Anya's Christmas wish list

Sisters: Taylor, Haley, Anya & Jasmine

Anya has been home 1 month as of yesterday. She has grown a lot in the past two weeks. Life with her sisters is one of her favorite things. She get pretty sad for a day or two when it is time for them to leave for their week at their other parents home. We have been very blessed that they all like each other so much, this can often be rare with teenage girls. The picture above was from Jasmine's 15th birthday last Friday. We had dinner at Red Robin, then Matt and I dropped them all off at the movies, along with Jasmine's friend Lauren to see Jasmine's favorite book series that is now a movie, Twilight. This was another first for Anya her first movie and experience away from Mom and Dad. She did great.

Anya had her first sleep over away from home this last week too. She spent the entire day with Luda they went Ice skating and then Anya slept over, it was on Wednesday. So Thursday morning (Thanksgiving) Luda and Anya spent a few hours making us some traditional Ukrainian salads to contribute to our Thanksgiving meal. She was very proud of her cooking when she brought it home Thursday morning she gave it to me and told me "she can cook" with a big smile. I love to hear her say "I can" do anything! It is one of the things we have been working hard on, no more "I can't" but rather "I can" or "I'll try".

Matt and I also made home made verinky, and borscht for Thanksgiving. It was nice to have our traditional American foods, and also to add some Ukrainian dishes to the feast this year. Anya did very well on Thanksgiving meeting lots of new family and trying new foods. I was worried it might be a little overwhelming for her.

Anya has been responding very well to her therapy sessions and is making lots of progress. She is mostly happier, and when she is not she is making use of our "feelings chart" that has different faces and names of the feelings in Russian and English. This hangs in our kitchen and is one of our tools for therapy to help Anya identify her feelings and talk about them before they result in negative actions.

I asked our girls for a Christmas wish list and Anya worked very hard on hers. She had her sisters help make sure that the Google translator was accurate enough that Matt and I would be able to understand her letter to us. I am going to type in her letter below, as it is the biggest proof we have had so far that she is adjusting and a great reassurance and reminder of why we went to such pain staking lengths, invested so much time, and traveled so far from home for so long to complete her adoption. I share this for any of you that are about to embark on this journey, those of you who are in the middle of it, or for those of you that may be just considering the adoption of an older child. I hope this will persuade you, encourage you, and remind you that YES it is WORTH IT!! Anya's letter:

My Favorite parents,

I wanted to inform you of a piece of bad news. I hope you are not angry, but happy.

I am sorry but I have nothing that I want for Christmas. Why?

Because everything that I wanted, I already have and I have you and dad to thank for it. I have no wish for Christmas because my gift for my whole life is you guys, my family.

Three months ago the only thing I wanted was to see you at the orphanage.

And now I can not believe the fact that this Christmas I will be with you!

It's like a fairy tale with a happy end. And 1 year ago you wrote me that we will be together....and now I am with you!

This is the very best Christmas present from the Lord!

And I thank him for that! At this time I am with you and I do not

need all the things from stores or in my room, because I have a family

that loves me and is ready at anytime to come to my rescue. Once I

told my self I would never have parents!

But it seems that I was wrong and that

is good! Because I am happy with you!

so this is my destiny to be with you! I took

the fear when I flew over here because I did not imagine my life here.

And when I was here I learned that i was afraid of something.

Today I have been here for 1 month I think it was a good choice and I am happy.

I had a lot of bad and good thoughts at the same time. but now I realize that was only a thought not reality. The real reality is where we are all together.

You, Dad, Haley, Taylor and Jasmine. A lot of times I wanted to share with you my problems but as soon as I was going to

do that, inside I couldn't. I once talked with my mother, maybe because if this I seriously talked about something to someone about my former life. I don't know why I am not

able to talk to my former mother and so now I seriously disclose my soul to you and dad. Well, that is all!!!

Your Daughter, Anya

I know some of her letter is a bit confusing and lost in translation issues, but the point is she is thankful for her family more than anything else in her whole world. And she is trying to communicate about all her conflicting feelings of loss and change and deep inside she wants to be a real daughter to us, and we are so thankful for that. Adoption of older, unwanted children who feel unworthy of parents and love is the single most important, life changing decision you will ever make. And it is hard, very very hard at times, but Yes it is worth it!

I am posting some more pictures of her last few weeks here, including some from her welcome home party. I regret that I was not able to get a photo of every one of our guest that showed up to welcome Anya, because there were so many of you, over 100. THANK YOU ALL so much for making this such a memorable day for Anya. She truly felt special and loved.