Laughing Instead of Crying

So I've decided to laugh at the things that keep happening to me and my ability to blog. You see, if I don't laugh, I'm might begin to cry in frustration! First, I came home with jet lag. No problem--I expected that. What I didn't expect was that during my first 2 weeks home, my internet would go down and then once it got back up--my computer would die. I've had my computer for a really long time--long enough that any new computer games my children get won't play on my computer. I had a feeling that as it became more apparent that my computer was being outmoded that it was going to eventually give out on me. I just kept praying that it would hold out until after the adoption since it held everything we needed for our dossier. Well that prayer was answered, but on Friday my computer began spontaneously shutting off. That was interesting. By Saturday, it wouldn't even turn on. So here I am--blogging from Nate's computer while he sets me up on a new one. Didn't really want to fork out the money for a new one, but I am pretty computer dependent and I just keep reminding myself of how many miles I get out of a computer. It helps me feel better about it by thinking about it this way!

Okay, so onto our new daughter. I have so many "firsts" to share with you, but I will have to post those once I have access again to my pictures, etc. She's gone swimming for the first time, had her first haircut, been to the pediatrician...on and on. I'm also still so amazed at her ability to pick up English. She now says, "Good night, Mama" and gives me a kiss on the cheek and a hug before bed. She even said to herself today, "Good job, Natasha." Isn't that sweet?

We tackled church again today and I have to say that we had a victory! I explained to her before we left the house (the best I could in my limited Russian) where we were going and what was going to happen. She wasn't very happy about it and started to cry when I picked her up to carry her to the car, but once we were on our way, she was fine.

Once we arrived at church she was distracted by the new golf carts that are transporting people around during our parking lot renovation and the fact that her Daddy was driving one of them. To the delight of our children, he gave them a ride around the parking lot. I'm pretty sure he was high up on the "Daddy pedestal" this morning for that one! Once we were done with that, she did well until I started dropping off the kids in their Sunday School classes. She was begging for each one as I dropped them off, but thankfully for me, I learned the Russian for "later" this week. I was able to tell her that "No, they would not be with us, but we would pick them up later." Although she didn't like it, she seemed to accept it eventually. We ended up being able to make it through 1 whole hour of the service this time too. Again, to my advantage, this week I learned the Russian for "quiet." This helped her to understand that she needed to be quiet in there. She covered herself in stickers while she sat there, but at least she was quiet! After an hour in the service and she claimed to need to go to the bathroom, I let her escape with a likely excuse because I was so proud of her and wanted to leave on a good note. By the time she finished washing her hands in every one of the 5 sinks in the bathroom, church was done. Woo hoo! I'd call that a victory--especially compared to last week! You should've seen her face light up when she realized she had succeeded at what we had asked and now she was able to get her siblings back!

As I reply to everyone who asks how it is going, "Every day gets easier." Today we were fortunate enough to take some good steps forward. Now to keep stepping forward...

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