Nyet, Nyet, Nyet

Our morning began with a trip to the dentist. I carefully explained where we were going through pictures, translated sentences and google translate. She smiled and I thought she understood. There was no hesitation... she hopped in the car. I thought we were golden. She knew her friend Natash was going to be there (a fellow orphan) and was happy. Until... she saw the dental chairs.

At the moment she finally realized where we were, she dissolved in a puddle of tears. She collapsed against me and repeated, "Nyet, Nyet, Nyet." (No, No, No!) You see, in Ukraine there is no floride in the water and they don't do any numbing when they do fillings or other oral surgery. Sadly, her teeth were in bad shape. It was obvious that she had some work done to try to correct the problem and it was probably a painful memory. Poor sweet girl. My heart was breaking.

Up until now, I have only seen smiles and joy. She is a cheerful and positive little girl. To see her shut down in tears was painful to watch. I am so thankful we were there with friends. The other host mom contacted her Russian speaking friend and we tried to get Ira to listen on the phone. She refused, so we all listened to Adolat on speaker phone talk sweet Russian words to her. It was as if I was watching a wilted flower come back to life. Slowly, she straightened up in her chair and the tears stopped falling. Thank you Jesus for Lori's quick thinking and Adolat's kind words!! God is always with us!

Dr. Foy, Natash, and Ira

Natash encouraged her, Ira put on the cool sunglasses and in the chair she hopped. When the hygienist started the cleaning, she began crying again but she squeezed my hand and was very brave. I'm so proud of her. She made it through a cleaning, x-rays and an evaluation from Dr. Foy. When we left the dentist, she was more subdued then usual and that continued for about an hour. I was so relieved that she was back to her giggly self by mid-day.

These last five days have been a journey. There have been sacrifices made, but there has also been much rich reward. It is easy to love this little girl and I actually feel like God has used her to teach me how to love my own boys better. God is teaching ALL of us in our house quite a bit. Yesterday, I commented here that I perceive myself to be selfish. This bothered some of you. Let me explain. In my eyes, the opposite of selfish is selfLESS. And while it is mostly selfless to host this orphan over Christmas, I am also fully aware of my own heart and sin nature. The only one among us who is truly selfless is Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter where I rank on the selfish scale in comparison to others, what truly matters is that there is only ONE who was selfless enough to die on the cross and take on our sins.  I am not sinless and I can tell you with certainty that I am selfish. (Did I mention that I ate almost the entire Ukrainian chocolate bar without sharing much with Darin?) But I can repent and rejoice!!! I'm not stuck wallowing in my understanding of my sin nature because there is TRUTH in God's word giving me hope!

Natash doing crazy poses and Ira relieved to be done!

I pray that as you watch this journey unfold and see whatever God has for sweet Irina that He works in your heart too. Please continue to pray for a family to step forward who is interested in adopting Irina.