IT'S A GIRL!!!!

AUGUST 22, 2004

We accepted the little girl we met yesterday :) Her name is Olessya so we are going to call her Alyssa. Her full name will be Jayley Alyssa Nolte. She is such a sweet little girl! She already calls us Papa and Mama! When we first met her she didn't want to go to us and she cried a little bit. We knew that was a good thing though since that meant she was attached to the caregiver. She warmed up to us pretty quickly. The caregiver told us she was crying for us last night. We went back today and she ran to us smiling :) She will be 3years old on Sept. 29, so we will be celebrating her birthday as soon as we get back. She is very healthy! Her only problem is she has a mild allergy to oranges and chocolate. Big deal!! :) We weren't expecting a child as healthy as this! We are very lucky to become her parents. She is very smart also. They tell us she is speaking full sentences. She won't talk much to us because she knows we don't understand her, but when she gets excited she will talk. It's so cute to hear her speak in Russian. She is a big girl. They definately feed them well at this orphanage :) She isn't malnourished by any means. We will post pictures hopefully tomorrow. We don't know when we will be home yet. Court should probably be around Sept 9th Sveta said, so hopefully we will be back around the middle of September.We will update more tomorrow!
Love,Chris, Julie and Alyssa

To the Ukrainain Angels group: When we went on the playground with Alyssa andshe was around the other children in her groupa, they were mean to her. Theynoticed that we put her hair in pigtails and tried to pull them out. Then 2 ofthe kids were spiting at her. Is this a normal reaction for the other kids? Doyou think it is just jealousy? It really bothered us so we took her in to aseperate room to play. When we drop her off they play with her fine we think. It only seems to be when we are around. Also, if anyone knows any goodresturants in Simferopol, please let us know.