Under The Covers

This weekend we were blessed with one of Alyssa's friends staying over.  Katya was adopted from Ukraine a few years ago and is an amazing young lady.  She also can speak a fair amount of Ukrainian, so she got to talk to our two new kids and share some insights.  They are happy to be in our family.  They like and yes, love us.  They are very happy here!  Kayleigh misses her two older brothers sometimes.  Michael is not a big fan of schoolwork.  They were taken from their parents four years ago.  Both parents were alcoholics.  Their mother subsequently died from alcohol.  Kayleigh seems to grasp that they chose alcohol over them, and did not do more to care for them.  Gut feeling is there is more hurt in there than we see now so we'll be doing lots of loving on these kids!

Kayleigh really had a great time at her first dance class last week.  Michael is very much enjoying martial arts classes so he'll be sticking with it (he'll look so cute in the uniform!).   Both really like riding bikes.  Michael loves soccer, was playing some after martial arts class last week and looked great!  Michael likes XBox 360.  Kayleigh likes pretty much anything Alyssa likes, they continue to seem like they've been related their whole lives!

We are very glad to have them here.  I was reading an article in the news about the anticipated surge in prostitution in Ukraine with the Euro Cup coming to town.  About teenagers who are forced into it or have no choice because they have no other way to survive.  I am so glad that Kayleigh is here instead of there and at risk.  In reality, she's just a child, a beautiful young girl that would have no idea how to take care of herself.  Michael is such a joy to have around but would never make it on the streets.  Sometimes I find myself just watering up at how glad I am that they are here and safe and with a family that loves them.  At the same time my heart aches for their friends who were left behind to face an ugly reality with little hope.

On another note, please pray for Kayleigh as she had an absess tooth over the weekend so was defnitely not having a good time!  Our dentist, who totally rocks, took care of things today but with the typical adopted kid, we're sure she's got a lot of dental work to be done (she had a broken molar pulled last summer while on the hosting trip here...).  Prayers the swelling and pain goes down (she's on meds for the infection) and for God's provision for hers and Michaels dental needs (yeah, we can see the cavities just by eyeballing ....). 

OK, that's it for today, off to give my kids some hugs :)