The Essence of Anya

It's been so fun seeing Anya's personality emerge as we've been together the past 5 days.

Just before we left for Moscow on Thursday, we had a half-hour time period when our driver and his friend and the apartment manager all showed up to our apartment at the same time.  When we opened the door to let them in, Anya ran up to the door, looked at each one of them, gasping (this is what she does when she sees something new that she likes) and told them hello or something in Russian. As soon as all the greetings were out of the way, she took each of the men, one by one, by the hand into the living room and told them to sit down, showing them the couch. It was so hillarious, we all laughed. She was ready to party and was excited to be the hostess!

When we were on the train, I decided to walk through a few cars to the snack bar so I could get us some dinner.  I had to take Anya with me because Katrina couldn't watch both of them at the same time. On the way past all the passangers, she tried to stop as often as she could so she could say hi to people.


When we made it to the snack bar, we had to wait in line for about five minutes. I had to pick her up so she wouldn't run off.  Three men from England joined us in the line. Anya immediately reached out and tapped each of the men on the arm and told them "hello" in Russian and asked them who they were.  The men all smiled at her and asked her some questions and held their hands out for high-fives. She gave them all high-fives and loved it so much, she wanted to keep doing it. After about ten times going through high-fives with the men, I thought the novelty had probably worn off for them, so I had to put her down and just hang on to her as tightly as I could.

Here in Moscow she's loving our time with the family we're staying with. She loves rough-housing with the dad on the floor and playing with their dog and their boys. The mom, Emily had a friend come over yesterday for a few minutes. When Anya saw her, she immediately gasped and ran up to her, then motioned for her to go sit down on the couch and told her something in Russian.  Emily's friend just laughed and commented on how adorable she is.  She told me she could tell that Anya was definitely well-socialized!

I know I've said this before, but I have no doubt that one of Anya's missions on this earth is to spread happiness, make people feel good and remind them of what is important.  I just feel so grateful that she will get to do this now, instead of being hidden away for the rest of her life.  Even when we see Russians, who aren't used to seeing people with DS out in public, their faces light up when they see her. I hope I can always keep this perspective in mind when times are stressful, because I know we'll have our moments. It's easy to forget miracles after time has passed. I don't want to ever forget the miracles that have taken place in our lives so that Anya can do what she was sent to this earth to do.

On another note, I'm SOOO excited to see Jeremy tonight! He'll be here in a few hours. It will be so great to be together again and watch him enjoy his first experiences with Anya outside of the orphanage.

Life is good. It will be even better in two days when we get to be all together as a family!