An amazing experience.

I recently had the opportunity to invite two Ukrainian orphans into my home.  They came on Saturday and they will be here for one week.  I had no clue what to expect with this experience and it has been hard but so much better than I expected.  We have a 12 year old girl with us and her older brother who is 15.  They are amazing.  They are kind, smart and so much fun, but they hardly speak any english.  This is where the difficult part is.  It is not easy to communicate english to Russian.  They are very different languages.  Thankfully, they both have a great desire to learn and we have google translate on our phones.  :)  We literally have to type a yes or no question, google translate changes it into Russian and they reply with yes or no.  It has been so fun learning about them and their country and discovering ways to communicate.

These kids are amazing.  In every way.  The older brother is so excited to try everything out.   He wants to eat every food and almost always replies with a big smile and thumbs up.  We haven't found something that he didn't like.  He also wants to discover new things.  He asked if we had a bike.  He rode my 9 year old sons bike, my husbands bike, two scooters, and insisted on even trying out my 3 year olds bike to see what it was like.  It was so fun watching him experience these new things.  He is so so so polite and says thank you for everything.  He is so close to his sister and very kind to her.  He is such a good kids.  It is amazing to see how smart he is.  We have been teaching him new words and he remembers everything we teach him.  He will walk into a room and point and new things and say, *point* bread, *point* table, *point* lamp, *point* chair, etc until he has finished with all the words that he knows.  When he is done, he asks for more words to learn!  He is very willing and wanting to learn as much as he can.

The sister is so sweet.  She was much more reserved than her brother and a little shy.  She was very nervous because she didn't know how to communicate with me and it made her nervous.  I have often caught her eye, though and she always returns my smile with a big smile.  I had a fun moment with her yesterday, making chocolate chip cookies.  I don't think she stopped smiling the whole time we made them. From then on, she has stuck by my side and has been using more and more words trying to communicate.  She is a sweetheart and so good with kids.  She especially loves playing with my 3 year old and has so much fun.  She loves cats but doesn't care for dogs.  She doesn't seem to be scared of dogs, just doesn't like them. I adore this little girl!  

Seriously, amazing kids.  I miss them so much.  We really hope that we can find them a family.