Clingy *MAY* be a Understatement

In the days since the giveaway fundraiser has ended, I have found myself thinking more and more about Ksenjia. I have reexamined all the pictures my friends took on their mission trip of her. I learned when her birthday is (mid March) and what her last name is. I can't pronounce it, but I know it, lol. All these things make her more real to me.

But what am I to her? She has no idea there is a family 4,000 miles away trying to raise the money to get her here. She asked my friends what it would take for her to come to a family, but she has no idea that we are working on 'what it takes' to get her here, even if it is just 5 weeks. Her life hasn't changed- she is still hoping and praying someone will love her. She doesn't know someone does- not yet. They won't tell her until the last minute that there is a family in America she can go to for the summer. That's still several weeks of not knowing! And when you're 11, it's got to seem longer.

I have been told that she loves to be hugged. Craves it. So I am expecting her to be somewhat clingy and affectionate once she realizes that it's okay to be that way. She has a lifetime of hugging to make up for, and I intend to put a dent in that deficit! All my kids are affectionate and, um, clingy-ish. Okay, honestly, if one of them could surgically attach herself to me, she would. Her love language is physical touch/quality time and as one of my friends wrote about her own daughter "her love tank has a perpetual leak". Which fits my middle child. To. The. Letter.

So tonight I started laying the ground work for the change that is coming. Translation: I began to warn my needy one that there is one coming who is even needier, and she is going to have to buck up and share me. It went over really well. I brought it up casually as I was helping her with her jammies. It seemed to click. Seemed to click so much that after we all prayed and started to head for beds, she said, "Mom, you can go. Dad can snuggle with me tonight." I thought I was in the wrong house. Then I thought once G laid down with her to help her go to sleep, she would change her mind, but she didn't. Wow.

We'll see how other talks go, but it was a huge relief that at least the initial talk went so well. In the meantime, I'll pray and hope the next few weeks go by really quickly for Ksenjia, and that God starts to prepare her for our family, and our family for her.