Well, I made to Washington DC and back. It was a long, hard trip for all of us.

We left here on Tuesday evening at about 5:00pm central time. We made it to DC by 8:00am the next morning. We stopped for breakfast at Bob Evans, but Josh did not like it. He has a hard time finding food in America that he likes. I did not completely comprehend that until now. We thought it would be fun to take him into DC and let him some new sites. Well... he got to see all of about TWO HOURS of traffic; and we never even went more than 10 miles per hour. I could never move back to a big city! Or I should say, "Please, Lord, don't move me to a big city?!?!" I have learned not to tell GOD what I will not do. My life seems to be much easier that way. We then decided to try to locate the airport so we knew where to go. I was not sure we would ever find it. But after about an hour and asking a few people we did make it there. It is a good thing that we are women or we might still be driving around!! :-) HeHeHe! After finding where we needed to go, we went to Kmart, got gas, and then back to the airport to park and take a much-needed nap.

The plane was a little late; and that makes for more nerves. I was so ready to finally see and meet her. Over the last several months, I have built a relationship with her in my mind, but in reality, she knows hardly anything about me. She had a few letters and a couple of pictures, but Grandma had seen them. I am not sure what Grandma possibly said to her about them. Alyona may have been thinking, "This can't be good. Grandma is going to be mad." Once we hugged a few times, though, she was fine. During our wait time, Josh ran into a few people he knew from his former orphanage in Odessa. There was one girl he used to beat up. He was able to apologize to her, so that alone was worth bringing him. He got addresses of few people who have been adopted and now live in the States. We spent a little while visiting with people in the airport. Once the children came off the plane, Josh helped some other families talk to their children. He is such a sweet young man and so good with kids. I could see him being called into some kind of youth ministry. While waiting for our paperwork to come in, Alyona needed to use the bathroom. Well, I never thought to tell her about the automatic flush toilets. She sat down and, poor thing, the toilet flushed all by itself! It was sucking her in!!! Her eyes were huge, like, "Why did I need to use this thing?" But I was able to "save" her before she was sucked out to sea!

After we got her picked up, we went to spend the night with Vicky's brother, Brian, and his family. They live about five miles from the airport, but we were driving on the Interstate at 6:00pm so guess what, we got stuck in traffic again. We did make it there in time to have dinner with them. Brian's wife, Reco, made chicken, salmon, and pasta in a red sauce. It was very good, but Alyona would not eat anything. After dinner, we went to take our bath, but I am not sure she has ever been in a bathtub before. She seemed to like it. I do not think I could have gotten into that water it, though. It was just lukewarm, if not more cold, but it was the way she wanted it. She told Josh they only shower ONE time per week, so getting her to shower every day while here has been strange to her, but she does seem to be liking it. After her bath, she was able to play with Brian's kids. It did not seem to matter they did not speak the same language. They just made it work. I opened up some raisins when we went downstairs to go to bed. Each time I ate a couple she would also have some. At least I got something down her. Thank you, Jesus, for the small favors.

We all slept hard that night, but had to be awake by 4:00am to leave for home. I wonder what was going through her head. It was a hard trip home for her. We had hardly gone about forty-five minutes when she got sick the first of many times. We moved her to the front seat and that helped. At least it did until we gave her the PC to watch a DVD, then she got sick again. We were somewhat worried because she would not eat or drink anything the rest of the way home. We did make it home... after EIGHTEEN LONG HOURS. The GPS got us to DC the shortest way, but for some reason it did not bring us home the same direction. We missed a turn, or did something else wrong. By the way, did I say it was the LONGEST eighteen-hour trip I think I have ever been on? We did finally make it here. When we unloaded the car, Alyona took my stuff into her room and unpacked it into hers drawers. I do not think she understood that we were home and I would sleep with Tim. Her face lit up when we took her into her room. She went straight to the Christmas tree to check it out. I was so glad she liked it. Then, it was time for bed, as I had to work on Friday.

Christopher and Tim stayed home Friday morning to sit with Alyona while I went to work. It was good for all three of them to get to play together and just have fun. My parents came over to see her while I was working. I wish I could have been there, but I needed to be an adult and go earn some money! They called and said she was the best. I am so glad they immediately fell in love with her as much as we already do. After I got home, we needed to run some errands. She was not too happy about getting back in the car again. Once we were buying her some things, though, she became OK with it. At one point, we did have to call Vicky to have Josh translate. They decided it would be easier to actually come to the store. We finally made it through the store. I let her pick out a little knitting machine. WOW! I don't know how you would do this if you didn't have people around to help you. THANK YOU, Josh and Vicky. =) We went to Walmart; and she helped pick out some things to eat, but some of them she apparently doesn't like, or should I say she now won't even try. After that, we all went to dinner at Ryan's. There were thirteen of us; and it was too much for her to handle. We had hoped that being a buffet bar she would find something to eat, but no such luck. She was not going to put anything in her mouth. After dinner, we went to Sam's Club to pick up a few things. She and Justin seemed to have a great time playing around. I was glad for that as he does not have much more time before he leaves for Minnesota. =(

We had a nice morning Saturday. Alyona was up early, very early. I heard a noise in the kitchen at 4:30am. When I walked in there, she was going through my pots & pans and organizing them. Later, Tim and her went through all the desk drawers throughout the house to see which pens worked and which didn't. We then ate breakfast. She had TWO bowls of cereal, a pear, a banana, and then she saw me make eggs and wanted to have "just one". Yes, she knew what "one" was. At dinner she would not try the chicken nor the potatoes that she had picked out while we were at the store. We had another girl, who had been adopted from the same orphanage Alyona lives in, come over and spend the night. She was adopted two years ago this February. We took both of them to Canton to see the Christmas lights. They had so much fun riding on the carousel ride. I made hot chocolate when we got home. Alyona she was so tired she had gone in to her room, put on her pajamas OVER HER CLOTHES, and climbed in bed! WOW! And she did not even have to be told to.

