Miss Valla

One of the highlights of my trip was visiting the sweet lady that Rob and I lived with while we were adopting Aaron.  Miss Valla.  83 years young.

 

 

As soon as I walked into her house she immediately wanted to serve me soup.  Oh my goodness, telling her that we had already eaten at the institute did not make her happy.  She banged her pots and fussed under her breath that I needed some of her special borscht. 

 

 

Then she ran and brought to me an envelope filled with all the pictures we had been sending her over the last three years.  It was obvious that she treasured those pictures.  We had to go through every single picture and study them together.  Each one had to be shown to my translator so he could enjoy them too. 

 

It was precious precious to see her.  We lived with her for 6 weeks - slept in her bed while she slept on the couch - ate her food - shared so many memories.  She was our only friend while we lived in that village.  Her little apartment was our place of refuge as we fought for our son.   

 

 

 

For about 5 minutes during my visit, Miss Valla and I were alone in the apartment while my driver/translator was getting some things from the car.  We began to 'talk' - each in our own language - yet in the style that we used three years ago. It was a talk of gestures and laughter and simple words with a smattering of German that we both knew.  In that five minutes I communicated more to her than when our words were being translated.  It surprised me and brought back such a rush of memories of sitting in her tiny kitchen eating her lukewarm soup and sharing and laughing despite the language issues. 

 

 

I brought gifts and pictures to give to her.  She gave me a used yellow towel and a couple of used whatnots to give to Rob.

 

Precious. Precious.

 

 

I smile to think of her. Our sweet peasant lady. 

 

She was definitely one of the best parts of my trip.

 

 

 

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To all of you who gave so generously to David and the Dewberry family... THANK YOU!!  They received $2,664.00 since Monday!!!  They now have less than 5,000 to raise!  THANK YOU!  Their auction is still going on and they are definitely NOT turning away donations!

 

And my sweet Ruslan met his match.  

 

 

 

And in fact, a couple of checks are heading to RR this week that will get my sweet boy OVER the 1,000 wall!  Woo Hoo!!  The wonderful children in my homeschool co-op classes brought in money for him PLUS a sweet family at our co-op had a bake sale and raised money for him.  Now he just needs a family!!!  That would be the BEST Christmas present of all!

 

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FINALLY, I just found out about a really cool Giveaway that ends on Friday that you need to know about! 

 

The Warner family is adopting an OLDER boy, Sasha.  This family has supported every single one of my giveaways, fundraisers and beyond!!  They definitely deserve some support for their adoption!!!!!

 

 

They have been offered a 10,000 MATCHING GRANT that needs to be met by December 31st.  They only have $3,000 left to raise to match that grant and their giveaway is BRILLIANT.  GO CHECK IT OUT!!  You could win some really cool prizes AND help a family bring home an older child AND help them meet their matching grant.