We talked to Anya!

We have had a great weekend visiting Jack's mom, dad & sisters in Tennessee. Faith & Caleb had the best time playing with 6 of their cousins. Just before we left our house for TN, I received an email back from Russia letting me know that we could call Anya yesterday (Monday) at 11:00 AM. Jack's family has been close friends with a Russian family for years and we called one of the daughters to see if she would be willing to translate our phone call for us. She said she would and we were very blessed to have Elena translate. We called Russia several times over the course of about 40 minutes before getting through and then Anya answered the phone. When she realized we had someone on the phone who could translate, Anya talked about 90 miles an hour. She was very giddy & excited and asked us to tell everyone "hello" and that she misses & loves everyone and she can't wait to be here. She wanted to know when we would be in Russia and if she would be able to be with us immediately or if she would have to wait. She seemed okay with the fact that we don't really have any of those answers yet, but we did tell her that we should know a date on Thursday and she wanted to make sure we would let her know. She also asked about her "sister", "brother", "grandmother", and "grandfather". I think she is very excited to use those terms for people in her life. We let her know that Caleb now sees her picture and says "Anya". She told us that she has been crying at night for us and that she can't wait for us to get there. She asked if we have a tutor for her to teach her English (one who knows Russian) and fortunately our translator, Elena, was able to tell her that she was Anya's age when she came to the USA and she had no trouble learning English and after just 4 months could speak fluently. I think that was encouraging to Anya. She said that her roommate, Nastya, was doing well and had been on crutches all summer after her surgery, but gets the casts off her legs next week. Anya was bubbling over with things to tell us. She told us her friend was drinking tea, that they had watermelon today to celebrate school starting and she also told a joke that Elena, the translator, didn't understand. Anya was excited to hear about the room we are preparing for her and Faith and when she was finally told by someone that she had to get off the phone, she just kept telling us that she loves us and misses us and would not hang up the phone until we did. She seems to be doing very well. Jack & I were so relieved & overjoyed to hear from her and hear her doing so well after more than 3 months of no communication. We hope to be able to call her once a week. It's just so encouraging to hear her beautiful voice and know she is as anxious to be with us as we are to be with her. Thank you all for your prayers!