Going backwards...continued part two:)

All right so we thought we were hosting a 9 year old named Masha who we had a few pictures of and a brief description of her personality and likes. We were very excited because Ashlyn was also 9 and liked to draw and read too just like Masha. I was looking forward to a few weeks of having two 9 year olds giggling and doing arts and crafts and playing barbie. Well that night in North Carolina as all the kids started coming down the hallway at the airport and walking up to their host families I couldn't find my kid! I stood off the side at the back of the gathering waiting for the excitement to die down a little before I asked "hey where's my kid?" After a few minutes the hosting program director realized I was kid less so she asked the chaperone's who came with the kids and they pointed to a tall, skinny girl and said this is Masha. Well we were kinda all in shock and exhausted it was already after midnight so I said "Hi or Prey vet" and took her back to my hotel room for the night. The next morning the hosting director came by with a translator and told me that the 9 year old Masha was put in foster care right before the trip so instead this Masha came who is 13. They offered me the chance to get our money back for the hosting fees and find another family for her but Jared had already told me go ahead and bring her home, we agreed to host an orphan from that country so we are. So later that afternoon the 13 year old Masha and I flew back to TX. I was already telling people that we were not going to adopt her because Ashlyn wanted to remain the oldest girl in our family. Several people said you never know what God has in store for you etc etc etc including Jared he was surprisingly more open to the idea of a teenager than me!

Masha took to me very quickly and I found myself really enjoying her but at the same time holding myself back because she was a teenager not a 9 year old like we wanted. Her first week here Ashlyn was still visiting her dad and step mom for the summer so Masha and I had lots of time with just us and the babies at home. There were days she drove me nuts!!! lol She loved our Great Danes and would play with them loudly in the house running through the whole house squealing with them right at her heels, during the babies nap time. Every night when Jared and I would watch TV she would come sit next to me on the couch and share a blanket and giggle as we tried to use google translate to communicate. At the end of the first week we were supposed to let the hosting organization know if we wanted to adopt her or not, well Ashlyn had only been home one day and I was still in complete denial that a teenager would fit in our family so I told them no. Well that night they called and wanted me to send her back to NC so she could possibly meet other families who may be interested in adopting a teenager. That night I barely slept, I cried a lot. I was really confused and stressed by it. The next day when I told her she had to go back to NC she cried and said she did not want to leave. Of course that made me cry even more...when Jared came home from work that night he wanted to know why we couldn't adopt her. So we talked to Ashlyn several times over the next few days about what she wanted and she wanted Masha to stay too. One of the Sundays while she was here we went to church with a friend of Jared's who happens to be married to a native Russian. So while we went to the worship service Masha stayed out in the coffee shop with Ekaterina and had some good Russian conversation. After church we went to their house for lunch and Katrina said my friend is from the same country as Masha let me call her to come over too. So Anastasia comes over and starts talking to Masha and it turns out she is from the same town where Masha lives and one of the chaperone's who came on the trip is a friend of hers she grew up with!!! That was a crazy coincidence don't you think, I know it was all part of his plan. Anyway another of Anastasia's friends lives in NC and they just adopted so we get in contact with them and they adopted a girl from the same orphanage as Masha and the girls know each other...wow total God thing. The world is not that small!

The next couple of weeks were tough knowing we were going to have to send her back and we didn't know if we would ever see her again. We knew we wanted her but we didn't know if she wanted us but we enjoyed our time and took her to do a lot of fun things. The last few days you could tell Masha was dreading going back, we drove from TX to NC and stopped a few times along the way to sight see. The last night before the kids all flew back was really tough, just thinking of it makes me tear up. We had to have the kids at the airport on Sunday I think at like noon, it was hard trying to be upbeat and Ashlyn cried as we were getting ready to walk the kids to the gate to board. At that point we still didn't know what Masha wanted, as we were hugging her good bye she asked for my phone and typed out "I made my decision, I want to live with you" I hugged her very tightly and typed this back to her

then she boarded the plane and was gone....There are alot of things I can't share publicly because that is just the nature of international adoption but we knew without a doubt that we were going to try our hardest to get to her to give her the chance at having a family and a home with siblings who love her. Jared and I both realized she was our daughter, there was no mix up with the Masha's this was and is our Masha.

I'll write tomorrow about adding Leonid aka Grayson to the mix:)