2005 Journal
How is it possible that Elena is three years old? I don't even really know how to begin this journal entry--we have done so much and Elena has grown so much since we last updated.
Elena is so full of life! She is definately an 'extravert' and is the first to say hello and try to befriend anyone she sees. She LOVES to talk, and she is constantly cracking us up with some profound thought that pops into her little head. She is also incredibly brave and daring, and I spend a lot of time trying to curb my overprotective instinct with her. We are thinking of enrolling her in gymnastics--she loves tumbling, jumping, and hanging from things.
Russia seems like it happened a lifetime ago. We look through the pictures that you see here on the website, and we can barely remember that quiet, tiny baby we met in the orphanage. It scares us, actually, how fragile the human memory is. How quickly we forget babyhood as our babies grow before our eyes!
We talk about Russia with Elena quite a bit, and right now she is very proud of the fact that she was born in Russia. She told everyone at her daycare before we really had the chance to have the conversation with her caregivers--they thought she was making it up! We show her the photos, and she has her own album of Russia photos that she looks at quite often. We tell her that someday we will go back to visit.
I try to talk about "family" with her a lot. I tell her that we will always be a family no matter what, and that we are a special family and we belong together. The other day she said to me, "Mama, I love you so much. I will always be your 'Lena." I hope that she will always feel that security in her heart, because we can't imagine what our lives would be like without our 'Lena!