The first few days

This is Marianne logged in on Joel's laptop. Okay, to give you all a quick run-down of the past few days I'll try to keep it brief and show a few pictures. We'll be getting a walking tour of the capital city tomorrow, then the next day we'll be in Darya's city. There will be more exciting pictures then!

We arrived without much of a hitch on Sunday afternoon, aside from our lost luggage. We did get it the next day with nothing damaged or missing, thankfully. Yesterday (Monday) we were thankful to have a day to rest and try to get adjusted to the time change. We met up with another adopting couple that we met on the plane and spent the afternoon and evening with them. This is their second time here so they were helpful in showing us around. We had a nice time!

Then today we had our SDA appointment. "Uncle Niko" (our driver - super nice and helpful man!) picked us up and drove us there. Outside we met Yulia and Serge. Then Serge escorted us upstairs with a dark-haired woman. We sat down in her office, she pulled Darya's file, gave us some brief info (we found out she has a heart defect, possibly ASD? and something with her eyes - both very common with DS, but we'll get her checked out when we get home). We were able to exchange a current photo of her (from the RR site) with her baby one which I'll show below. Serge and the lady talked in their language for a few minutes. Then that was it. We left.

After we got back to the apartment we decided to go get some lunch. We decided to get some lunch. As we were walking into the cafe, we ran into Lyndi Shupp and Fedya! We sat down with them to eat. Fedya is ADORABLE though I'm sure he wouldn't want to be told that. They looked so happy together. Afterward Joel and I decided to walk around and explore. It is so pretty here! There is so much shopping (we just browsed) and there's even a whole labrynth of underground shops. On our way back to the apartment, we ran into Mallory and Peach's parents. So fun! We are having an awesome time and are excited to meet up with other RR families here in about 15 minutes (at TGIFs). But the best part is yet to begin when we finally get to see Darya!

Well, I'll leave you with a few photos, but plan to post a bunch more later one when we're in Darya's city. Thank you everyone for your continued prayers! We are so thankful :)