The day we left to come and meet our girly was a crazy day spent at the airport. The first flight was supposed to leave at 10:15 a.m. Shortly after we arrived at the airport we were informed that our flight had been delayed due to high winds at our next destined stop. So they rescheduled us on another flight that was going out an hour and half after our first flight we should have left. We eventually get on that plane and sat for at least 30 minutes waiting on the second pilot to get in from another flight. After sitting there and very cramped in the seats we are then told we have to get off of the airplane because they don't know when that pilot will arrive and that they will try and find another pilot to take his place. So we go back into the airport to sit and wait on a replacement. I am really getting nervous wondering if we are going to make our second flight that will take us to Anna's country. Thankfully they were able to call a pilot in on his day off (yaaaaaay) and they got us to the second airport on time. When we finally get on the plane headed to our destination we get settled and start to watch a movie and we are then told that they are going to have to turn around and take us back to the airport. They explained that when the plane took off they lost a generator and would not be able to fly us so far away (ten hours) without the generator. Next they start dumping gasoline out of the plane so that we can go back to the aiport and land safely. At this point I am getting nervous and thinking are we ever going to get there?? Well eventually we do get there and it was quite comical to watch us try and find our way around that airport with no one there speaking English except us and another RR family that traveled to the same city with us to meet their daughter.
We were met by our guides outside the aiport and they put us in cars and they drive away with us, fast and crazy! We rode for quite a while where we are then put on a bus and road for 2-3 more hours. After the bus ride there were 2 more cars waiting on us to take us to our hotel. It was all kind of crazy to have traveled on the airplane so long and then to keep switching vehicles until we finally arrive at our destination. We are tired, starved and ready to pass out. We have no water here to brush our teeth because they said the water can make us sick. So thankfully I had brought some liquid iodine with me and I put some of that in the water so that we could at least brush our teeth!
It is so cold outside, I think it was 2 degrees here today! The hotel room we are in is so hot I thought I was going to pass out last night. We finally figured out how to turn the heat down, but it is still too hot and we had to open a window so that I could breathe! The bathroom floors here are tile and are also heated! When I got out of the shower this morning it felt like my feet were sizzling on the floor, LOL. Everything here is an adjustment, but things really aren't as bad as I thought they might be.
So on to our girl! We got up this morning and had an interesting breakfast at the hotel. It is complimentary so we ate it, LOL. We went by a flower shop to pick up flowers for the director of the adoption center, who by the way would not let us see her because she had some type of surgery done to her face and was embarassed. If we had known that, we may not have spent that big money on flowers for her, just joking. We sit at the adoption center for a long time waiting on them to process our papers and the other couples papers so that we can go and meet Anna. After we got here we found out that she does not actually live in the city that we are in and we have to travel a little over an hour to go and visit her. The drivers here should be in Nascar, I swear!!! The roads are snowy and icy and they are flying around and dodging cars like they are on a racetrack. I was actually scared that we might not live to make it to the orphanage to meet little Anna, they were driving so crazy!! We drive forever and ever before we finally get to her city, which is in Egypt by the way. We also found out today that Anna is NOT still in the baby orphanage and that she was transferred when she was 4 years old to this institution for 4 years old up to 28 I think. When we got there we only saw one child who was sitting in the front of the building by herself. We saw no other children at all, as it was nap time. They had huge photographs of the children there and a few of them brought tears to my eyes. They had photos of BEAUTIFUL little girls with Down syndrome sitting in a sandbox together and doing other outside activities. When we were on our way down the hall I saw this tiny little girl being led by a lady into a room. I KNEW it was her. Tears started falling before I could get into the door to meet her! Our little teeny tiny Anna is so beautiful and precious! I wanted to grab her and run away right then! The workers said that she knew something special was happening today because of they way they had her dressed. She had on a little dress and a sweater and a big bow in her hair! She kept running her hands down her dress like she was so proud of it. :) We sat down beside her on the couch and after we sat there for a couple of minutes I tried to pick her up and she let out a small squeal, so I went to sit her back down but she ended up sitting on my lap anyway. She is so little and is just as precious as she can be!! She loved running her hands over Mike's hair and his rough face, LOL. He would hold her up in the air over his head and she would laugh the sweetest laugh. He tickled her and played with her and she loved every minute of it!! We gave her gummie fruit snacks and she devoured those. It was sweet just watching her little mouth enjoy every bit of those fruit snacks. We asked all kinds of questions to the orphanage doctor and it appears that she is very healthy and rarely gets sick except for a cold here and there. She is already in panties during the day and a diaper at night. She does not sleep in a crib but in her own bed. The orphanage is very disciplined with the children and it really has worked! I put a fruit snack for her in the palm of my hand but she would not pick it up and eat it. Our translator said that Anna knows that she only eats food with a spoon or fork so she refused to pick it up. I held it up and put it in her mouth for her and she finally ate it! We didn't get to spend any alone time with her as there were four adults plus me and Mike crammed into an office for the whole visit. We were told today that they have never had an international adoption out of this particular institution and of course they want to know why we would ever want a child with a disability! It really breaks my heart to even hear that people think that way. I promise you, if they would have given her to me today we would have ran with her!! It was also sad after our meeting with her that the social worker wanted to know if we still felt the same way about adopting her after we met her :( Of COURSE we still want her!!!!
Well here's the sad part of my story.... I have NO pictures. :( The orphanage director was not there to give us permission to take any pictures so we weren't allowed to. I thought I was going to cry again, ha ha, when they told me that. There are so many people who have helped us bring her into our family and we can't have any pictures today to share them with you all :( So I am praying that tomorrow she will be there and you all can see for yourself what a precious little gem she is! We love you all and thank you all from the bottoms of our heart for getting us here today to make Anna our daughter! xoxoxoxo
