Not Much to Report

Not much to report today, but I've gotta give you something, right? It's been pretty quiet around here. Which is a good thing when you think about it. We met Vera two weeks ago yesterday. Can you believe it?! Two weeks! We have come so far in just two weeks.

Our visits are pretty much the same thing these days. We get Vera, head outside, she unzips my backpack to find the snack we brought and says, "Please" and we enjoy a snack together. Then we play. The sandbox is still her favorite place.

But we do enjoy the slide and teeter totter a bit more.

And we decided to give the bubbles another try.

So far, so good.

We also eat a lot of blackberries and cherries right off the trees.

Vera LOVES to be messy and filthy.

As hard as we try, we never bring her back clean.

Jon and I decided to try ignoring Vera the next time she eats sand or dumps it on her hair. It seems to happen right before it's time to take her back to her group. Yesterday, sure enough, we told Vera it was time for groupa and she got a big handful of sand and put it in her mouth. Jon and I walked away to gather our things. We looked back at her and she was watching us. She dumped some sand on her head and we kept going. She yelled for us, got up and came toward us. It worked!! We got to try it again today. Lucky us.

Vera is accepting the word 'no' from us much more easily and with much less of a fight than before. The only time she has a real fit now is when it's time for us to leave. She had another total breakdown yesterday when we brought her back. Crying, sobbing, shaking her head saying, "No groupa. No groupa." It's so heartbreaking. She doesn't do this every time, but it's so hard to watch and listen to.

If she doesn't have a breakdown, she stalls. Vera is a master at stalling. She'll do whatever she can think of to delay us bringing her back to her group. She wants one more berry. She wants to dump one more cupful of sand. She's a mess and needs to wash her hands. She has trash to throw away. She falls. She sits. She goes limp when we take her hands to stand her up. Once we get her in the building, she has to talk to anyone and everyone she sees. She keeps the conversation going until they finally say, "Go with Mama and Papa. Paka." She wants Jon to lift her up. She takes a five second break in between each step up to her room. She has to investigate the strollers and carts in the hallway. You name it, she uses it to stall.

Sometimes she just blows us a kiss 'paka' and other times we get hugs and kisses. Today we got HUGE, LONG hugs goodbye with lots of neck kissing (from us) and giggling (from Vera). I told her THIS is a stall tactic I really enjoy!

Today we had lunch with the Kruliks and the Housers.

It was wonderful!!

The Housers are hoping to have court this week, so keep them in your prayers.

And Kevin leaves tomorrow to head home, leaving Missy here on her own.

I'm sure she would appreciate your prayers as well.

As far as we're concerned, we really want to come home.

The 10 day wait is about to drive me insane.

We miss Jacob, Caleb and Abbi terribly.

Skype is great, but it's just not doing it for me anymore.

I miss my friends. I miss our church. I miss my bed and pillow. I miss fresh, clean towels straight from the dryer. I miss my faucets with normal temperature controls. I miss my van. I miss guacamole. I miss real coffee.

8 more days, friends.

Vera is ours a week from tomorrow.

Please pray that the time flies and also

that we won't take our time here for granted.

Pray that our bond with Vera continues to grow.