Last night Olia had to cheer at the high school football game.  Her elementary school friends were there because it was spirit night for all of the elementary schools in the district.  Olia said she was nervous to cheer in front of a big crowd, and especially because so many of her classmates would be at the game.  She got there and started to cheer.  A smile spread across her face and she smiled the entire time she was cheering.  She did not miss a step.  It helped that a lot of her friends were calling her name!  She absolutely LOVED being in the limelight!  Dan and I were so proud watching her.  She cheered, smiled and moved those pom-poms with precision. 

   Yesterday I spoke to Olia's teacher to see how she is doing.  Her teacher said she thinks Olia is extremely smart because she is keeping up with the class.  She said she finds it amazing that Olia speaks and reads so well after only being in the U.S. for a little over a year.  We both decided that Olia will only go to ESL two times per week.  She is scheduled for four sessions, but I don't want her out of the classroom that much because she will miss too much instruction.  Olia's teacher said that Olia is so full of joy all of the time and that she readily participates in class.  Yesterday morning, Olia and three of her neighborhood friends made up a cheer song about their school.  Yesterday was spirit day at their school.  When they went into school, they sang the song to the principal.  He told them to come back at the end of the day because he wanted them to sing the song to the entire school over the intercom.  Olia seemed to have loved doing that! When Dan and I first met Olia, I thought she was very shy.  But she is far from that!

    We are going to host a little girl at Christmas.  She is the little girl we were supposed to host this summer.  Her orphanage director pulled out at the last minute. That was probably a good thing for Dasha because we hosted her and she found a family to adopt her.  I am so glad that the little girl we were supposed to host is going to come.  She is just adorable; she looks just like OLia and her name is Olya!  She is almost 11 years old.  My friend Lena's dad was going to visit an orphanage where he knows the director and see if any girls were available for hosting.  Frontier Horizons was not willing to bring a child from an orphanage that they aren't affiliated with.  They said that there is just too much time consuming paperwork for them to go and get one child from a region. 

   Olia slept over night at her best friend Katelyn's house last night.  She has a better social life than I have!  Olia went from school to Girl Scouts to Cheerleading to a sleepover!