Welcome!

We arrived on time Monday morning and were picked up at the airport by Zhaniya, my facilitator and her daughter, Anara, the translator. Very nice people, who spent most of yesterday helping us find a nice place to stay (Alma Hotel) and taking us on a short walking tour and to a grocery. We have a refrigerator in our room, which we've stocked with breakfast and beverages (lots of bottled water!) We've also been to a couple of nice restaurants and had tasty, but not too adventurous meals!

But that's not what you really want to know, is it?
 
This morning I had my meeting with the City Council/Education director, who approved me to continue on to the Baby House. After picking up a woman from Washington DC, who is on her final trip to bring her daughter home, we went on to the Baby House, where she was having her goodbye party and I was to meet my baby.

So ... welcome little (Josina Margaret) Irina to the family. She was born April 29, 2008 and is an adorable baby with brown eyes, dark hair and a little button of a nose. We met for about 15 minutes and she was very sweet, interested in me and all the toys ... and put everything in her mouth like any 7 month old! She's of Korean descent (go figure) and has lived at the BH since she was 2 weeks old.

Tomorrow I start my daily visits (1.5 hours a day) for 13 more days (not including Sundays). I'll post a photo on the blog as soon as we get them downloaded. She has that delightful, big-round-eyed stunned look in each one (much like myself, I suspect). Cute.

Once the visitations are complete, we file papers for a court date. On the next trip I go to court and hope for a positive ruling. Fingers crossed ... little (Josie Margaret) Irina will finally be a member of the family then. : )

More later. Hope everyone is well.

Kelly
Grammy & Gramps