So Worth the Wait

So I promised everyone some good news this week 

and I am finally ready to post it here. 

This week as been such an exhausting week. 

You know how you dream of something for so long and have it planned

out exactly how you think it should go but then 

when the moment comes it is usually not how you planned it?

Well, 

That has been what my week has been like. 

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room in Russia typing this blog!

Yep,

You read that right. 

We are here

and 

we have met the little girl we plan on adopting

and calling Natasha.

Our first visit did not go how I imagined it at all. 

You know the ones you have seen where the child runs into 

the parents arms like they have been waiting for them to come their whole life?

Not exactly what happened for us. 

Natasha was preparing to go outside with her group

when they brought her to see us. 

So she was kicking, screaming, crying

and she wanted nothing at all to do with us. 

We brought out our toys and tried to win her over 

but she wanted to go outside. 

We didn't blame her it was just not the way I had pictured our 

first meeting with her. 

We went outside with her and all the other children ran up to us. 

But not Natasha.

She ran far away. 

Can you image a child who normally gets no attention and then 

all of a sudden has 5 adults calling after her and trying to get her attention?

She must have been very scared and confused.  

Finally Steve blew up a ball and we took it over in her direction. 

Things got considerably better from that point on. 

She now decided we could be her friend and playing ball with us was lots

of fun. 

We will not be sharing any photos of her face at this time as 

she is still not officially our daughter but we did sign the referral to go 

back to court and ask to adopt her. 

I will type more about our second and third meetings later when I am not sooo tired. 

It is so beautiful where we are and we have had a really nice time. 

We have fallen in love with her home and her people and 

of course she has stolen our hearts.

We also have started to squeak our way into hers. 

We are so thankful to all of you who have supported us in our journey this far.

We will be working hard the next few months

to finish up our fundraising and paperwork for our court trip. 

Praying to be back in October to see our precious little one again.

So here are the picture I have of us from our first trip with a little flower over her face.

 I am teaching her how to sign ball

Here she is signing ball back to me.

 Steve playing ball with her.

 She loved this little pad