Angela's New Clothes

We tried on all the new goodies today, and our Extended Team LaJoy members did an outstanding job!  First we gave Irina our gifts rather than waiting until we leave, as we knew she had really wanted some of the items.  Dominick brought her about 15 magazines including fashion and glamour mags and star mags.  She loved them!  It is extremely hard for her to find English language items here so she can continue to keep her skills up or increase them  So she had asked if we had anything in English she could have.  We also brought her a ton of "Chick Flicks" with several featuring Keanu Reeves, her favorite American actor.  She LOVED them!!  Team LaJoy - Montrose Division made some great choices!  We also gave her a set of towels and a nice pen set, which she also appreciated very much as she will soon set up her own home in an apartment that used to be owned by her grandmother. 

 

Irina is a really sweet young lady whose day to day life is not always very easy.  I hope when we get home we can keep up corresponding with her and maybe one day see her in America for a visit.  She is just wonderful and anyone lucky enough to work with her here will be blessed by her gentle spirit, her easy smile, and her warmth.

 

We then opened up the suit case that contained the girls clothes, and you could instantly see who was the Fashion Maven.  Olesya JUMPED at it and loved trying things on!  While Angela obviously appreciated everything, I had to laugh as you will see in a picture below when I asked Irina to ask if Angela liked trying on clothes, and she grinned and said "nyet".  Mom...I DID get a daughter after my own heart!  We laughed together as I commiserated with her telling her it has always been my least favorite thing in the world to do so I totally understood.

 

Honestly, I am glad for many reasons we have become the girls parents but I am happy that with us as parents she will be allowed to be just who she is with no pretence she has to pretend to like things she doesn't like.  No dresses?  Cool!  Hate trying on clothes?  Great...let's get the shopping done quickly so we can get the heck out of the mall!  Want to wear jeans all the time but might go for a little embroidery on them?  Awesome!  As long as you are neat, clean and presentable that is all we care about.  Far, far more important is who you are on the inside...is your HEART clean?  Is your SPIRIT dancing and "dressed up" for life?  But I can't even imagine Angela with a frilly mommy...a make up Mama who would insist on lacey frocks and high heels.  She is definitely feminine in a Montrose kind of way :-)  She will fit in perfectly!

 

Her clothes fit reasonably well, she couldn't really wear a smaller size because she is tall but she is very thin and her shirts were sort of hanging on her and one pair of pants was really too big for her.  As expected, they are both thinner than average and it was just like Kenny that we had to pull in the waists on the inside elastic tabs.  Thanks Crew, for making sure most of the pants had them!!  It helped a lot.  The shoes were a perfect fit and we have 2 kids in sizes 5 and 2 kids in sizes 4 1/2...hahaha!  The new jacket that had been sent for her from a dear friend was too small (she is quite a bit taller than we had thought!) but another friend had been saving used coats from her daughters and sent them so we had one that fit JUST right!

 

Here are the pics of Angela in her new clothes.