Marina is awesome!!

Where to start seems to be the hardest thing about this post, particularly since this will be my second post since I lost the first one. Marina is just the absolute coolest little kid! She is smart and funny and cute as a button! She has been known to take her play cell phone and high tale it to the grocery store. OF course she did not have permission to wander the aisles and yak away on the cell phone as she shopped and she sure gave the orphanage director a heart attack, but this is the sort of smart little independent thinker we have become ridiculously attached to in a few short hours. She was born at 7lbs 7 ounces but she sure has shot past that! She is solid as she can be, not overweight but heavy! She is an easy size 5/6 and a little shorter than Evan. She is assertive and takes charge of the games, telling everyone who to throw the ball to and where to sit and whose turn it is. So shy, NOT! She is most fond of Tully (papa) and when we got there the second time she ran and jumped straight to him first. It melts the heart. The pictures here on this connection take so long to upload and it is impossible to up load a video. I lost the last blog entry trying to upload the magic ball trick that Marina did. Once she saw Tully pretend to lose the ball and then have it magically appear, she was the next to do the trick. She is too funny and very very happy. When we first met her she was a little freaked out but she is over that part for sure! Wow, so much to say, it is hard to fit it into words. We are so incredibly fortunate to have been drawn our rainbow end to hers. Evan and her will be great friends in time, a little competitive for him right now, but this was to be expected. He is homesick too a little I think. But he likes Marina and makes sure everything he gets in his hands he gets in duplicate, one for him and one for her. He is certainly committed and is doing as well as to be expected with this sort of life change.
Tomorrow Tully and I make the rest of our biggest decisions here in Ukraine and we pray for clarity and peace to overcome any obstacles we face. We ask that you lift us in prayer as well. Will update more tomorrow. The internet connection here is not the high speed deluxe we had in Kiev so no videos or phone calls anymore:) But I was smart enough to buy unlimited email for one month! So you will hear all about this as long as I can get on line:) Thank you again for all who have become a part of this journey. We would not be here without you. As fortunate as Marina has been to end up in this orphanage (as of last May, when she was not even talking yet at age 4 when she was transferred here), it would never last for her but maybe two more years and with each passing year, she would have been a higher and higher risk for the institution, a crime for any child, and now that we love and hug and kiss her, especially for her. This was the right thing to do. I wish more people believed that for their own lives. This change is going to be good for us all...the beginning of the story where I know Cay is truly happy dancing for us all today. Surely she would be proud of how we have let love for her carry forward.