We had a nice visit with Erik this afternoon - what a cute kid!!! He's so funny and really coming out of his shell every time we see him.

THEN - as we were walking with him around the orphanage in the yard, I spotted Leeza. There was no way I could get around. Anyone who knows me knows that I would *LOVE* to adopt Leeza, but she's been spoken for (hopefully her family will get here soon!). Not only was she the cutest thing ever, but before I could turn around to avoid her, she ran STRAIGHT AT ME, with this HUGE smile on her face and said, "MAMA!!!". I heard Mark mutter, "Oh, that'll help...!" LOL I about died. The caregivers didn't know who I was and Erik was dressed in his "I have parents" clothes, so we didn't approach her, so as not to worry them. They called her away just as I wanted to start to cry. A few minutes later, we had no choice but to pass by again, and do you know what that little dickens (my grandmother's word) did? She stood on the top of a play thing platform and with the branch of dead leaves that she was holding, started strumming it like a guitar and singing!! Mark and I laughed so hard we about split a gut!!! THAT didn't help either!! You don't KNOW how badly I wanted to take that precious little girl and RUN! By that time, we had told the caregivers that we knew Alexei's family and Leeza's new family (though we really don't know Leeza's), and they understood why we were there and relaxed quite a bit

BUT! By THAT time, Mark had fallen in love with his OWN little girl!! A PRECIOUS little brunette, just as petite and feminine as could be!! He asked her what her name was, and she said, "Alina". He picked her up and she called him "Papa", and that was all he needed. He could hardly put her down. I kept telling him our taxi was coming and we needed to go, but it was as hard pulling him away from her as it was pulling me away from Leeza!!

We took our taxi home, and Mark called our facilitator asking if she was available. She's checking. Mom? We may need you again next year...!!!!! LOL The probability of her being available is fairly low, however. Just because kids are in orphanages doesn't mean that they are available for international adoption. I will admit, though, this girl was really a special little girl.

(And OF COURSE I didn't bring my camera!!!)