Cheberuska

Last night I got some advice from a friend that has been through the Ukrainian adoption process. She I believe, was meant to be in our life. We emailed back and forth, and was blessed with some really good advice. As new parents it is sometimes frustrating when every attempt you try to build a relationship with your child, fails. Adoption is hard, none of it is easy, and none will probably be. I do believe however, that it will be worth it. Every adopted child acts differently in the "First"meetings, and ours have been intense but purely a blessing in disguise. Our little girl is extremely smart, shy, and very cute. It breaks our heart to see in her eyes that she is having a difficult time with the change that surrounds her. We get to see all the emotions unfold as she is engaged into the grieving process, and cultural differences. Their is a silver lining though, and with this thought I will talk about tonights visit. We decided to let her move at her own pace, and not try so hard to have her interact with every little game we play together. I decided to bring my laptop, and DVD of Cheberuska(Russian show for kids). At the beginning of the visit a caregiver told her about how she was going to go on a plane to America, and how she is going to have a great time. Insert meltdown here________. In a way I am happy they are preparing her for this new life, but ideally I wish she could move at her own pace. I immediately put on Cheberuska, put her in my lap, and she stopped sobbing. We then watched Cheberuska together as a family. Papa and I then played puzzles afterwards and let her be. She did watch us carefully. I then brought out the game we had all done earlier together(Which she did with us in the earlier visit!), and started to put the pieces back into the container to which it belonged. She was holding the container to help me, and I quickly praised her for doing so. Towards the end of the visit I was able to make eye contact with her, and I spoke in Russian," Tomorrow Sasha?" she wanted to speak, and mumbled words softly(This is a great sign). She then let me walk her back to the common room hand in hand, where all the children were playing. I then said Paka(short goodbye), and she smiled and said the same. I tell you what, it melts your heart when progress is seen. Even in small amounts.

~Sammy