Reunion Eve Feb 13

Today was a relatively quiet day. We woke up at 9:20 (after going to bed at 6:30 last night) and then had breakfast at the hotel. We then ventured out for a walk and to see our surroundings. We went to a grocery store to see if Mike could find any Red Bull....low and behold! They have Red Bull in Latvia! All is right with the world now. Needless to say, Mike was quite a happy boy. We walked several blocks to a park that was absolutely covered in snow. We weren't out long before our hands started freezing...literally. Yes, we had gloves on. In fact, I'm so thankful we invested in some really warm coats and snow boots! They are a MUST for survival in this kind of freezing weather. The temp today...0 degrees, wind chill -7, and low tonight -8!! Not temperatures we're used to, for sure.

So, we did a lot of reading in our room, emailing, and resting. We had the chance to skype with Mike's sister, Kim tonight. We then had a 3-way phone call with Viktorija. This was the first time she has ever "met" her aunt Kim and cousin Josiah.

We have spoken to Viktorija 3 times since our arrival. She is so very excited about tomorrow. She told me she is getting up very early in the morning to take a shower and help her foster mom with preparing food for us. The plan is to leave our hotel at 9:30 am with our Latvian attorney. She and her husband will transport us 3-4 hours to Viktorija's foster home. We will visit with them for a short time and then off to court. Once court is over, our attorney will take us to our new hotel in Daugavpils where will will stay with Viktorija until 2/25. We have a second court date on 2/25 and then the attorney will take us back to Riga (where we are now). We will handle immigration details in Riga on 2/28 and 3/1. We will be very excited to return HOME on 3/3!

During our "bonding time" with Viktorija we will be doing school work, reading, watching movies, and probably a little bit of sightseeing. I can't imagine we'll be doing much outdoors since it is unbearable after such a short time. Either way, we will be happy just to have our daughter with us. It's been 6-1/2 months since we've seen her. Will she be taller? Will she look/act different? In about 18 hours we will see:-) Until then....goodnight all.