Adjusting to life with Sveta

Today was Sveta's first dentist appointment.  This will be her last since they gave her a clean bill of health on her teeth.  She was a little nervous as her only experience with a dentist before was a very bad one.  She put on a shirt this morning that said "Angels" and while we were waiting for the dentist, we looked at pictures of what would happen while she was in there.  Sveta looked at me and said "Me Angela (she pointed at the shirt that said "Angels"), you Sveta.  You teeth!" In her own little way she was telling me that she wanted me to see the dentist. 

She has adjusted so well to being here with the girls and David and I.  She has made it her job to feed the pets and clean the hamster cage and fish bowl.  She has really followed me around finding ways to help me. 

There have been very few language problems.  Tonight was one of those.  I gave my girls each a chore and Sveta was trying to distract them.  I tried explaining to Sveta that they had chores to do, but I didn't know the word.  Cleta looked up chore in the Russian/ English dictionary and it wasn't there so she looked up job instead.  Next to the word job there was a sentence, "My job is to do the dishes." She showed it to Sveta to try and show her that the girls had jobs.  Sveta got up and went over to the sink and started washing up the dishes.  She thought we were telling her to do that job.

COC picnic

Last night was the Children of Chernobyl welcome picnic.  They had clothes for the children and then there was a potluck.

Sviatlana and all the kids had so much fun.

This is a picture of Sveta with her best friend Anya.  Anya is staying with another family here and they spent the night at her host family's house on Friday night.

Here is one of a few of the kids together.

The dinner was great.  There were prizes for all the kids and then each of the Belarussian children was presented with a bag of presents and a Russian Bible.  They took a nice picture of all of us together. (Impossible to get 12 people all looking in the same direction).

Sveta is settling in very well.  I am learning a lot of Russian and she is doing very well on her English.  She never misses an opportunity to cuddle with me or one of the little children.  She is very good with them too.  We love having her here!

A busy fun week with family (part 2)

The second half of last week was very busy  too, but in a different way.  I did a little organizing for our move and then we had the inspection on the new house.  Saturday we went on a tour of the DC Mormon Temple visitor's center as my Aunt is Mormon and really wanted to see it.  I have to admit that it is a beautiful structure even if it was a very hot day!

After the tour of the Visitor's Center, we drove back home and went to our neighbor's son's graduation party.  We put the water slide up and the kids had a blast until it was time to go out for Father's Day dinner.  (we went out on Saturday because we figured that Sunday the lines would be really long).

On Sunday Daddy wanted to take the girls to the pool so we spent the afternoon there.

Monday morning we made the decision to go into DC since Cleta and Britta haven't been yet.  The kids had fun, but it was SO HOT!  The only thing that kept us going was a bit of a cool breeze and a sprinkler here and there.

They seemed to have fun in spite of the heat!

Someone else was trying to keep cool as well.

After that day we were so hot and tired that we were happy to get home!  That evening we found a huge lump on Bela's lymph node in her neck, so Tuesday we went to the doctor.

Tuesday morning the doctor told us that Bela had a staff/ strep infection in her lymph node.  I was relieved to hear that it wasn't mumps, and the antibiotics are working so that is a blessing.
After the doctor, I got into a little fender bender with a lady in the parking lot.  Luckily nobody was hurt and there was minimal damage on my vehicle, but I believe that she is trying to get money for damage that was already on her vehicle.  I reported it to my insurance and left them to it.

And now to the best part of all.  Svieta is finally here after all these months of waiting.  David and I picked her up yesterday.  She speaks English pretty well and seems to be very happy here.

We spent yesterday getting to know each other and having fun on the waterslide. 

Even Cleta went down!

And I am embarrassed to admit so did I!

Svieta fits right in in this family.  She is a wonderful, vibrant girl who is full of life.  She smiles all the time and enjoys chatting in Russian with David.  When she gets going she chats a mile a minute too.  We are so happy to have her here!

A busy fun week with family (part 1)

I can't begin to tell you how busy my life has been the past few weeks.  Just when I get a chance to sit down and try to type up a post, something happens.  We are having a wonderful time with my Aunt Cleta...

And my cousing Britta (she's the one in the middle between Brittany and Gabby)

We went to David's company picnic the second day they were here and the kids had so much fun, they had face painting, bouncy castles, and paddle boats.  Each of the girls caught a fish and then threw it back.

Monday we were going to go roller skating, but discovered that the rink was closed down, so we painted pottery instead.

Last Tuesday we went to Great Falls and had a barbecue.  I think that was the last somewhat cool weather day we had.  The girls enjoyed themselves so much!

We took some awesome pictures that day.

I promise more pictures, but for now I am going to close this post and it will be continued tomorrow... (see I told you something always happens, Dani is sitting next to me crying because she is so tired she can barely keep her eyes open and I need to go see to her)

TO BE CONTINUED...

Eric

My heart is aching as I write this for a very dear friend of mine!  Marty and Donna lost their son May 20th to a drowning accident.  He was 20.  Please keep them in your prayers.  Marty and Donna lost another son about 20 years ago.  He was 1 1/2 years old and he contracted spinal meningitis.  They have been through so much!  Please pray that God will comfort them.  We know Eric is in a better place and that is a comfort!

When they were little in Texas together, Brittany and Eric used to play.  He was 9 and Brittany was 5. 

Thank you!

Just a little note of appreciation to all of you who faithfully stop by and visit my blog even though I have been terrible about posting.  You are all so good to me and I love you all!  Thanks, I will try to be better!

Typepad trouble?

Is anybody else having trouble with Typepad comments?  I have had trouble leaving comments on all typepad sites today.  Is mine the same way?

A fun weekend, a new house and a Belorussian child

What a blessed weekend we have had.  Saturday Daddy spent a whole lot of time with the girls since he will be gone in Hawaii for a week.  They had so much fun.

They were truly climbing walls!

They are quite the acrobats! (They get that from him and not from me for sure!)

Everyone was getting along splendidly!

Yes my flowers do look lovely, you should see the roses!

And now for the best news of all!  Today we put in an offer on a house and it was accepted tonight!  We are so excited.  Here are a few pictures and there will be many more when we do our walk thru.

This is the front view of the house.

This is my new kitchen!

Family room

Part of the yard

We won't get to move in till August because we will have Sviatlana here.  We also got a picture of her and I know this post is full of pictures, but just one more.  Here she is, our little Belorussian foster child Svieta!  We are so excited about her coming and will have many more photos!