Sweetness

She is pure sweetness wrapped in flesh. And we're trying to figure out what in the world we did to deserve her. We don't deserve her. She's a treasure. All those families who came and left her don't know what they're missing.

We do.

It makes us weepy to think about.

Our afternoon visit was wonderful yesterday. We picked Vera up from her group, grabbed her two purses, and went outside. We went to the same playground as before, but found a different sandbox. There were several children with adults on the playground today. It seemed Vera wanted a sandbox to herself.

She discovered Jon's water bottle and that kept her occupied for quite awhile.

Who knew a water bottle could be so fascinating?

"Please, Papa, open it."

We KNEW this was coming!

Wet sand is much more fun than dry sand.

She was very concerned about cleaning Papa's hand.

She made him hold it down there so she could rinse it off.

If Papa can do it, why not Vera?

And then the water was gone.

So we filled it up with sand.

And then we rested.

At some point we need to trace Vera's foot so we can find her some shoes that fit. We weren't sure what she would think of this so first, Jon got out our notepad and pen, took off my shoes and traced my foot. Vera enjoyed this. Then he pointed to her foot and asked if he could trace hers. Nyet. And she pulled her foot away. Maybe another day. So instead, Jon started drawing pictures.

She watched him very intently.

First Jon drew a cat and said, "Meow."

Vera asked him to draw a dog.

Then she asked him to draw something that we didn't understand.

So she took the pen and drew.

Then Jon taught her the best thing...

how to draw faces on your hand.

Her caregivers will love that, don't you think?

Luckily, Jon didn't draw on Vera.

Jon got a mint out and gave it to Vera.

This made her very happy!

Sweetness, I tell ya.

Pure sweetness.

And lots of cuteness.

She loved that I wanted to see what was in her mouth!

She thought that was great fun!

So did Jon!

Vera and the fabulous Sasha!

Towards the end of our visit, Sasha came and had us sign a few documents that she'll present to the judge and try to get us a court date. It was wonderful to have her translate what Vera was saying. She is the funniest little thing! Sasha had brought her 8 year old son with her and Vera was asking if he is ever naughty. Sasha said da and Vera told her, with the sweetest smile on her face, that she should lock him a cage. We all laughed. Then Vera asked if her son ever watches too much television. Sasha said da and Vera said she should lock him in the bathroom and turn off the light. She loved our laughter about this. She's a ham.

Sasha began to read to us what we were signing and Vera lit up when she heard her name. She asked if this was about her and Sasha said, 'Da.' Vera was just delighted that this was about her!

All this time, 'Allie', who I told you about yesterday (with her cheeks hanging out) was on our playground with who we believe is her father. He visited her on Monday too. Allie seems to be the bully of Vera's group. She's not happy unless someone else is NOT happy. She seems to tease Vera a lot. She seems to delight in all the things she can do that Vera can't. Vera can't run (yet). She can't ride riding toys (yet). Whenever Allie does one of these things she yells to Vera, and we've figured out that she's saying something like, "I can do this and you can't. Neener, neener." It's difficult for Vera to do many things. Either Vera doesn't mind the teasing or she's just used to it. She never reacts. Jon had brought Vera a new pair of sunglasses yesterday. The ones she had were way too big so he ventured out and found some smaller ones for her. Vera had taken out her big ones and said something to us about Allie. We figured out she was asking if she could give them to Allie. We said okay and off she went as fast as she could hollering at Allie that she wanted to give her her sunglasses. Is that not sweet? This girl is going to teach all of us a thing or two about unconditional love. Well, Allie, the stinker that she is, seemed to say, "I don't want your dumb, old sunglasses," and ran away from Vera. She ran to the slide and slid down a few times with her dad right there. Vera put the sunglasses away. Allie went down the slide again and yelled something at Vera...she seemed to say, "I can go down the slide and you can't. Ha. Ha." So Vera marched over to that slide and I got behind her. I helped her climb the steps and get all situated at the top. This is a slow process. But she slid down to Jon. And then she hollered at Allie that she CAN go down the slide. Take THAT, Allie! Just you wait and see what this girl is going to do!

I had to tell that story to get to this part. So Sasha is reading us these documents we need to sign for court. Vera keeps interrupting to ask questions. She knows what's going on. She knows she's coming to America. She asked if, when we get to America, can we please help buy new clothes for her friends. Don't cry, Amy. THEN (this was SO funny), in a sing-songy kind of way, she shouts to Allie, "I'm going to the United States. I'm going to the United States." Sasha said all the dogs know now.

And today, another little girl, who is very nice to Vera had the big sunglasses on. At one point they had a discussion about them and it was clear that they were saying that Allie couldn't have them. Their little conversation was so cute, especially since we knew what they were talking about.

"Allie. Nyet."

And they both nodded.