Facing the rain and licking my wounds...

So, just in case I've been painting too pretty a picture of sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, I have to admit that we had a little rain fall earlier this week.

Before I share, I want to point out that, not only did I expect these things to happen, but they are completely normal for a child coming from Nastya's background. On top of everything else, she must still feel like she's landed on Mars sometimes...everything is still so very new for her...I wish I had even half the resilience that she has!

We were told in our training that it would be very likely that we would experience some pouting from our host child from time to time. Most of these kids only know how to deal with adults as authority figures and so when told "no" about something, they will sometimes retreat and pout. We have experienced this a few times with Nastya and it is so hard. She is normally a vivacious, energetic, and silly girl and to see her face go blank and have her retreat has been very difficult to watch.

This is where Greg and I have had to have a thick skin and make sure that we are making ourselves available to her. So far we have given her a few minutes, but then gone in to comfort her. We explain why we said no, address the disappointment, and then invite her to come join in whatever it is we are doing as a family. Lucky for us these pouting sessions don't last long and she seems to understand that we are setting boundaries in order to have fun. I hope that eventually she will see that this is what loving parents do.

My favorite pouty moment so far was when she wanted me to french braid her hair the other morning (which I haven't done since I had Barbie dolls...what...30 years ago?) and I did a sloppy job of it. She ripped the braiding out and pouted all the way out the door and into the car. I was staying home that morning with Trevor who was sick so I had a chance to lick my wounds. Truly, it had to be disappointing for her...she is a comparative master at working with her hands! I was able to sit down with her when she got home and I typed into Google Translate: "You are trying hard to learn English; I will try hard to learn to braid." I got a big smile out of that one...I think we've got a deal!

She's also been experiencing a little homesickness which makes me so sad for her. We let the kids exchange their gifts to each other on Christmas Eve and when she opened up her gift from Samantha she ran up to her room. I found her in bed crying. I asked if we had made her sad and she shook her head no. I said "are you feeling homesick?" and she nodded and said "sisters". Poor girl. She has several siblings back home...of course she misses them!

At this point I was crying too so I told her it was OK to cry and then we prayed together that God would comfort both her and her sisters while they were apart. She seemed a little down in the dumps the rest of the evening but we just took things easy and muddled through. By the next morning she was back to her usual peppy self and has been doing well since then.

As tough as these experiences have been, I am so glad for them. Many of these kids don't feel like they can show emotion and I was relieved to see her shedding tears and giving in to what she was feeling. I was thankful for the opportunity to pray together. And I'm glad she is testing us because it gives us a chance to show her unconditional love. It also means that she is comfortable enough with us to try and be a normal kid while she is here. She really is fantastic!

And guess what? We are still having fun:

* Every day she asks us to "skate? skate?" She loves it and after that first day of falling has been doing an awesome job on her own!



...still skating!

We are...














 





The whole bunch of 'em

* Shopping for gifts. This girl is incredibly generous. When I suggested we go shopping to get some gifts for Sam and Trevor she was thrilled. She never once asked for anything for herself but just loaded the basket with things that were perfect for them.





      Hitting the Target $1 bins

Exhanging gifts on Christmas Eve

* Enjoying a few gifts of her own: Our tradition is to give three gifts to our kids (to commemorate the three gifts the wisemen brought to the newborn king) so we got her a friendship bracelet maker, a Jesus Storybook Bible in Russian, and a Wildlife Storyteller (a stuffed animal which has a solar chargeable MP3 player inside with a pre-recorded story of Jesus's life) which she has been listening to everyday!



Sitting with her Christmas goodies



Playing the Disney Dance game on the Wii



* Later on Christmas Day we sat down as a family and watched the Story of Jesus for Children. This is an excellent film that teaches about the life and death of Jesus in a way that kids can understand. It has been translated into every possible language worldwide so my awesome tech guy (aka Greg) was able to cue up the laptop to run it simultaneously in Ukrainian so that Nastya could sit with us and watch with her headphones on. It was a great way for us to have a family discussion about the significance of Christ's birth and all three kids were clearly moved by it. Nastya said she had seen it before and it syncs well with what is on her Wildlife Storyteller recording so I am hoping to have more discussion with her about this in the coming weeks.



Watching the Story of Jesus for Children together

* And we finally finished and hung our "blessing" ornaments for our tree. Each one represents those of you who helped to fulfill our dream of bringing Nastya to America. Nastya added the bow at the top...probably because she thought it would look pretty, but how fitting that those of you represented on this tree have given us the best Christmas gift ever. With 2013 just around the corner, I pray that God brings your blessings back to you and multiplies them in the coming year!

Tree of Blessings