A Favorite Photo: All Dressed Up

Mrs. Beaver:

Tomorrow we will celebrate three months as a family of fourteen.

One of my favorite photos from the quarter-of-a-year we've spent together is this one taken when we attended the local symphony's Christmas program. I'm certain that attending a symphony concert was one of the many "firsts" that these former orphans have experienced since departing Russia.

Everyone got dressed to the nines that evening. I loved capturing my two new beauties in their velvet-and-satin finery just before the concert began. They were the very personification of elegance, in both attire and behavior.

I don't believe anyone would have guessed that night that the two girls had been living in an orphanage just three weeks earlier. At the children's home, all of the clothing is rotated among the children. No child owns their own clothes. What a delight it has been to outfit my new princesses in their very own pretty dresses! I thank the Lord for that honor.

BTW, the nasty sore on Oksana's forehead in not the result of a bad first encounter with a curling iron in the hands of her mom or a sister. Oksana has loved sledding this winter. One afternoon our hill was especially slick, and Oksana ran into a tree at the bottom. Actually, I learned later that she ran into the tree four times. Her siblings told me she laughed the first three times before giving into tears on the fourth encounter. However, after a few tears she grabbed her sled to race down the slope again. As her wound healed, Oksana never called attention to it or complained. One of Oksana's best traits is that she's a happy-hearted trooper.