Food Discoveries

I had no idea it would be so difficult to blog during these first few weeks home! Along with discovering what it's like to be in a family and the English language, our daughter is also discovering our food. We are also learning a lot in regards to food as we go along this journey with her.

Many people and everything I read had said to do my best to prepare food for her that she was familiar with. I kept my eye on what she was eating at the orphanage, got a menu of food she ate while there and observed Russian foods that were served in the hotel & restaurants. I was prepared for basic--very brothy--soups, tomatoes, cucumbers, brown bread and tea. I wasn't exactly going to break out the Borche (is that spelled right?), but I would make an effort to make similar foods.

From the very get-go we ordered the above foods, but she wanted nothing to do with them. We found during our first week with her, while still in Russia, that we were wasting our money by ordering special food for her. We eventually resorted to giving her food off of our plate and if she was hungry she would eat it. I had also brought dried cereals like Cheerios and Kix and some Goldfish crackers for snacks. Pretty much between what she could scrounge at meals and the snacks in the hotel room she survived. However, once we arrived in Moscow and introduced yogurt to her at breakfast and picked up a banana at one of the fruit carts on the side of the road--we were on to something.

Here we are a few weeks later and I still have to say that yogurt and bananas are still at the heart of her diet. When we first got home and all she wanted all day long was yogurt, yogurt, yogurt I was wondering what we were going to do with this problem then I quickly realized what I dork I was to think it was a problem. I could have a child that wanted only junk food. Instead we have been blessed to discover her likes and dislikes as we go along. All of her choices are great! In fact when we've offered her a sip of soda, a bite of a chicken nugget or fry--she's not interested!

Here are some of the things that are a sure-fire hit with her. Yogurt, bananas, pears, hard-boiled eggs (she pounded 5 of those down at lunch today), flour tortillas, shredded beef, tomatoes, quesadillas, apricots, popcorn, chicken and some pastas. Now, of course, she'll take candy any day, but we've managed to hide that so it's not an issue! Again, I can't complain. She's choosing healthy things and when she turns up her nose at what we offer for a meal, she's generally pretty good at trying new things if we reward her with the foods she likes. That's how she discovered that she liked quesadillas! 3 of those went down the hatch that night.

Speaking of food, here are some pictures of our daughter collecting apricots from our tree in the backyard. She was so delighted to walk back and forth from the tree to the kitchen to deliver apricots to me 2 at a time. She even started at 6:30 am one morning because she was so excited about her ability to help and be a part of the family. It was even more motivating to her when she discovered that she could eat fresh fruit straight from the tree while she made her deliveries. Bet she never had that opportunity in the orphanage!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."