Tetiana and I headed out Saturday night after an already fun filled day to go shopping. Let me just preface this by saying that I have not shopped with a teen girl before!! I probably could just leave it at that and you could use your imagination. I will give her props in that she leaned more to the modest end of the clothing (which is something I had been warned would be an issue). It wasn't...thank goodness. However she was extremely picky....for about the first hour all I heard was "no, no, no, no, no....and then finally one yeah..." I think I might have done the happy dance in the middle of the store. She couldn't tell me what she likes to wear at home, couldn't tell me her favorite color...or if she really needed something, so we just did our best. I only let her go into the dressing room with items I deemed appropriate, because once in the dressing room she wouldn't let me see a thing. I looked at her and said "If yes, then I see," or maybe I said it in charades...she still said "no." After a couple of tedious hours we managed to squeak out a few shirts, shorts, swim shirt and shorts, and unmentionables. We were told in our training that most of these kids are not grateful, and that they won't say "thanks" or anything of the sort. They have "no well to draw from" nor do they have anything at home to be thankful for so they are not in the habit of saying "thanks." I was pleasantly surprised when she gave me a big smile and said "Tanks for shop!" Certainly made me thankful!
With Sunday morning, came and opportunity to take her to church. She stayed with us during the music and then went with Nikita and Toni to children's church. She was smiley and extremely gracious to everyone that came to introduce themselves. She completely blushed when the pastor introduced her and Nikita in front of the congregation - but with that blushing came an amazing genuine smile!! Of course church isn't complete without a completely chaotic family meal at a restaurant. We hit Old Chicago's pizza buffet. She doesn't eat much, seems extremely un-picky, and says "good" and "yeah" with basically every question about her food. The boys have taken to asking her to translate different dinner table items into Ukrainian...then they ask her to say it in English. I'm not sure if it irritates her, but she does play along.
Our message yesterday really made me think about her. Our pastor talked about our father's, what we received from our fathers, both good and bad. He talked about the Lord being our Father...and all of the things we receive from our Heavenly Father. I wanted to head home and google translate all sorts of questions to her - does she have a father? Does she know about our Heavenly Father....my heart was full and I wished there was an easy way to communicate that with her. Instead I have to hope and pray that somehow even without speaking our language, she can sense something and hear something with her heart!!
I won't bore you with more detail about yesterday's activities, but we closed our day with a late dinner. Justin was able to find a Ukrainian translation of Psalm 1. She read it to us with a huge smile on her face...and then Justin read it to her in English. I am quite sure that our hearts will be changed through having her in our home....I hope that her heart will change too!
She borrowed our neighbor's bike. She said she could ride. Her orphanage probably has one or two bikes. She was extremely wobbly, but was all smiles!
Paige was giving her high 5's and saying "good job."
Biking with Seth...
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment