Our hosting experience so far!

Well we decided at the last minute to host an orphan from Eastern Europe for three weeks. Hosting in and of itself is an adventure but of course our family has to have more of one than normal!!! We saw a picture of a cute nine year old named Masha and got all excited about having a kid Ashlyn's age here for her to play with. The kids flew in to Raleigh NC so I flew out last Thursday and of course my flight was delayed by around 2.5 hours! Then the kids flight was delayed about 45 minutes so they arrived just after midnight exhausted but very excited! As all the kids came running up to their host families I was looking for my kid but didn't see her! After a few minutes Amanda the co-founder of te hsng organization realized I was kidless so she asked the chaperones that came with the kids where Masha was...well I was presented with Masha but it was a different Masha than I expected! I took her back to the hotel for the night since we were both exhausted and figured what the heck we'll figure it out! The next day we find out the original Masha went into a foster home back in their country so the orphanage director sent this girl who is 13. The hosting agency gave me the opportunity to get my hosting fees back and said they would find another family for her but Jared and I both agreed we said we were hosting an orphan so here we go! We were not about to take a chance on hurting this girls feelings by saying you are too old. This is our first hosting experience, first experience with someone in our home who speaks a different language and first experience with an older child coming into your home. This gives me such a greater appreciation for foster parents! Here we are with this 13 year old who we know nothing about and she doesnt even speak the same language! I had downloaded several apps for translation from English to Russian but not all the translations are correct! It sometimes takes a few tries to get some kind of understanding! I'm going to write more tomorrow about our first few days together and about Masha but I'm exhausted right now! Masha is so excited to be here she is wearing me out, ok well it's not all her my 2 year old and 5 month old are contributing! Anyway I'll just say this it's a challenge but it's worth it! I'll let you know why tomorrow.