We celebrated today with our girl! Praise the Lord that we got permission to take her out of the orphanage. It is typically not allowed at this orphanage however they made an exception because of it being "our special holiday". She could only come with us if a care taker came along. It felt like a supervised visit at first but everything went well. When we got to our hotel room, she immediately took off her coat and hung it up. She seemed to already feel at home! I had displayed all the hats, gloves, mittens, scarves, socks, sweatshirts, and other warm clothes to take a picture of all we brought and I left it out so she could chose specific items for her friends. She enjoyed looking through everything and really thought about colors and what her friends would like. She saw ear muffs she liked and when I said she could have them for herself her eyes lit up! She seems to be very thoughtful and caring.

 After she was done "shopping" for her friends, she wanted to play the iPad game of styling hair. She took my picture and by the time she was done I had pink and black wavy hair with bows! We then enjoyed FaceTime with the children and Grandma back home. The children showed her some favorite toys, told her a little more about themselves, and asked her some questions.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious! We had lettuce salad, turkey and mashed potatoes, apple/grape cider and a very delicious and beautiful Ukrainian style pumpkin pie. The pumpkin pie had a cobbler crust, then a thin layer of pumpkin, followed by slivered carrots, and apple slices and sesame seeds on the top. Jason was unsure about trying it because it did not resemble our American pumpkin pie at all. It was very tasty and even though our girl was full she wanted one more little piece. We got to bring the pie to our room for later so we asked her if she would like some more at the orphanage tomorrow. Her response was yes, she wanted her friends to get to try it. Without paper plates and plastic silverware I am not sure how we will bring pieces for children to try but we will improvise!

The nicest part of the meal was being together. The care taker chose to stay in our room and embroider even though we invited her to come have dinner with us. (We took this as a positive sign that she felt comfortable with us having our girl without her supervision.) We used google translate to explain our Thanksgiving traditions and then we each said what we were thankful for before we prayed. She said she was thankful to meet us. Several people at the orphanage and at our hotel have said she is a happy girl. She truly is happy and we pray that she has gotten happier just within the last few days!