She's Here!

Nastya finally made it to Texas around midnight last night! She is a precious, sweet girl with a gentle, shy smile. It was a rough start, but is much better now! I want to be real on here about things - so here goes...

Let me back up at bit and go through the events of the night. We (all of us hosting) met a kind woman named Leslie at a restaurant to talk a bit before the plane arrived. Leslie has hosted the same boy three times and was having him come again for Christmas. She hopes to adopt him - please pray for the obstacles to be overcome for this child to have a family. So we all talked about her experiences, which was enlightening since this is new for the rest of us. It was a very nice time and eye-opening in many ways.

So after several cups of coffee :) it was finally time to go meet the children at the airport. We stood anxiously waiting for them to come down the escalator to the baggage claim area. Finally we spotted them, but my first thought was - "Where's Nastya?" Then a cute little blond with a shy smile was walking right up to me - she must have seen my picture, and I finally recognized her. She looks so different from the picture, partly because her hair has grown out a lot. Most of all though, she is about as tall as my six year old son even though she is nine. I kept thinking maybe she isn't really nine but we confirmed that she is. It breaks my heart to see the reality of malnutrition - you can know the facts but to see it - it is truly overwhelming. Although I expected her to be little for her age, Zach and I were both shocked. So to be honest, the first meeting was a bit awkward. I hugged her and spoke a little of my Ukrainian phrases. She timidly said "hello". She smiled the whole time but neither one of us really knew what to say and just took a lot of pictures and smiled. I looked around and watched the other children meet their host families. We had Oksana (6) with Becca, Oksana (6) with Camille, Sasha (9) with Roxanne, and Sergey (8) with Leslie. The six year olds were a little more open to hugs, etc, but - as you would expect the older girls were a little more reserved. So we soon met the translator - Laura -asked a few questions (my list had been forgotten for the moment), and walked to our car. On the ride home Nastya would talk a bit, I would talk a bit, I tried out a bit of the Ukrainian phrases I had learned and most of all we were just all tired.

We finally arrived home and she was excited to see our bird and hesitantly toured the house with me. I told her it was time to put on her pajamas and realized she had TONS of layers of clothes. Is this how they pack for the kids?!? Seriously - she must have been burning up on the plane. So we got into bed and I read her a book and told her "dobranich" - "good night". She began to cry. I told her it was okay and tried to figure out what was wrong - but figured she was just overwhelmed and overtired. The crying continued quite a awhile until finally she fell asleep around 4:00 in the morning. Come to find out (later today) she had not slept in almost 24 hours! It was very difficult to see her upset and I felt so sad for her. I can't imagine how frightening it is to fly halfway across the world to a family you have never met who has a different language,customs, sounds, environment, everything!

We both slept until close to 9:00 on Friday and then had a nice breakfast. I am glad to see that she eats well! We then called the translator and explained it was time for a bath. She was a little unsure but ended up totally loving a big bubble bath. I found a bit of clothes that fit her and we headed to Becca's (where Laura - our translator is staying). She started to relax and played and talked with Oksana awhile.

We then went to Target! There were 4 adults and 7 kids all looking through the clothes and piling stuff into the cart! I chose a few things out of the pile that she made that I thought she needed. To make the shopping trip even more chaotic :), Zach arrived with Allee, Jadon, and Ben. They were so happy to meet her - Ben ran up and gave her a huge hug - it was so precious. She became a little overwhelmed because she didn't know what they were saying, but our sweet translator stepped in and helped. Laura ended up going back to our house and we all played in the backyard with the dogs. Nastya absoulutely adores the animals - the 2 big dogs, the cats, the bird - the pets have really helped her to feel comfortable. She loves to jump on the trampoline, drive Ben's little motorized car, swing, run - it is so wonderful to see her enjoying playing. I am so thankful for the gorgeous weather we have had thi week! I think she is much more comfortable with us all now and is doing great learning some English words. She seems to be very smart and certainly knows how to play Uno as she beat us all last night! Leslie L. - I'm glad you mentioned on your blog that there a few different rules that they use for Uno in Ukraine :)

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. The Lord is answering those prayers. I have had peace through all of this even though it's been a bit crazy and I know that's from God. Keep praying - especially that Nastya will feel comfortable and loved and that we can be able to communicate! I would love to know her thoughts!

Okay, that's it for now. I won't always be so wordy - I just didn't want to forget these things and haven't had a moment to post until now. I forgot to mention that I dropped and broke my camera just before we went to pick her up at the airport. I am using my mom's camera but need to get the cable to download. I promise pictures soon! Nastya loves the camera and has taken lots and lots of pictures!