Our Appointment

Yes, I know, I made you all wait for a long time for an update!  At least we are 7 hours ahead, so it's not as late as it really is!  :)  Our driver arrived about 30 minutes earlier than we expected (which is great because I rather be early than late!), so we were glad that we had prepared everything the night before and were almost ready to go.  We went to bed after preparing everything and reorganizing our suitcases, and then got up fairly early so we would have time to get ready for the day!  Our driver is very nice, speaks English very well, and knows so much about the history of Vika's country and its capital city.  We picked up another couple who stays just a couple minutes away from us and they had their appointment right after ours.  They have adopted from here just recently when God brought them to another precious orphan, and they followed God's leading and now they are back.  Not only is it nice just to be able to communicate in English, but also to have good Christian fellowship and of course draw from their past experience!  The amazing thing is that we are going to the same region and will be traveling with us by train to Vika's region tomorrow night! 

We arrived a few minutes early at the office for adoption and so E. told us some things about the history in that area and pointed out some beautiful landmarks.  We were met by L., who took us in for our appointment and translated for us.  I know it was God's hands resting on us as I was not nervous in any way, but we were both completely peaceful.  We learned some more information about Vika and her parents and got to see some pictures of her when she was younger and were asked a few questions.  It was a pretty quick appointment, although they needed to make some phone calls to update some of their records and then we signed on the dotted line and we were given a part of our dossier to make copies of. 

We handed them to E. who left to get us some copies after he showed us a souvenier stand of one of his friends.  They had some very beautiful woodwork there and other traditional souvenirs of Vika's country.  We picked out a couple of things for Vika to have as a memory.  There were lots of stands along this road, and we did some "window" shopping after our new friends finished with their appointment.  Many of the things remind us a lot of Germany!  We sat down in a very peaceful, quiet part of the city and had some coffee and then we headed to the National History Museum.  Like I said, E. knows pretty much everything there is to know and so he gave us a complete narrated tour of the history of Vika's country!  :)  History was not my favorite subject in school, but Abe LOVES it!  Growing up, we went to many, many history museums with our school classes which brings history to life!  In America, the history is not even close to as old as in Europe and so it is harder to bring history to life.  It was really interesting,  E. had a lot of fun stories to share, and there were some very, very beautiful exhibitions.  After we were done at the museum, E. took us to the train station to pick up our train tickets!  It is so wonderful to be able to have someone who not only speaks the language but knows and understands the culture to make the arrangements, because we would have been very lost without him.  We will be sharing our sleep compartment on the train with the other family, which is so nice!  God has been so good to us!  We are so blessed, and we do not want to take any part of this journey for granted!  After the train station, E. dropped of the other family and then took us to an electronics store so we could buy a printer so I can do my work!  Again, he was so helpful to help us find just the right thing!  Since a printer would explode with the pressure on the plane, we did not bring one, and we will leave the printer here after we are done so that it can be used by the Reece's Rainbow team, who works so hard for us. 

We came home and got to skype with the girls.  Being able to skype is so nice!  We miss our girls so much, it hurts, but God has been so good in helping us through this time.  Amarissa was not feeling well this morning and actually threw up in the car on the way to drop off Annalee at school!  Poor Wanda! :) Please continue to lift up our girls and those taking care of them, who have blessed us so much by taking care of them so beautifully!  Now, I promised some pictures, so here are some to give you an idea of this beautiful, historical city we are in right now and also some pictures of our layover in Munich! 



We were able to meet up with my dad, and Abe's mom and sister.





...and my friend and her brother and sister-in-law and their two cute girls. Thank you for coming!!!





Click on the collage to view pictures larger