She does speak with Brian briefly each time I call her, which she did again today as well. He told her he was doing lots of cooking today, mostly pies! :)
She apparently found out earlier this week that she will not be coming to America for the Christmas hosting program. She asked me if she and Denis were coming to America for Christmas and I had to tell her no. :( She was sad and made a whining noise on the phone. I told her I was sorry.
She then asked if "Mama and Daddy" were coming to Ukraine. I felt like someone might be listening in on our phone call today, so I needed to be extra cautious. I told her "maybe" and asked if she understood the word "maybe." She said she did.
(Side note: this is the first time she has referred to my husband as "Daddy" rather than "Papa." He was pleased when I told him.)
We had asked her back in August if she would like to come back for Christmas. She was delighted! But, we told her we couldn't make any promises and that it would be up to NHFC and her Director, not us, to decide which children get to come on the hosting program. We did this because we were told not to make any promises to the children that we might not be able to keep. Back in August, we had no timeline ideas on the adoption process, so we planned to host if we were not in Ukraine by then. The current timeline puts us at her orphanage on Dec 13th - the day the hosting kids arrive in the US.
I don't know if the Director knows yet when we're coming or if she will tell Sneza when we are coming so that she will not worry. Sneza asked me 3 different times in slightly different ways if we were coming to Ukraine in December. Each time I could only tell her maybe and confirm that she understood.
We plan to mail our last letter/package this weekend so that it will arrive just before we do.
Our shopping for the trip is MOSTLY done. We also need to get our Christmas shopping for the American children done before we leave. They will be celebrating Christmas on the 25th with my inlaws, who are staying with them while we're gone.
I have a few items that I still need to get and was waiting for BLACK FRIDAY deals. By the way, I DETEST black Friday and have never EVER shopped on that day before - EVER! I hide from the stores on that day, so I must say that along this journey I have done things that I never thought possible, and shopping on Black Friday for me, is not the least of them! :)
Anyway, off the bandwagon ... our family tradition for the holiday meals is two fold:
1) Brian does the cooking
2) NOT do the traditional food
Our kids do not like turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, black olives, etc., and only Ashley likes stuffing ... so we rarely make these foods. This year the meal will consist of brisket (cooked with Dad's "special" gravy), 1 small box of stuffing, Brian's mom's recipe for rolls, my grandma's recipe for pie crust (apple & pumpkin this year), my recipe for banana bread, lime and berry jello, and eggnog!
Notice what's missing - vegetables! :) I just might have to do something about that between now and dinner time.
This is a pic of Sneza opening birthday gifts from Amanda (little one) and Ashley at her birthday party we had the weekend before she left. She would be turning 15 less than a month after returning to Ukraine.
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