Family Day, May 10th, 2011

I get very little computer time these days! It's okay...

But I wanted to share with you that your and our prayers have been answered. We are all four together! In the brief time I have to share with you how our lives have changed, I'll sum it up by saying that Henry was struggling with trusting us. Whenever we were out of our home environment, he shut down from us. He wouldn't allow us to touch him & he would not stay close enough to us for our comfort. We knew it was temporary & that he would soon come to trust but, again, it is so hard.

Landyn (yes, she has chosen to go by Landyn! Of course, for now she is mostly Nastia-I-mean-Landyn!) changed everything! She has not only taught him to trust but she has taught him affection & gratitude (both of which we also knew would come with time, but she sped up the process by lightyears!). She really needs to write a book someday on how to be adopted as perfectly as one possibly can!

With this gesture on her part, without having any idea of the impact, she changed our family!

And his expression (although priceless) implies the exact opposite of how he feels about her. Let's just say she's enjoying him now but I predict in the not-so-distant future, he's gonna need to make some other friends! HaHa!!

And, as is true for him, she also goes to bed a thousand times smarter than when she woke up. I was a bit concerned that their ability to communicate with each other would lessen their motivation to learn English. Not so at all! We are all four communicating surprisingly well. They are both interested in English (maybe she a little bit more than he but he is wicked smart, so I'm not the least bit worried) and have excellent recall. And she's been quite the little translator for us in restaraunts & stores. I love it!!

On the other hand, she is very ready to leave this all behind. She speaks regularly of America, Sydney, & Roxy. And she knows our target date is the 18th! We have hit every target date thus far but, unbeknownst to use, we chose a name for her with one more letter than fits on the passport (had we know earlier that she would chose to not go by Nastia, we would have dropped Anastasia altogether, but alas that was not meant to be...). So we are at risk for it taking a few extra days. We are praying not. We all have our eye on the 18th!!