I just want to start off by saying thank you to everyone that has helped us and is so willing to help us through this process. I talked with my sister Katie today and we feel so very blessed to have such amazing friends and family. We are so overwhelmed with the amount of support we are receiving even while we are so far away. We are so fortunate to have such an amazing support system, it really makes being away for so long much easier.
I'm going to start from the beginning as we haven't had power regularly.
We had about a weeks notice before having to leave the country. We had to figure out travel arrangements, find a place to stay, get packed, things settled at work, paperwork prepared and make sure the boys were taken care of.... We have an amazing babysitter (Amanda), close family friends (Katie and Billy) and some kick butt grandparents that made leaving the boys at home our best option.
I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep more than a few hours a night in the week leading up to our travel. I was emotionally and physically drained when I boarded the plane which made leaving my boys really hard, but made traveling a breeze. I passed out on every flight before take off occasionally waking up to eat and Nick would wake me up once we landed. Nick on the other hand is too big to be sleeping in the upright position. He was exhausted when we landed. We flew into Uganda on Thursday night, found our "home" and crashed for the night.
When we woke up on Friday we ran around town to get odds and ends taken care of while taking in the sites, sounds, and smells of Uganda. The weather has been warm and sunny 70-80 degrees during the day. Friday afternoon we headed over to the "home"/orphanage of our daughter. After months of looking at her picture it was sureal to finally get to meet this girl that we had fallen in love with.
Our daughters "home" consists of mostly older kids, 8-13 years old. She has been the youngest child at this home until recently. (There is now a little guy that is about 18 months old.) So when we first arrived some of the kids ran out to greet us. As soon as they saw whose picture was on the front of the photo album I was holding they all ran back to find our girl.
I was standing in the middle of a mosh pit of kids trying to grab the photo album out of my hands. I remember Nick saying "Annie there she is," as I looked up and saw my girl strolling around the corner. She looked right at me and I'm sure my heart stopped. The confidence she carried as she walked towards us smiling is something I will never forget. Her smile could light up the town ofKampala. She is really is something else...
She came and joined me in the mosh pit. I didn't want to overwhelm her so I fought the urge to scoop her up and smother her in kisses. I played it cool, and squatted down so I could go through the photo album with her. She looked through the few pictures I brought all the while checking me out. I was busy checking her out too... She is perfect in every way. Once we got through all the pictures I picked my girl up to introduce her to Nick. You see Nick was also in the mosh pit, only he had so many kids hanging off of his limbs that if he had bent over he would have taken out a third of our crowd. We didn't get to take our girl on Friday but we did get to spend time getting to know her. We also were able to head back over the weekend to spend some more time getting acquainted.
So here is a little about our girl... She is quiet, very quiet but once she feels comfortable she will sing, dance and talk. She speak very little English (she pretty much only counts in English) but she has master her native language. One of her most impressive tricks is that she can squat kids twice her size if they climb on her back all while singing and trying to jump. She can hand washes clothes better than any adult I know. She has a personality much like our son Cullen; she likes to be around action but once she has had it she leaves and finds something else to do.
So our girl is real, and wonderful, and more than we could have ever even hoped for. The boys at home "met" her today via Skype. Despite the fact that our girl was speaking Luganda, Geremu was speaking Amharic, and Cullen was attempting Spanish I think the love was obvious on both ends. We can't wait for the family to be together forever.
I'll write more on our court date and my girl tomorrow (she is now in our care) as it's very late and we have a busy day planned for tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure I caught everyone up to speed on our first meeting.
This process/adoption has been tough... Really tough. I don't think I've allowed myself to admit it until now. You all have made it so much more bearable. To all the people who has helped, supported and offered encouraging words these past few years, we feel so humbled to have such a strong support system. For those of you who have been caring for our kids as if they were your own, we owe you the world. We hope we can someday repay you for all you have done.
Love from Uganda,
AnnMarie
I'm going to start from the beginning as we haven't had power regularly.
We had about a weeks notice before having to leave the country. We had to figure out travel arrangements, find a place to stay, get packed, things settled at work, paperwork prepared and make sure the boys were taken care of.... We have an amazing babysitter (Amanda), close family friends (Katie and Billy) and some kick butt grandparents that made leaving the boys at home our best option.
I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep more than a few hours a night in the week leading up to our travel. I was emotionally and physically drained when I boarded the plane which made leaving my boys really hard, but made traveling a breeze. I passed out on every flight before take off occasionally waking up to eat and Nick would wake me up once we landed. Nick on the other hand is too big to be sleeping in the upright position. He was exhausted when we landed. We flew into Uganda on Thursday night, found our "home" and crashed for the night.
When we woke up on Friday we ran around town to get odds and ends taken care of while taking in the sites, sounds, and smells of Uganda. The weather has been warm and sunny 70-80 degrees during the day. Friday afternoon we headed over to the "home"/orphanage of our daughter. After months of looking at her picture it was sureal to finally get to meet this girl that we had fallen in love with.
Our daughters "home" consists of mostly older kids, 8-13 years old. She has been the youngest child at this home until recently. (There is now a little guy that is about 18 months old.) So when we first arrived some of the kids ran out to greet us. As soon as they saw whose picture was on the front of the photo album I was holding they all ran back to find our girl.
I was standing in the middle of a mosh pit of kids trying to grab the photo album out of my hands. I remember Nick saying "Annie there she is," as I looked up and saw my girl strolling around the corner. She looked right at me and I'm sure my heart stopped. The confidence she carried as she walked towards us smiling is something I will never forget. Her smile could light up the town ofKampala. She is really is something else...
She came and joined me in the mosh pit. I didn't want to overwhelm her so I fought the urge to scoop her up and smother her in kisses. I played it cool, and squatted down so I could go through the photo album with her. She looked through the few pictures I brought all the while checking me out. I was busy checking her out too... She is perfect in every way. Once we got through all the pictures I picked my girl up to introduce her to Nick. You see Nick was also in the mosh pit, only he had so many kids hanging off of his limbs that if he had bent over he would have taken out a third of our crowd. We didn't get to take our girl on Friday but we did get to spend time getting to know her. We also were able to head back over the weekend to spend some more time getting acquainted.
So here is a little about our girl... She is quiet, very quiet but once she feels comfortable she will sing, dance and talk. She speak very little English (she pretty much only counts in English) but she has master her native language. One of her most impressive tricks is that she can squat kids twice her size if they climb on her back all while singing and trying to jump. She can hand washes clothes better than any adult I know. She has a personality much like our son Cullen; she likes to be around action but once she has had it she leaves and finds something else to do.
So our girl is real, and wonderful, and more than we could have ever even hoped for. The boys at home "met" her today via Skype. Despite the fact that our girl was speaking Luganda, Geremu was speaking Amharic, and Cullen was attempting Spanish I think the love was obvious on both ends. We can't wait for the family to be together forever.
I'll write more on our court date and my girl tomorrow (she is now in our care) as it's very late and we have a busy day planned for tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure I caught everyone up to speed on our first meeting.
This process/adoption has been tough... Really tough. I don't think I've allowed myself to admit it until now. You all have made it so much more bearable. To all the people who has helped, supported and offered encouraging words these past few years, we feel so humbled to have such a strong support system. For those of you who have been caring for our kids as if they were your own, we owe you the world. We hope we can someday repay you for all you have done.
Love from Uganda,
AnnMarie
