The girls slept in late and they were on their own until I got home at noon today. Jo’s great grandson was about to be born today and so everyone was off to the hospital in anticipation of the delivery. The girls are night owls and late sleepers where you almost have to sound a bugle to get them up so I knew they would be safe until I arrived home.

Friday afternoon we met Pam and Jay Best and their family at the YMCA. They were able to get us in with a guest pass and so the girls were able to swim again and in a place that has this huge slide. Natasha just sat down on the bench and observed for about 10 minutes and then she just threw off her beach towel and went climbing up the slide like it was Mt. Everest. Once she had one turn under her belt there was no stopping her…

Jay and Pam’s children (Sophie and Julia) played with Nina and Natasha all afternoon. Their son Andrew played sports all afternoon and held his own against his competition in basketball. There’s a funny story that when Jay and Pam went to adopt their children they planned on adopting two (Andrew and Sophie). It wasn’t until they arrived in the Ukraine that the kids told them they had another sister at another orphanage and was she (Julia) coming too! The rest is history…They packed all three kids up and off they went. It wasn’t easy in the beginning because of the translation challenges but if you could just see these kids now it goes to show what love, patience and boundaries can do for the children. Many of the children at not accustomed to following rules or having anyone care about them. It takes time for them to believe that someone really loves them and will always have their best interest at heart.

After swimming, Jay and Pam invited us over to a spaghetti dinner with salad and garlic bread. The kids were hungry since they had played all afternoon. I fixed Natasha her meal and when I took it to her and we were all seated at the table her head just went down and tears started falling down her cheeks. This is the second or third time when I have been in a big family gathering that she has shown those same emotions and we can’t determine if she misses her family or if she doesn’t feel part of the meal because she doesn’t have a family of her own… It will rip you apart with sadness and so we tried to just go on with the meal since she wanted no one to touch her or hold her. Her eyes were glued to the floor.

Finally, Julia got the great idea that once the kids went back downstairs to play on the wii they would take her food with them. It worked like a charm and they came back about 10 minutes later with an almost empty plate… She came back upstairs smiling and we clapped (she held her hands over her ears but was smiling). We ended the day with peppermint ice cream, chocolate sauce and sprinkles and the kids went downstairs with theirs and Natasha was back in the game enjoying hers as well.

As I was driving home Natasha got a glimpse of the Golden Arches which equates to French fries and she told Nina she was hungry. We zipped thru drive thru and the girls got fries and a vanilla sundae. About 30 minutes passed and I was almost in my subdivision when she tapped me on the shoulder and said in English “ I am hungry.” She saw the Golden Arches again and although I thought it was better not to do so I turned the “machine” back around and ran through drive thru AGAIN. I just kept hinking to myself that in two days she will be on a 23 hour flight with minimal amounts of food and back into an environment where only the strongest survive. She needed every last pound on that 70 pound frame to see her through.

As soon as we walked thru the door I got a phone call that baby Eli was about to be born. The girls wanted to go to the hospital and so off we went with a “Merry Christmas” gift bag of baby clothes they had found in my closet for future baby showers. We arrived at the hospital and was just sitting down with the family when Nurse Ratchett told us we had to leave. Because of the H1N1 flu they were not allowing any children in the waiting rooms. Jo tried to negotiate with her but she was having no part of it and back to the car we went but not before Natasha hit every number on the way down on the elevator. We got a picture on Nina’s telephone about 30 minutes after we arrived home of baby Eli.

The girls settled down on the couch to watch the New Year roll in as all Americans do with the traditional New Year’s Eve events… They had their blankets, dry ramen noodles and apples as we watched the ball drop in New York City and everyone sang songs as Dick Clark wished everyone a Happy New Year…. I looked at them and saw how happy they were, how content, how peaceful and wondered how we were all going to survive the airport on Sunday.