Wednesday

I was so nervous about today – the whole day without an interpreter.

Got to the orphanage at 9 – and Anya met me at the door. She asked where Julia was (interpreter), I told her she wasn’t coming – it was just me an Anya…she got a big grin on her face, and said “yay!”

We had such a good time today. We colored, folded all the doll clothes, read books, watched TV…pretty low key day. To avoid the sugar-crazies, I opted for an apple today, and some juice. Both – a big hit! One good thing, the apple lasted all morning – so Anya wasn’t asking me every 5 minutes ‘can I have another cookie’, or ‘is it time yet for candy?’.

Did I mention that Anya is reading? She sounds out the words like a pro! Even the big words (most Russian words look big to me!). She will sound out a word, and look at me and ask if that is right. I always say ‘Da’ – I have no idea! I figure ‘da’ is better than ‘I don’t understand’ over and over again.

Anya has been sick. The cough cold thing. I am getting her to blow her nose rather than sniff it (ewwww!). This afternoon, she blew, and got a bloody nose. One of those bad 4 tissue – tilt your head back ones. She looked at me and very sweetly said ‘mama, please help me’. So, I put her on my lap, laid her head back with Kleenex stuck up her nose. She curled right up into me, looked up at me and said ‘thank you’. That might be the first time I have really felt like her mama. She didn’t run to her care givers, deal with it herself – she said ‘mama, help me please’.

Some fireworks started while I was still at the orphanage. We crawled up on the window ledge (that is like 3ft wide) and watched. Anya was going on and on about it all – not sure what she was saying – it didn’t matter…it was a moment. Me and my little girl, watching the fire words. She would point out the sparkles in the sky, and made sure that I saw every single one.

To whoever donated the brown and blue polka dot pants to the Junior League Thrift Shop – THANKS! Anya told me tonight that she loves those pants, they are her favorite (which is pretty funny…I can’t tell you how many pants I’ve purchased for her at all price points…and her favs are used ones I got at a Thrift Shop for what, $3?)