The Summer of Lola

Lola whooshed into my life in June, 2006 (on the day of her 9th birthday, actually!) through the help of a wonderful orphan hosting program, New Horizons for Children, in Acworth, GA. I hosted Lola (her proper name is Lolita, but likes to be called Lola), who is a Russian orphan, in my home from June 27 through August 3. She is an amazing little girl and it didn't take me long to realize she and I are almost identical in personality and sense of humor. I was smitten after the first two weeks she was here. We had a lot of fun together going to baseball games, to the beach and to the swimming pool. We had fun even just going to a restaurant. She didn't miss a thing!! Her favorite activity besides spending every waking moment in the swimming pool was horseback riding.

As the end of the five weeks approached, I knew it was going to be painful to see her go back to Russia. She seemed to be a little quieter than usual a few days before her departure, and even a bit sad on the day I had to see her off at the airport. Of course I was a blubbering, crying mess when I finally had to kiss her goodbye. Luckily I had warned her in advance that I was going to cry when she left. I certainly did not disappoint! I was still crying an hour after she was gone! Weeks went by and it seemed as though she should still have been at my house. After much soul-searching and praying I made the decision in October 2006 that I wanted her to be in my life forever. It was a difficult decision to become a single mother. I wanted to be absolutely sure that Lola and I could make this work both financially and emotionally. On December 13 my home study was complete and I made the plunge into the harrowing, tedious and oh-so-rewarding world of the adoptive process. I must say it has been a wonderful journey overall, and as I sit here writing this first blog entry I am preparing for my trip to Russia for the court date!!! I have been waiting so long, trying sooooooooooo hard to be patient (which is most certainly NOT one of my virtues) and living each day with one ear alert to my cell phone for that long-awaited call. My first visit to Russia was in May 2007 (the adventures of that trip will be entered in a later blog) to declare my intent to adopt, so it has been six looooong months I have been trying to be patient. And now, finally I get to see my "baby" girl again!!!! I received the phone call on Tuesday evening, November 20th with the news that I had to have my Russian visa done in order to leave for Russia on Tuesday, November 27th!!! Wow, what a rush job I did to get that passport and application Fed Ex'd out that evening - - -good news is I received my passport complete with the visa yesterday (Friday)!! Go to Russia Travel is amazing, reasonable in price and fantastic to work with! They have offices here in Atlanta as well as San Francisco.