What time is it?

No news on the kids' paperwork. Diana called Dmitri Monday and he was in a meeting and said he'd call her back, and as of then I haven't heard from anyone. I didn't bother calling Diana again yesterday because I know she is really swamped and would call me if there was anything to report. So as far as we assume, the letter arrived in Moscow and they will soon (if they haven't started already) be taking it to the MOE. We (wait for it... here it comes again!!.....) hope we'll hear something soon.

In the meantime, we received Sasha last night at JFK from St. Petersburg, Russia. For those of you who don't remember or didn't notice when I posted about her, she's visiting us for 4 weeks through a host program. She came along with about 120 other kids from Latvia and Russia. We were called to be a backup family for a family who couldn't host her after all. We're so glad they missed out! She is so sweet.

At the airport the flight came in at about 6:15, but they didn't get through customs and come out till almost 7:30. She was ushered into the arrival waiting area with a bunch of other kids and immediately noticed our poster with "Welcome SASHA!" and her picture on it. She smiled and came over right away. We hugged her (she didn't hug back- which we expected that. None of the kids from Eastern Europe seem to know how to hug at first!). She just smiled big and giggled.

She is shy, like she's uncertain about what to say or do, and about asking for something. You know how someone can be shy and act indifferent or disinterested, or someone can be shy and sit and smile cutely? She's the second. She seems concerned to do the right thing, but started talking pretty quickly. Of course we don't understand everything she says. But she talks anyway. She corrects our Russian pronunciation, in a bashful way. It's very funny. I told Jason she actually reminds me of ME as a child. (Not that I'm saying I was cute and sweet. But I was! ;) ) She also reminds me of Tristan (my nephew). She makes this funny face when she says something and she's not sure how to explain it, where she blinks a couple times and shrugs and laughs quietly. I told Jason later that I finally realized that those kinds of mannerisms remind me of Tristan.

When we got home, she unpacked and neatly folded her clothes and put them away, then sat on her bed quietly waiting for us to tell her what else to do. So we got her changed, teeth brushed and into bed. She's very agreeable and so far seems extremely easy to get along with.

Today I have a couple of appointments but we have to take her shopping for a few more clothes and do some arts and crafts for fun. We'll probably also take her over to Letty's house to play with Joanie and Julia. She's still asleep now (or maybe not sure if she's allowed to get up? LOL). She is probably really tired from traveling over 24 hours to get here. It's 5pm where she lives, which means when we went to bed it was 8am for her. She slept in the car a lot on the way home.

All for now!
Love,
Molly