Photos & Friends

So, today was a pretty interesting day with Natasha. She’s doing really well within the household again now that she has Hailey all to herself once more. It seems like she just needed someone to connect with more consistently. Go figure, thirteen year olds.

We did have a bump in the road later on in the day. We had scheduled a photo shoot at a local park for the family, but focusing mostly on Natasha. The curse of the pretty dress reared it’s head again! Hailey did a great job getting clothes ready the night before for her and Natasha, but as departure time got closer, Natasha started rebelling with the clothes choices. The rest of the family was wearing classic tones and suitable winter wear. Natasha ended up trying to wear a red dress and absolutely refused initially to go with anything that went with the rest of us. We heard lots of “No” upstairs but we eventually put our foot down and got her to change. Unfortunately, her demeanor was pretty sullen for most of the car ride to the photo shoot site. We ended up getting our chaperone/translator on the line to speak with Natasha and found out that (as with most things) this attitude stemmed from boyfriend troubles… again. We weren’t even sure when she had a chance to get onto Ukrainian Facebook, but Hailey informed us that Natasha did so when we visited Marine’s parents the day before. This just goes to show that teenagers can be motivated when they want it bad enough.

We ended up going to our old standby… Starbucks. After everyone got treats and caffeinated, the mood in the car brightened up considerably! We showed up to the park, our photographer met Natasha, and she immediately jumped out of the car without her coat and started giving some glamour poses out. She’s a natural. I will say that it was only then that we noticed that the eyeshadow had been applied a little heavy. It reminded us how much Natasha had been forced to grow up but also left pretty much to her own devices. We were able to get some great family pics the rest of the time but the sun decided to set and it felt like an evening in January in Wisconsin. So we left for a friend’s house.

We were welcomed in to Paul & Clio’s home for dinner tonight. Paul & Clio are a wonderful couple with three awesome children. They were very excited to talk to Natasha and definitely are spreading the word about finding an adoptive family. Our three boys had a great time there, including little Ky. He thought it was very exciting to see another 7 month old boy and kept trying to investigate.

We did find out that Natasha was a huge dog lover! Paul & Clio had recently welcomed a retriever puppy named Teddy into their home and I think if Natasha could have done so, she would have committed a dognapping. Once in a while, Paul had to let the puppy out the backdoor into the frigid night, and Natasha quickly followed. She also couldn’t get enough of Paul & Clio’s 7 month old. I tried to snap a picture of her bouncing that baby boy on her lap but was too late! Hmmm, Natasha is like the perfect test subject for TV commercials; she loves babies and puppies J.

We ended the night watching her run out in to the cold and having a snowball fight with Paul & Clio’s 9 year old. It is amazing sometimes watching her vacillate between being just a kid who likes to run outside and a teen who has grown up too fast and realizes that there are a lot of important things happening in her life right now.