We Are Enjoying a Very Special Time With Aura!

It's mid July, hotter than a firecracker, humidity is off the charts, yet, we are enjoying a very special time with Aura! Stop right here! If you didn't read my last blog, it would be very beneficial to before you read on because I shared our story about Aura. By the way, her name is not pronounced the way you just read it, the way every American reads it.  The way I remember how to pronounce is..OuttaHere! Of course without the "here." When she got off the plane one of the first things she did was laugh at the way people on the plane pronounced her name! We were dying inside because that is exactly how we would have pronounced it too!!

But since we visited last on my blog, we DID NOT get to pick Aura up on June 26 as planned. We received an urgent email and a conference call stating that Poland had shut down all international travel of orphans! We were seriously in disbelief! But I can tell you the ladies who are the administrators of BLOOM believed in the power of prayer. As bleak as it looked, they believed God would open the door. We all wrote letters that night to the government as to why the kids should get to travel and one week, three days later, we picked her up at MCI in Kansas City.

The obvious feeling you have when you do something like this is to hopefully be a blessing to a child who has been dealt a pretty crummy life. But I can tell you we will be far more blessed by her presence than we will be to her. She is a delight! Very intelligent, intuitive, understands humor, jokes, laughs, speaks English well, and has a lot of common sense. She worked the register for me at the boutique after me showing her twice how to do it! I was so impressed she could maneuver around that iPad like she had been doing it her whole life.

One of the things Aura is enjoying most is watching the entire 6 seasons of Gossip Girl! Both of my daughters have seen it all so she is anxious to visit with them about the final outcome! She told me she just loves doing nothing. In Poland she works every day outside so it is fun for her to kick back and have no responsibilities! HAHA, my girls said that would never fly when they were teenagers!  They were right but this is different!  We enjoy spoiling her a bit! One funny thing happened while watching an episode of Gossip Girl. I guess the characters were eating PBJ sandwiches. She came into the kitchen and asked me to fix her one! She LOVED it!

We got her eyes checked. She was relieved to know she didn't need to wear glasses all the time!  Shout out to Dr. Kelley at iCare Optometry in Independence. Kansas, for doing a thorough exam and charging us nothing!

We plan to take Aura to Silver Dollar City and White Water. We scheduled her an appointment to get her hair colored and a pedicure! You know all those girly things!  Let me tell ya, she is girl through and through!  It's fun for me to experience that again since my two daughters are grown.

One of the common things we have experienced with previous host children is their feeling of entitlement. Aura couldn't be more opposite. She is so appreciative, helpful, and asks for very little! She has discovered she loves burritos, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and blackberry cobbler. She's a coffee drinker so we get along great every morning!

True Story....Aura was sharing with me that her best friend in the orphanage is going to be adopted by a family in Oklahoma!  I was like that's cool! We border Oklahoma!  And that was pretty much the end our conversation. But I got to thinking about it again and asked her where in Oklahoma? She messaged her friend back in Poland, and it's Owasso, Oklahoma!!  We are about 1 1/2 hours away!!  And we contacted them and are going to meet with them before Aura returns home on July 31. Cool Story, Huh!

Let me give you a little perspective on what a 15 year old girl who has no parents has to "think" about.  When she returns home, she must decide before school starts whether she will attend a technical school where she will learn a trade and that will be her occupation most likely.  Now this isn't all bad, but she said these jobs don't pay very well, but at least it's a job. Makes sense. On the other hand, she can make the decision to attend what we would call "high school" here in our country. This is meant to prep her to further her education. However, when she finishes high school, she has to ask permission to stay in the orphanage and go to college.  If they deny her, she will have a high school education, but no trade.  WOW! It's hard for me as an adult to even try to advise her one way or another, let alone a young girl. Life has not been ideal for Aura, but her attitude and spirit are inspiring!  She is ready to tackle the world, and I hope we can help her do so!

So where from here? God only knows! Literally! We would love to adopt Aura and plan to start the paper work very soon. However, there is no guarantee as there are many hoops to jump through and obstacles to overcome. Corporate prayer is very powerful!  If you are a prayer warrior, please add Aura and our family to your concerns.  We will certainly need His wisdom as we travel down this very long process.  We will get to continue to communicate with Aura when she returns because she has a phone and access to the internet. Most orphans do not have these luxuries so we are very happy about this. 

I certainly hope you will continue to follow my blog as we will continue to update the status of our journey. It's sure to be a good one!

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog,

Libby


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