The theme this week seems to be "Beauty week!"

I just finished having a manicure done by Santa. We pulled out all of my nail polish, plus some that she has received from a couple of people who wanted to give her a little welcome present. All of us girls were in Santa's room looking at nail polish and trying to decide what to do with our nails. I told her to do whatever she wanted to mine. She is very creative! Currently my nails are hot pink and sporting blue polka dots!!!! LOL!

We are having a blast with Santa. She likes to be very active and usually asks me what's the plan for each day. Whew! I know she wants to enjoy every minute of her stay in America. But, we've had to explain that there needs to be some "down" or quiet time each day. And that we still live in this house and I need to do housework and such. She understands and has even helped me out with dishes and has taken out the trash a couple of times too! I try to keep our calendar full because I know her time with us is limited.

Monday we took her to the salon. My sister is a stylist and offered to do her hair. Santa loved having her hair washed, cut, and styled. She didn't want much done to her hair, just a trim. But, it was a big deal to her. We found out that she loves having her hair touched and brushed. I've tried to do that for her a few times since then. Because, who knows how often she has had that simple loving touch. Probably not very much at all. It made me think about how many of us probably take for granted that we had a mother to brush our hair when we were little.

During week two we also were prepared for her to test her boundaries. We were told to expect it probably the second week. It's only natural for children to learn their boundaries. She tested us a little last week, but it really wasn't that bad. I mean she had to know if we mean what we say, if no means no, and do we stand our ground if she pushes. It's very normal for all children to do this. Good grief, my own children who know me do this from time to time and drive me nuts! (And they know that if they whine and cry or beg me for something, that's it, you just sealed you fate, it's definitely NO now.) LOL! So a little bit of pouting and begging when it was time for bed didn't phase me at all. She saw that I was not a push over and that was that. I'm happy that it really wasn't that bad. She's a good girl.

We also hosted one of the Russian chaperones, Elena, last Friday The chaperones are the adults who travel with the children and stay here in America during the 5 weeks. The children need to check in with their chaperones periodically while they are here. And if possible spend a day with them as well. Santa's Latvian chaperone is too far away so we spent the day with Elena. We took them bowling. Santa had a blast! There was some strong competition going on there between all of us, LOL! We had so much fun. We all really enjoyed it! We went swimming afterwards too. We still go swimming just about every other day. She can't get enough of it! She just lights up when she is around a pool or is swimming.

This Sunday we had a little sad time with Santa. During the last worship song before the message, she started to cry. I was really shocked because it was so unlike her. I just held her while she cried. I started crying because I could feel her sadness but didn't know what was wrong. I knew it would be very hard for her to communicate was bothering her. So, I just sat there, held her, stroked her hair and prayed over her. I'm glad I could comfort her even if I didn't understand what was wrong. It was just a little time of sadness and she was bouncing around not long after that. Philip almost didn't believe me when I told him because he was in the sound booth during the service, and afterwards she acted just fine. Later I tried to ask her what was wrong and she just nodded and said that she was okay. I asked my friend Inga, who is fluent in Russian to come over so we could know what had made her cry. She was a little shy about telling us, but she said she was thinking about all of us and about how much she would miss us when she goes back to Latvia. Oh, Lord help us. This child is precious. I so desire for her to have a family she can call her own. It's going to very hard to let her go. But we knew that going in to this. God's plan for us is to have her for just a little while, but hopefully we can be a stepping stool to her forever family.

We are looking forward to the rest of our time with Santa. I can't believe that we are already halfway through! I'm so happy we had Inga come over the other day. After she has translated we know we understand each other better. She just glows afterward! There are no misunderstandings and we know we're "on the same page." (Which makes me laugh, because we found out that the books in her Russian Bible aren't in the same order as ours. We counted the books and chapters. And found where we wanted her to read. We thought we had highlighted some verses in Psalms for her, but it turned out we highlighted something in Isaiah!) LOL Anyways, Inga helped us understand that and more. We also asked her what she really wanted to do while she was here. And if possible we would try to make it happen. She said if she could do anything at all it would be to go to an American water park! So, I knocked off a couple of things that were on the schedule. We will try to go this week or next. I can't wait to see how happy she will be experiencing that! Keep praying for her and for her future. And check back again to see what we've been up to!