The last few days....

Here's an update of how our first visit with the girls went and what we have been up to since then...

Ok, so Friday we got up early, skyped with the kids, and then waited for our facilitator to come pick us up. We went to the inspector’s office first, waited a bit to get some paperwork, then headed to the orphanage. It was about a 30 minute drive. The orphanage is in a beautiful area and it is a well kept up building surrounded by tall pine trees and flowers. It is also very nice and clean on the inside as well. We went in and headed up stairs to the director’s office and our facilitator introduced us. Then they sent us back downstairs to a little visiting room where there was already another family there playing with their little guy.
Well I was distracted by them and while I was looking away, they brought Magda in. I turned around and there was this teeny tiny little girl in the caretakers arms. It was so exciting and so amazing to see her for the first time! I actually thought for a second that she was Arianna because she was so small. All this time I had been thinking that Arianna would be smaller, and I don’t even know why. So I got to hold her right away and she just snuggled right into my arms. I started telling Mark “get the camera!” because I wasn’t sure how much time we would have with her.
Then the orphanage doctor came in to talk to us about the girls and Mark held Magda while I tried to write down everything the doctor was saying. They brought Arianna in while the doctor was still talking so they handed her to our facilitator (dang!) first. When the doctor was done, she wanted to know why we were adopting children with Down syndrome and also why we were adopting 2 of them. I was a little nervous at first, but I just told her that we already have a child with Down syndrome and that she is such a blessing in our life, and that we wanted to help other children with DS that needed a family. I also told her that we had 6 boys and only 1 girl and that we really wanted more girls! I could have gone on some more of course, but she seemed satisfied with that answer and smiled and left. After that, I finally got to hold Arianna and it seems like right away they came back in to take the girls back. I don’t know what our facilitator said, but they left and we ended up getting to spend almost an hour with the girls while she was taking care of paperwork! That was awesome!!

We have tried to keep ourselves busy this weekend. We met 2 other RR families (the Lewis family and Wendy Harper) and had dinner with them Saturday night. It was really nice to be able to chat with other American adopting families! On Sunday, we walked about a mile I think (mostly uphill) to the TGI Friday’s restaurant and got to meet Meredith and Shelley and the developmental pediatrician that they are here with for the DownsEd conference! It was really awesome to get to meet them and we really enjoyed our visit! After that, we walked around the city with Wendy, who is a great tour guide. I guess that is what happens when you have been here as long as she has. She was full of good tips on how to get around the city and good places to eat and stuff like that. We walked a long ways and and we were really tired by the time we got back to our apt.

Tomorrow morning we are off to visit the girls again!! Yay finally! We will attempt to ride the bus to the orphanage by ourselves! That should be interesting. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated!!