Maybe you've noticed that I mention her name a lot since coming home from Ukraine. I "met" Andrea about a month or so before we went to Ukraine because she had written about "her angels" on her blog and one of them just happened to be my angel. BTW - thanks to the Anonymous commenter who shared that post with me. See, sometimes Anonymous can be nice! (all you bloggers know what I mean, right?)
We feel so blessed to have gotten to know Andrea and to have had her insight into some of the things Liza did when we first met her. I remember one day I took Liza back up to groupa and let go of her hand to leave. I stayed and watched for a minute to see what would happen and my sweet angel walked right up to another child (pretty sure it was Diana), who is incapable of defending herself, and slapped her across the face! It broke my heart in two to see her do that. Of course, my fierce sense of right and wrong couldn't let that go so I marched right over to Liza and took her hand and told her with a stern look and a stern voice, "I DO NOT like that! Not Nice!" But, inside I was thinking, "my child is a monster. why would she do such a thing?" You know, all the silly Mama hysterics we can get into. Thankfully, Andrea witnessed the whole thing and was able to share with me why she thought Liza had done what she did. Seems it was a way to get attention from the caregivers that she and a few of the others practiced regularly :( It really set my heart at ease to have Andrea's insight into why she did what she did.
Andrea's heart for adoption and the kids who wait is huge and she is always open to sharing what she knows with prospective parents. She also has great info on Krivoy Rog and the different orphanages that she was able to visit. While we were there she taught us to take the bus on our own which really helped with boredom and saved us money on hiring a driver. She also helped us find the church that is right around the corner from the orphanage and that was such a lifesaver for us. I don't know how we would've made it without the fellowship at the church, and with Andrea herself, for all the weeks we were there.
Andrea is now back home in Canada, but advocates for her kids every chance she gets. We love her heart and are so glad we were given the chance to get to know her. I wonder if that's why God had our process take so much longer, because if we had gone to Ukraine when I wanted to we would never have met her. Looking back now I wouldn't change things if it meant losing the opportunity to meet her. Go check out Andrea's blog, Ambassador of Love, and the kids she loves but had to leave behind.
We love you Andrea!! :) Many kisses from your girl... <3
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