All fun and games

Hey!

Thanks for all of your comments. Visitors are welcome anytime, Rachael!!! :)

Everyone is settling in very well here. Nastja is adjusting very quickly and we've had very few issues with her at all since we got home. She is becoming increasingly sincerely affectionate, listens well, testing very little, and has stopped many of the things we told her we would not allow (constant baby talk requests for things, demanding something, arguing, grunting instead of using words, etc.). She really tries to improve things when we explain them to her. She's very sweet!

She wants to play and be doing something all the time. She loves the dogs and keeps herself occupied with them quite a bit. We let her watch Spongebob Squarepants sometimes on tv, but mostly she is outside with a dog or asking us to play a game with her.

We thought about it a lot and considering her age, how much she enjoys other children, constant activity and needs to learn English quickly, we decided to go ahead and put her in public school for now. We don't know what we'll do with the three of them once the other two are also home, but for now we think being in that environment would be better for her than being home always. Bonding is going well enough that we don't think she needs more time to get used to being home. I'd rather get her into a more permanent routine. She loves details and routine, so I think that also would be better for her than delaying. With many other kids, my opinion would be quite different.

She seems to really like being here so far. She likes the mountain scenery in the area. She also has commented that the food in America is very good, compared to food in Estonia which is "yuck very bad!"

She is a very good eater. She tries everything. Even if she is reluctant to try something at first, she will say no, watch us eat it for a minute, and then will ask for some. She does that with a lot of things. If she's afraid of a certain activity or doesn't think she'll like anything new, she'll refuse at first and then agree in a couple minutes. But anyway, she will ask for apples and carrots like they are candy. She also loves Cheerios, yogurt, eggs, all kinds of fruit, peanut butter, cheese, chicken. She's gotten away from constant requests for junk food. I think she's enjoying having good real food around instead of junk. She still loves chips (which she calls chipsy), but we don't let her eat them. ;) But it's nice because she's very easy at restaurants and to cook for at home. I think she's lost a couple pounds since we got her. Every time we were at the orphanage the only food we saw left out on the table for anyone to eat was always cookies or some other junk food. And I know she likes to snack throughout the day. I never saw apples or peaches laying around like we have here, so she just reaches for that now.

We haven't seen any evidence of any crazy behaviors that we've read about. We told Diana how well she's adjusting and she said that's really fast. So we're lucky I guess!

We have been getting emails from Katya almost everyday. Here are a couple:
1) thank you mom and dad I will ask brother we are going to wait we want to know when we going to leave to usa we want to be with you we miss you so much we love you mom and dad say hi to grandpa and grandma and Nastya we love you very much
2) thank you very much I will wait I miss you so much and every night I look on the picture were we are with you I think of the time together and how we played together and did other things too
say hi to Nastya I love you so much and here is my smile for you =)

Here's one from Roman:
thank you mama and dad you take such a good care about us we love you so much I want a car with remote control and I want to see you soon I think we will see each other soon I love you very much and want to be with you

We also came home to find a letter from Katya and Anna the caretaker that was mailed mid-December. It just arrived while we were gone. Here's part of what Anna's letter said. We thought it was interesting to see what she wrote before we even saw the kids again.

yesterday Katya visited me and we made a card with her for you
Roman made a card for you too
they love you so much with all their hearts like you are their birth parents. they are very nice and truly good kids
there is only few children in orphanages like them. they are not angry but very kind and with a good attitude
they are able to be happy and able to make happy others all they need is a warm loving family. orphanage can not give it to them no matter how great it is its only orphanage- governmental institute.

Katya's letter said similar things as her emails, and also said to say hello to all her relatives in America. :)

That's all for now! More soon. :)

Love,
Molly