It has been several months since our last posting, so, I thought I should give a bit of an update.
Mike and Viktorija have taken 2 trips to Latvia since our original trip in Feb 2011. In May, the trip to Latvia was for a court appearance to make her officially our daughter. The trip in July was for immigration/VISA purposes. She came home from that trip (the final trip in this adoption process) as an official US citizen!! She was so excited to show off her new birth certificate and her new passport! There was such "relief" in her eyes after that final trip. I still have to remind her occasionally that she is our daughter now, and nobody can take her away from us. She will get giddy at the sound of this. To watch her smile, laugh, and give us big hugs is overwhelming at times. To think of where she was a year ago and where she is now, is such a miracle.
As if the above information weren't enough to fill up the Summer months, she also made plenty of other new memories. She experienced the beach for hte first time in her life. We enjoyed a week at Hilton Head Island, SC. The excitement was contagious! She will never forget her first beach trip for several reasons: the beauty and fun of the ocean waves, her toes in the sand, she held a live starfish, found 17 live sand dollars, and got stung by a stingray!! What a week it was!
Viktorija had the opportunity to volunteer at a daycare one day a week. She LOVED that! She couldn't get enough of the babies! Now she is signed up for the Red Cross babysitting course and hopes to begin her babysitting career ASAP.
She was also invited by my friend, Carrie, who is a veterinarian, to come and spend the day with her at the vet to observe surgeries. Since Viktorija thinks she wants to be a vet someday, she was thrilled at the chance to see things up close and personal! She loved it!
We also went to Carowinds several times with friends and family, enjoyed Wet and Wild water park with some special friends, spent some time at the mountain cabin and went to Tweetsie Railroad, she got her ears pierced (which she has been wanting), got glasses (she couldn't see before!), and got braces!! I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but you get the idea. We were VERY BUSY!!!
She started school on Mon (8/22) and seems to be off to a good start. We are blessed to have her at Lake Norman Christian School. She has amazing teachers and they are under the direction of a godly Christian principal. Her class is small and this seems to suit Viktorija just fine. I've been praying that God would put good Christian friends in her life and it seems that there are some good girls in her class. Now that we are getting in to a new kind of groove for the school year, maybe life will settle down a bit (HA! HA!).
There are many people who haven't met Viktorija yet, and others whom we haven't seen in awhile. So, we are going to have a "Welcome to America" / meet and greet on Sept 22 (Thurs) from 6-8:00 pm at Matt's Chicago Dog in Cornelius, NC. This was the place she had her first dog. She likes this place alot and the owner has graciously offered to let us have our meet and greet at their fun restaurant. We hope to see as many of you as possible that night. I want Viktorija to meet the people that have prayed for her and been so giving and gracious. We appreciate each of you so much.
Thank you for taking this journey with us!
Many blessings and much love,
Julie
