Day 11 – Wednesday, 16 August, 2006

A week and a half into Masha’s visit, we are finally settling into a groove. Masha has adjusted to the time change well enough for us to get familiar with her natural sleep cycle. She is definitely my child…she likes to stay up late, and to sleep in!! As each day goes by, it’s harder and harder to wake her up. I feel certain that this is God’s little payback to me!

Once she wakes up, though, she gets up and around quickly. She makes her bed, brushes her teeth and cleans her new pierced ears without being reminded (OK, so not so much like me after all!).

Having to get a *little* work done this morning, I dropped her off at camp and headed back home for the morning conference calls. While she was at camp, volunteers from Child Evangelism Fellowship visited the camp to work with the kids. At the end of their time, Masha approached one of the volunteers and spoke with her for quite a while through one of the translators. At the end of the conversation, Masha prayed with them and accepted Jesus!

I picked Masha up from camp at about 1:00, and we headed over to the Maxwell’s for Masha to swim and play and for me to do several more conference calls! Special thanks continue to flow to Becky and her family for helping out and making Masha feel such a welcome part of the family! She had a blast in the pool all afternoon, and it was comforting for me to watch her out the window while I was working!

Masha has really settled into the family, and has enjoyed the time she can spend with her host cousins. Rachel and Masha perform handstands in the pool together, and Masha patiently tows the Jared and Julia around the pool in tubes. All in all, they are having a great time being kids together!

As the day wanes, we say our goodbyes and head home for dinner, a short video, and some much-needed sleep!