Sunday was a busy, busy day. We started at church. The girls went to our 8:00 am Sunday school class with us, then to their 9:30 class, then on to K.I.D.S. church at 11:00. They seemed to have a good time together. After church, we went to my mom and dad's house. I wanted Alyona to feel comfortable with them as they were going to watch her a few days over the next couple of weeks while I work. As it turned out Anastasia went with her. My mom made cookies with them, they watched TV, went for a tractor ride with my dad, ate cookies. They had so much fun they both want to go back. That is so great. Today my dad called me to say he was mad at me. When I asked him why he said because I did not work and the girls were not at their house.

Alyona and I ran some errands today and went shopping again. Then we went in to Jackson to see Tim and go to lunch with him. We also stopped at his corporate office to drop off some keys, but more importantly to show her off. Then, we went back to his building to show her off some more! When we came home this afternoon, we made six cakes to deliver tomorrow. Alyona was funny watching me make the cakes. I use a cake mix and a diet Sprite. When you pour in the Sprite it foams up a lot. She got such a kick out of that!

Some of the things she likes to do...
1) Ride bike
2) Play on the Wii. She is good at boxing and bowling.
Watch out you kids at the orphanage!
3) Shop and organize the shelves of the store, and my cart
4) Eat fruit, lots of it

Food is not going so well. She could eat her weight in fruit and French fries. But we cannot get meat down her. She does like pasta, too. I guess she is eating more than she would if she was at the orphanage. It is just hard to see her not eat a well-balanced meal. From the sound of it they pretty much only get a broth with a little vegetable in it and a piece of bread and peanuts. We will work on balance more once the English gets better.

I came across the following Christmas story a couple weeks ago:

Will the Christ Child Come?
Written by Gaye Willis

One Christmas we had an interesting experience that I would like to share. Halfway through December we were doing the regular evening things when there was a knock at the door. We opened it to find a small package with a beautiful ceramic lamb inside. We looked at the calendar and realized that the 12 days of Christmas were beginning! We waited excitedly for the next night's surprise and only then, with the gift of a matching shepherd, did we realize that the lamb was part of a nativity set.

Each night we grew more excited to see what piece we would receive. Each was exquisitely beautiful. The kids kept trying to catch the givers as we slowly built the scene at the manger and began to focus on Christ's birth.

On Christmas Eve, all the pieces were in place, all but the Baby Jesus. My 12-year-old son really wanted to catch our benefactors and began to devise all kinds of ways to trap them. He ate dinner in the minivan, watching and waiting, but no one came. Finally, we called him in to go through our family's Christmas Eve traditions. But before the kids went to bed, we checked the front step - - no Baby Jesus! We began to worry that my son had scared them off. My husband suggested that maybe they dropped the Jesus and there wouldn't be anything coming. Somehow, something was missing that Christmas Eve.

There was a feeling that things weren't complete. The kids went to bed and before I went to bed, I again checked to see if the Jesus had come - - no, the doorstep was empty... In our family, the kids can open their stockings when they want to, but they have to wait to open any presents until Dad wakes up. So one by one they woke up very early and I also woke up to watch them. Even before they opened their stockings, each child checked to see if perhaps during the night the Baby Jesus had come.

Missing that piece of the set seemed to have an odd effect. At least it changed my focus. I knew there were presents under the tree for me and I was excited to watch the children open their gifts, but first on my mind was the feeling of waiting for the ceramic Christ Child. We had opened just about all of the presents when one of the children found one more for me buried deep beneath the limbs of the tree.

He handed me a small package from my former visiting teaching companion. This woman was somewhat less-active in the church. I had been her visiting teacher for a couple of years and then, when she was asked to be a visiting teacher, she requested to go with me. I had learned over time they didn't have much for Christmas, so that their focus was on the children. It sounded like she didn't get many gifts to open, so I had always given her a small package -- new dish towels, the next year's Relief Society lesson manual -- not much, but something for her to open.

I was touched when at church on the day before Christmas, she had given me this small package, saying it was just a token of her love and appreciation. Then, on Christmas morning, as I took off the bow, I remembered my friendship with her and was filled with gratitude for knowing her and for her kindness and sacrifice in this giving me a gift. But as the paper fell away, I began to tremble and cry. There in the small brown box was the Baby Jesus! He had come!

I realized on that Christmas Day, that Christ will come into our lives in ways that we don't expect. The spirit of Christ comes into our hearts as we serve one another. We had waited and watched for Him to come, expecting the dramatic "knock at the door and scurrying of feet" but He came in a small, simple package that represented service, friendship, gratitude and love.

This experience taught me that the beginning of the true spirit of Christmas comes as we open our hearts and actively focus on the Savior. But we will most likely find Him in the small and simple acts of love, friendship and service that we give to each other. This Christmas I want to feel again the joy of knowing that Christ is in our home. I want to focus on loving and serving. More than that, I want to open
my heart to Him all year that I may see Him again.

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." -- Matthew 1:21 NIV

I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I did. I think we may do this next year with our girls and a few other families. I want to teach the Kristina & Alyona that Christmas is about the birth of Christ, not all the gifts.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!

Lynn