Well, we are here! We arrived yesterday afternoon totally exhausted. The flights were all pretty good so that was nice. Our driver Nikolaey picked us up from the airport and we had quite a ride around the city!

We went to this little courthouse and waited outside while he picked up documents for another families' adoption.

Not your typical courthouse in America.....

Then we drove around very fast some more and he dropped us off at our apt. We fell asleep for a couple hours, and then he came back and he took us to a grocery store. That was interesting too! Then we walked 4 blocks to McDonalds for some Big Macs. ("Sir Mac" they call it here).

We finally got into bed about 12:30 am. We were soooo tired!

Here is the view outside the window of our apt.

Here is the little tiny squeaky elevator that takes us up to the 8th floor where our apartment is. You can see that it is about the size of Mark. Don't worry, Mom, it's not as bad as it looks. :))) Its really sturdy....

Then today we got up to skype with the family about 5:30 a.m. which was really nice!! After that, off to our SDA apt. at 10 a.m. We waited for quite a while, then they called us in and we got to hear a little more info about the girls and see the pictures that the SDA had of them. Yay!!! We finally saw a new picture of Arianna!!! We absolutely cannot wait to see these girls in person! I can only tell you they are beautiful, but then again, we already knew that! :))

Outside the door to the SDA

We will be moving to a different apartment tomorrow that is more convenient for our transportation to the orphanage. Then we will go back to the SDA at 4 p.m. to receive our permission to go to the orphanage and visit the girls on Friday!!! We have waited for this day for a long time and it is almost here! We are so thankful that God has brought us this far and we are anxious to meet these 2 little girls that He has blessed us with!

some more pics