taking the train?  I’ll be looking into that when we get back downstairs.  My return flight is on Sunday the 28^th and I’ll be back in Kiev on the 29^th.  My ticket is getting purchased today;)

I took the bubbles with us today!  It was windy, but Mayah did enjoy chasing them around. 

Today during our visit, after playing outside, we worked on saying body parts. Eyes, nose, mouth, hands and feet.  She does her best at the words when I put my head against hers to hear through the vibrations. 

We are looking forward to our evening visit.  The others no longer join us.  Vlad wants to, but we think he was told to leave us alone.  Yesterday I did pop out to take them some snacks in the tv room.  Ruslana is no longer there, we saw her in one of the other areas on the grounds today as we were leaving. 

The orphanage dentist approached us yesterday with her Russian/English dictionary.  She has children living in the states and wanted to know if we could mail them some candy and books once we got home. 

Happy to help!

My prayer continues for this area, the people and especially the children in the orphanage. 

WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE? 

Dan and I have been praying together about this and are excited at what God has in store for us.