We have a 12-year-old!

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be celebrating my child's 12th birthday if you had asked me, even 6 month ago!

But, God has different plans than we do sometimes, and we have found, it is best to go with His plan, because His ways are the best ways! What we would have missed already had we stuck with our "logical" plan!

But, yes, Mariyana turned 12 in the middle of the month. My parents brought Mariyana to the ballet for her birthday - it was my pure delight and joy to help her get ready, including curling her hair. Once she was all ready, I wasn't too sure we were going to let her out of the house - what a special, beautiful girl she is becoming! And, she certainly looked a tad older than 12! (Maybe that makes up for her mom, who looks a tad younger than her 32 years!)

Mariyana had a wonderful time at the ballet and came back with a balloon (yes, still a little girl in some ways!), smiles and stories from the ballet. Here are a few pictures of her ready to go...

The birthday girl - can I really already have a 12 year old??!!!?!?!


Ready to go to the ballet with Granny and Pops!


In addition to the ballet, Mariyana had a party with her friends in Moscow, during which the 17 children (!!) made and decorated houses with candy (like gingerbread houses, but we used wafer creme cookies instead). Unfortunately, I used my "old-fashioned" 35mm camera, and don't have the pictures developed, so I can't put any up yet....

I am catching up with everything, so I'm going to post this update and move onto the next update!