Our "ANNIE"

I recently learned that our older daughter, whom I've always known as Anastasia, has changed her name. I'd like to introduce you to.......Annie! A boy at school called her Annie one day in class, and apparently it stuck.

Our "Annie" is natural artist. She has an eye for all things beautiful, as you can see by her latest posting, demonstrating her photography skills.

Happy Birthday Anastasia!

Our sweet Anastasia is 17 years old! We've now celebrated all three of our children's October birthdays. Nastia's having some friends from school come over on Friday for a bigger party, but last night we had our family celebration.

Nastia sees the world through the eyes of an artist. Lately I've been teaching her the art of how to loiter in a bookstore, and recently she sat down at Barnes & Noble and leafed all the way through this big book about Leonardo da Vinci.

She's also got a great eye for photography. I've encouraged her to start up her own blog now that she has a new digital camera! Happy Birthday Sweetheart....we love you!

Hi From Nastia and Masha

Hi, it's Nastia and Masha. We are writing today's blog and my dad give us camera to take all the pictures. We are good friends for one year but have known each other at internot for ten years. I so happy that Masha will come to Amerika to live in Nebraska in November I hope.

We have good times together and act very silly.

We take this picture last night at Deribososkaya Street in Odessa. That is "Ah-Diess-ah"

I (Nastia) am very happy to come to America. But I am also sad to leave Odessa and my friends.

(Masha) I will miss my friend Nastia because she will live in America. I'm so happy to come to Nebraska but I'm scared to go to school because school is so big....many people and little bit know english and will be so hard. I hope to come to Virginia to see Nastia and I hope Nastia come to Nebraska to see me. I want say hi to Steve, Gail, Laura, Amy and Michele.

(Nastia) I will miss Odessa...Black Sea, Deribosovskaya Street, my school, Svetlana my art teacher, also Tania art teacher and all school friends. Also my English teacher Larissa and Dima, and friend Vika. But I'm so happy go to America to be able to have good future and a very funny brother CP and so beautiful mom and dad. And crazy sister also. I say goodbye now and see you soon.

Our Daughter Anastasia

We are seeing some strong evidence that our 16 year old daughter is pretty darn smart. Yesterday I handed her a book before she returned to the orphanage called Speak English Like An American. It was a hasty Internet purchase I made just before our trip and I was disappointed to learn that it's one of those books that helps advanced English students learns American idioms such as "water off a ducks back." My expectations for it being useful were low, so I was curious when Anastasia returned to our apartment this morning and handed me the book with a sly smile. She had gone through almost half the book, completing every exercise in the first nine chapters!

Then Dana gave her a quickie Sudoku lesson and in a matter of minutes, she was solving puzzle after puzzle effortlessly. We were amazed at how quickly she completed the puzzles - much faster than Dana had been doing them. Dana asked Anastasia if she would give her a lesson, but Anastasia said no! She clearly enjoyed demonstrating her intelligence and skill to her new parents. While she is very shy and modest, she was clearly saying, "check this out mom and dad!"

After a trip to the toy store, she settled in to work a 1500 piece puzzle. One of my goals is that she never becomes an Americanized entertainment junkie. I love the fact that she can sit down for hours to watercolor or work on a jigsaw puzzle without having to be entertained.

Anastasia instinctively looks out for Christian. She ties his shoes, always grabs his hand when we cross the street, and seems to thrive on her big sister role. She also takes the initiative to help Dana out with grocery shopping, cooking and doing the dishes. This is one motivated girl!

Anastasia is timid around strangers, but we've observed that she is a leader in her group of friends at the orphanage. Another positive sign is that we like her friends alot. It is going to be hard for her, and us, to say goodbye to her friends - especially dear, sweet Vika.

