After a night of fitfull sleep, we awoke to frozen pipes at the bathroom sink. But, thankfully, the shower was working!! I was so grateful for that! I didn't want to show up for our court date and our first meeting with our daughter to be without a shower.
Our attorney met us at 9:30 and drove us the 3-1/2 hours to Daugavpils to Viktorija's foster home. They greeted us with open arms and had lunch prepared for us. I was the one who got the first glimpse of our sweet girl. We both immediately had tears in our eyes and it was so hard to let her go. But, of course, Mike needed his turn:-) Viktorija kept saying, "I can't believe it!". We felt the same. It was so surreal. Very dream-like. Noone in Viktorija's foster family speaks any English, so it was fun having Viktorija and our attorney translating, and teaching us words in Latvian. It really is true that a smile and a hug go a long way. Who needs words when you have that?!? The foster mom, Maria, and "grandma" are very caring and loving people. They were honestly happy for Viktorija to have a forever family. There were tears shed by grandma as we left, but I know she was truly happy for all of us to be a family.
Maria, the foster mom, came to court with us. Court went well. We were asked why we wanted to make Viktorija our daughter. It didn't take long before everyone in the courtroom (about 8 people) were cyring. The foster mom also spoke and said some wonderful things about how Viktorija had really wanted to be a part of OUR family. She said she wanted a dad and a mom that would love her. Viktorija told Maria how we would read the Bible together every night and pray together before bedtime when she was in America.
We finally got to settle into our apartment about 4:30 this afternoon. Had a special dinner with Viktorija....pizza, chicken wings, tacos, coke. This will NOT be the norm, however, it is a celebratory day, after all! She hasn't had coke since she left America (not a bad thing).
We were able to talk via skype to Mike's parents and his sister. But, when we tried my mom, we were having great difficulty connecting. In fact, we couldn't even access email or our blog!! That was a big problem. Finally, we got some help and things seem to be working better now...thank the Lord for that!
We our happy with our apartment, and the location is good. We can walk to most things we need (grocery store, bowling, library, movie theater, etc). Tomorrow we have an early day again. School work, breakfast, and then Maria (foster mom) is going to take us to see Viktorija's church and some other areas of interest. She is very hospitable and we are so grateful for her giving Viktorija good care and keeping her safe for us.
The pictures of the foster home and our day will speak for themselves.
Love to all.....
She knits??? A precious little girl after my own heart! I will take her shopping for yarn...beautiful yarn! ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to update the blog...we all appreciate it so very much. The photos and video were heartwarming. Can't wait to see y'all live again!