After a very uneventful trip over, we arrived safely and on time in Riga. Although we had big plans for sleeping all the way over the ocean on our overnight flight, Alina and I were distracted by the wide selection of movies available on our personal tvs. She watched Rio and Soul Surfer, and I watched Jane Eyre. I got about an hour or so of pseudo sleep, mom got a few hours maybe of drifting off, and Alina stayed awake the whole trip! She was pooped by last night!
One of the best things about this trip (besides my mom coming along for fun!) is that I finally got to hang out with Brenna, another adoptive mom who I connected with many moons ago via Facebook, etc. Brenna's family has had an eerily similar road with adoption as we had previously (similar people involved), so we have walked this crazy journey of ups and downs "together" even though we had never met face to face...until now! She is here with Micah, her bio daughter and Leigah, her adopted Latvian daughter for their third trip to finalize Leigah's adoption. Not only are we in Riga at the same time, but we are in the same B&B, AND for the trifecta, we are right next door to each other!!!! Meeting her "for real" has been awesome, because now there's a face to a person who knows ALL my business. :). For any future adopting families, take advantage of the other adoptive families whose paths cross you own - there are some things that I can share with Brenna with total honesty and KNOW she gets it. We all went to dinner together last night, and had I not had a wicked case of the jet lag, I woulda stayed up all night chatting with Brenna like a slumber party deja vu.
We spent today seeing Riga. We are staying in a different part of the city than I have before, but with only one wrong turn and a few paper cuts from the well worn map, we got to see so much of this city I love! It was fun to see some new places I haven't visited before, and to show my mom some of my favorite spots and sites. Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Daugavpils to spend some extra time with Alina's foster family. Have I mentioned recently how much I love these people?!?! I am looking forward to seeing the Latvian countryside again...along with the magnificent stork nests. We will be in Daugavpils by tomorrow afternoon, and then Wednesday is our court appointment in the afternoon. Wednesday evening we will take the bus back to our hotel in Riga, spend the night, and then fly out Thursday. It is a quicker visit than I'd like in the sense that I wish we'd have more time to spend with Brenna and Alina's foster family, but it is hard to spend the extra money on more days of vacation when we need to be saving up for trip number three.
Lots of little details to share about our day, but that will have to wait until I get home so I can type on my "real" computer and download pictures. We have the iPad which is great for Fruit Ninja, but rough for blogging and impossible for downloading pictures. We are having fun, have recovered (mostly) from the zombie feeling, and we're looking forward to our next few days. I would appreciate prayers for our court appointment Wednesday afternoon, and if you're feeling it, prayers that I find my hair straightener before then. Whoa. My hair without the straightener is an international incident unto itself.
Will update again as we go!
One of the best things about this trip (besides my mom coming along for fun!) is that I finally got to hang out with Brenna, another adoptive mom who I connected with many moons ago via Facebook, etc. Brenna's family has had an eerily similar road with adoption as we had previously (similar people involved), so we have walked this crazy journey of ups and downs "together" even though we had never met face to face...until now! She is here with Micah, her bio daughter and Leigah, her adopted Latvian daughter for their third trip to finalize Leigah's adoption. Not only are we in Riga at the same time, but we are in the same B&B, AND for the trifecta, we are right next door to each other!!!! Meeting her "for real" has been awesome, because now there's a face to a person who knows ALL my business. :). For any future adopting families, take advantage of the other adoptive families whose paths cross you own - there are some things that I can share with Brenna with total honesty and KNOW she gets it. We all went to dinner together last night, and had I not had a wicked case of the jet lag, I woulda stayed up all night chatting with Brenna like a slumber party deja vu.
We spent today seeing Riga. We are staying in a different part of the city than I have before, but with only one wrong turn and a few paper cuts from the well worn map, we got to see so much of this city I love! It was fun to see some new places I haven't visited before, and to show my mom some of my favorite spots and sites. Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Daugavpils to spend some extra time with Alina's foster family. Have I mentioned recently how much I love these people?!?! I am looking forward to seeing the Latvian countryside again...along with the magnificent stork nests. We will be in Daugavpils by tomorrow afternoon, and then Wednesday is our court appointment in the afternoon. Wednesday evening we will take the bus back to our hotel in Riga, spend the night, and then fly out Thursday. It is a quicker visit than I'd like in the sense that I wish we'd have more time to spend with Brenna and Alina's foster family, but it is hard to spend the extra money on more days of vacation when we need to be saving up for trip number three.
Lots of little details to share about our day, but that will have to wait until I get home so I can type on my "real" computer and download pictures. We have the iPad which is great for Fruit Ninja, but rough for blogging and impossible for downloading pictures. We are having fun, have recovered (mostly) from the zombie feeling, and we're looking forward to our next few days. I would appreciate prayers for our court appointment Wednesday afternoon, and if you're feeling it, prayers that I find my hair straightener before then. Whoa. My hair without the straightener is an international incident unto itself.
Will update again as we go!
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