What I Can Tell You
This is on the door entering Bethlehem House.
Holden and I have been in Armenia a few days now. We are slowly adjusting to the 10 hour time change but no difficulties adjusting to falling in love. We truly are tickled to meet our little Dolly.
Just to clear up some confusion I will give a little recap.
Dolly is not her real name. It is the name assigned her to keep her information private. The agency gave it to her. Some of you know her real name from private conversations but if you could please not list that on the computer anywhere we would be thankful.
Dolly is 3 and was born with spina bifida. Randy and I committed to adopt her in October of 2009, when Rainan was a little baby and months before we knew Maxim was coming on the scene. So while Dolly may be new to some of you she has been growing in our hearts for literally years now and we have anxiously awaited every video and photo update we receive.
Dolly has lived in a convent with the Sisters of Charity since she was one month old. We have totally trusted God with all of the details of all of our children so when we committed to Dolly we actually didn't know what her living conditions would be like. She has had more attention than most orphans and her care has been administered with love.
Only since a few years ago have children began to be adopted from here. I believe Dolly will be the 5th or 6th child. The sisters expressed to us how they love the children and care for them but these children need the structure of a family and who will help them grow to become who God designed them to be. All of the children in their care have down syndrome or spina bifida.
The home is small with several small rooms inside but you don't feel shut in at all. It is peaceful and filled with laughter and joyful worship to the Lord. Today one of the sisters was training me in how to give a catheter to Dolly. As she lay there we can hear outside our door the celebration of the sisters and Father's around the table joking and breaking out in song. Soon Dolly breaks out into a loud joyful song herself. She sang to me most beautifully in Armenian. I have been thanking God that she has been singing the love of God her whole life.
Dolly has no feeling in one leg and a little in the other. She can use her stomach muscles and get one leg up from a lying down position and the other she can raise slightly. You can see that they have taken great care to help her become mobile.
Here you can see Dolly decided I needed to eat an olive. She would not take no as an answer!
She took to Holden almost immediately!
Dolly is a little squirt! She is squishy as can be and silly too.
Sister Micha was teasing her yesterday that I was Sisters mama and she was going to the US with me. Dolly said very emphatically, "No, Beata (our translator) can be your mama!"
As she was carefully focused on trying to tie a shoe she looked up and said I love you in English. Then she looked to Beata and asked her in Armenian to ask me if I loved her too. GULP! I was so taken aback that she would ask that. I said yes of course so much! So she looked at Holden and said in Armenian, "Him too?" Holden looked at her and said I love you Dolly. BE STILL MY HEART! Can I tell you my chest cavity had to grow to make room for my enlarging heart.
The other fun part for us is that Dolly understands English! That's right! She has been raised learning armenian, russian, english and polish! So sometimes I say something to her in russian and she answers in russian! This has made communication great when she feels like cooperating. She keeps speaking to me in armenian and can't figure out why I don't know all of the languages she knows. She's a smarty pants!
Thank you for praying for us! We have decided that in order to be able to keep our close friends updated we would make our blog private until the finalization of our adoption which will be in 4 to 6 months.
Love,
Tina
Holden and I have been in Armenia a few days now. We are slowly adjusting to the 10 hour time change but no difficulties adjusting to falling in love. We truly are tickled to meet our little Dolly.
Just to clear up some confusion I will give a little recap.
Dolly is not her real name. It is the name assigned her to keep her information private. The agency gave it to her. Some of you know her real name from private conversations but if you could please not list that on the computer anywhere we would be thankful.
Dolly is 3 and was born with spina bifida. Randy and I committed to adopt her in October of 2009, when Rainan was a little baby and months before we knew Maxim was coming on the scene. So while Dolly may be new to some of you she has been growing in our hearts for literally years now and we have anxiously awaited every video and photo update we receive.
Dolly has lived in a convent with the Sisters of Charity since she was one month old. We have totally trusted God with all of the details of all of our children so when we committed to Dolly we actually didn't know what her living conditions would be like. She has had more attention than most orphans and her care has been administered with love.
Only since a few years ago have children began to be adopted from here. I believe Dolly will be the 5th or 6th child. The sisters expressed to us how they love the children and care for them but these children need the structure of a family and who will help them grow to become who God designed them to be. All of the children in their care have down syndrome or spina bifida.
The home is small with several small rooms inside but you don't feel shut in at all. It is peaceful and filled with laughter and joyful worship to the Lord. Today one of the sisters was training me in how to give a catheter to Dolly. As she lay there we can hear outside our door the celebration of the sisters and Father's around the table joking and breaking out in song. Soon Dolly breaks out into a loud joyful song herself. She sang to me most beautifully in Armenian. I have been thanking God that she has been singing the love of God her whole life.
Dolly has no feeling in one leg and a little in the other. She can use her stomach muscles and get one leg up from a lying down position and the other she can raise slightly. You can see that they have taken great care to help her become mobile.
Here you can see Dolly decided I needed to eat an olive. She would not take no as an answer!
She took to Holden almost immediately!
Dolly is a little squirt! She is squishy as can be and silly too.
Sister Micha was teasing her yesterday that I was Sisters mama and she was going to the US with me. Dolly said very emphatically, "No, Beata (our translator) can be your mama!"
As she was carefully focused on trying to tie a shoe she looked up and said I love you in English. Then she looked to Beata and asked her in Armenian to ask me if I loved her too. GULP! I was so taken aback that she would ask that. I said yes of course so much! So she looked at Holden and said in Armenian, "Him too?" Holden looked at her and said I love you Dolly. BE STILL MY HEART! Can I tell you my chest cavity had to grow to make room for my enlarging heart.
The other fun part for us is that Dolly understands English! That's right! She has been raised learning armenian, russian, english and polish! So sometimes I say something to her in russian and she answers in russian! This has made communication great when she feels like cooperating. She keeps speaking to me in armenian and can't figure out why I don't know all of the languages she knows. She's a smarty pants!
Thank you for praying for us! We have decided that in order to be able to keep our close friends updated we would make our blog private until the finalization of our adoption which will be in 4 to 6 months.
Love,
Tina
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