The long wait begun. Lori was x-rayed after a few weeks, and there were puppies, but only a few. I started to be really worried. What if only one or two puppies were born, then the hope of getting a puppy would probably be in vain. The estimated time of birth came closer, and we were constantly in touch over e-mail. It was the time of the Oscars, when Lori began giving birth. One female was born normally at home, but then the problems started. When the film stars shone at the Academy Award ceremonies elsewhere in L.A. in an animal hospital Lori and her little puppies fought for their lives. Two puppies, a sister and her brother, was born trough a caesarean, and after 48 hours it was sure everyone was going to be all right!

I was still a bit unsecure about getting one of the girls as there were so few born, but Brenda announced it to me very clearly: “One of these girls has always been Yours, Tina-Marina”. What is there for a girl to do but with tears in her eyes try to thank the other for giving her back the reason to live. I think that Brenda and Tim never will comprehend how grateful I am to them!

Now there was only eight measly weeks to wait. During these weeks I received over a hundred pictures of Wanda, which we decided to call her. Brenda wrote long stories about the undertakings of the puppies, and it almost felt as if I had been there watching them develop even though I was on the other side of the globe. We thought a lot about how to handle Wanda’s long trip to her new country, and one thing was sure, Wanda was not going to fly alone in the cargo. As yours truly suffers from terrible fear of flying, I had to announce at once that I wouldn’t be able to fly to the US and pick her up (as a matter of fact I would have done it if it had been the only way). We were thereby left with two options; either Brenda or Tim had to bring Wanda over here. I promised to pay half of the flight fare, and of course Wanda's fare completely, if they just would be able to bring her. A lot of discussion followed, and finally Tim encouraged himself, he is after all a detective in the LAPD, so Finland didn’t look too scary. The tickets were ordered, and that was that. I told Tim a lot about Finland, he was a little afraid of the sauna, and asked me if the Russian border was very near to Vaasa, but after reading more about Finland over the Internet he calmed down and started to wait eagerly for the trip. It was almost impossible, anyway, to explain what it’s like here in Finland, to a person who comes from a city of 15 million people, when we have only a third of that amount in the whole country.

D-day came closer anyhow, and me and my friend Janna drove off towards Helsinki airport to meet our visitors from America. Naturally Tim’s luggage was lost, so he and Wanda were the last to come out of the plane, just as I for the hundred time started thinking this can’t be happening after all. But suddenly they were there! I didn’t see Wanda at first, but I recognized Tim at once, and it felt like meeting an old friend. Then I saw it! A tiny pepper and salt head sticking up from a bag! Finally I believed it was true, that I had gotten a new, wonderful little beginning of a life. I was of course all shook up, but somehow we got to the car and on our way to Vaasa. The trip felt very long, even though we got along very well right from the beginning, Tim turned out to be a very nice person who charmed everyone, both people and dogs. Wanda slept almost all the way, except for biting me a bit with her very sharp jaw's theeth.

Tim spent a week with us in Vaasa, we went to see almost every Giant available in the neighbourhood, we even had the time for a Match Show, and the opportunity to watch Anu tracking in the forest with Odessa. Simo took us on a legendary fishing trip of which the catch was a 4 centimeter minnow, but what the heck, it was an experience anyway. Tim fell in love with Finland, the free country. You can move around any way you want here, he said, go for a drive anytime, or walk in the forest with the dogs not having to fear anything. Most of all he was amazed by the brightness, and it didn’t help that I tried to explain that it’s dark for 7-8 month non-stop during the winter… Tim also liked the people, he wondered about the fact that everybody knew the English language so well, but he said it was strange that everybody kept staring at their toes all the time.