Ukraine Adoption

Social butterfly

When we saw little "Vika" for the first time in the Ukraine orphanage in February, just days after she turned 2, she would barely look at us, opting instead to cover her eyes with her hands and whimper. She didn't know why she was taken into the doctor's office to meet these big people from a strange land. I wanted to hug her but didn't want to scare her.

After a few daily visits, she mostly stared straight ahead, with no real expression, just blank, clutching a cracker in her hand the entire 2 hours. We wondered: Will she ever get used to us? Will she ever smile? The following week, John imitated her every move. She tried to hide her smile, like an adult with an inside joke. But we saw her teeth! Each day, she opened up more. It always took 10 minutes to get her to warm up and lose the blank face. But then she got downright silly.

We didn't know then that we were getting just a glimpse of the hidden personality of the little girl. Today, Tara Vika is a social butterfly. When we are home on the weekend, relaxing, she gathers up our shoes and drops them on our feet, asking, "bye-bye?" At parties, she happily samples the snacks, wiggles to the music during the commercials, talks to people she just met, and even lets our friends hold her sometimes.

She has a butterly theme in her room; I never knew how appropriate that would be.