Sunday in Odessa

Sunday was a wonderful day in Odessa. It started with our driver and friend Slava bringing Anastasia from the orphanage to go to church with us. I wondered what she would wear because she does not have any dresses - and furthermore, she hates them. She made that abundantly clear when I (Dana) took her shopping in the states. No matter how sweet, pretty or fun the dress I showed her, she would give me a curt and emphatic "nyet" accompanied by a sour face and a determined shake of the head. Her distaste was clear. Jim and I got many laughs when we would come home from the store and pretend we had bought her a "beautiful new dress!" She would frown at first and then break into a beautiful smile when she realized we were teasing her.

So I was shocked and surprised when I opened the apartment door and saw my Anastasia in a lovely dress, complete with panty-hose, purse and matching shoes! She looked absolutely radiant and smiled large in response to our wide-eyes and effusive praise. We were touched beyond belief. This simple action by our new daughter - made at no small personal sacrifice by her - demonstrated her love for us and her desire to please us. The clothes were not her own, but were borrowed from her teacher, Tatiana. Anastasia honored us greatly with this gesture. It was a lovely nod to Jim and me because we are well aware of how much she dislikes such dress. It also showed that she is willing to make an effort to be a part of her new family. It was truly a blessed moment.

After we calmed down from the excitement, we walked over to the Presbyterian church where we attended services with Michelle Maly, a missionary from Nebraska who has devoted her life to working with the orphans at Internot #4 - the orphanage where our girls have spent the last 10 or so years of their lives. Michelle is a real blessing to the children, teaching them dance and other crafts as she demonstrates God's love to them. She is, like many others we have met here, an amazing and dedicated Christian and a true blessing to the children.

The church was full of young people, including a youth choir which performed some familiar hymns and contemporary praise songs. To hear their young voices sing familiar songs in Russian accompanied by acoustic guitar was very moving.

Headphones provided us with an excellent English translation (this church is home to many missionaries, and a favorite amongst adoptive families). Taking the Lord's supper with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters reminded us that our bond as Christians is greater and more important than any national pride or affinity.

After church we took Michelle to lunch at a traditional Ukrainian restaurant. The waitstaff was dressed in Ukrainian garb with the girls wearing flowered head wreathes and the boys wearing straw hats.

The food was excellent. In fact, one of the most pleasant surprises during our trip has been the authentic Ukrainian cuisine which is both affordable and delicious. I'm hoping that Anastasia, who likes to cook, will bring some of this tradition home with us!

Anastasia

These are some of my favorite pictures taken last summer of Anastasia, whom we usually call Nastia (pronounced "NY-shta"). She is a beautiful 16 year old, who has been living in the Ukrainian orphanage system since she was five. As you can see by her warm smile, she is naturally sweet and extremely bright. She excels in school at the orphanage, and demonstrated her ability in the summer when she scored 100 on her ESL test.



It was incredible to see how much she had developed from her first visit with us during Christmas 2005. She didn't make eye contact with me (Jim) for the first week, and rarely showed any positive response to anything or anyone. But I saw a glimpse of her sweet heart toward the end of that first trip. I'll never forget that on her last night, Christian woke up in the middle of the night screaming. By the time I had gotten to his room, she was already there, comforting him instinctively. She is going to be a great big sister to her little brother!

While she was here, she discovered that she shares our family's love of reading! I say she discovered this because when she first arrived, she told us that she hates to read (ugh!).
But a trip to the eye doctor proved why as her exam revealed profound far sightedness.

Soon she was glued to her Russian translations of Harry Potter for most of the day, and night. Several times I found her reading late into the wee hours of the morning, the true test of a book lover!

Unlike her sister, Nastia is not a big sports enthusiast (except for ice skating lessons with the dashing Dima!). She prefers to do cross-stitch, read, and, we're happy to report, cook! We can't wait to see her again. In her recent letters, she has begun to pour her heart out, describing her hopes, dreams and fears in a beautiful way.

Please pray that God will give Nastia much courage to face her fears about living in a new culture and give her confidence to express the lovely young woman He made her to be.


posted by jim