We still can't believe the months of waiting are FINALLY over!!! We were up until about 1:00 a.m.the night before making our poster (we had to make it good...wanted to make a good impression you know!) and just unable to sleep due to excitement and nerves!! We got up early yesterday and finished our cleaning. Looking back on it, it's kinda funny...we spent hours and hours cleaning and those kids could care less!! We had lots of nervous energy to burn off so I guess cleaning was a good way to do it!
Rob and I were among the first to arrive at the airport. I had packed our bag of necessities...the sick bags, camera, toys, Latvian phrase book, welcome poster, etc. We were good to go!! It was such a weird feeling though when we pulled out of the driveway for the drive to the airport. We had been planning for so long it was so strange that this moment had actually arrived. Almost like it wasn't real.
The kids' flight was about 2 hours late but the wait actually wasn't that bad because we were so excited. We enjoyed hanging out with the other host families and chatting about our planned activities with the children. We also witnessed another group of children from another hosting organization (from Russia and Latvia) as they arrived and were united with their host families. That was fun to watch the reactions of those children and their host families.
When our children finally arrived, we immediately picked out Olegs and Kristine and waved to them to come over. Kristine had the biggest smile on her face from the very beginning and Olegs was much more serious. When we got to the car, they called it "super car" (everything is "super" or "beautiful"). We asked them if they needed a "throw up" bag for the drive home and thankfully they said no. WHEW!!! Then on the way home Kristine was singing to the songs on the radio. She said she likes Britney Spears, Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, etc. She showed us her Latvian teen magazine which is similar to the ones here in the U.S. Olegs was much more quiet, but smiled at us with the cutest smile that would melt your heart. On the drive home, they "ooh'd and aah'd" about various trucks and motorcycles we passed.
We attempted to ask them if they were hungry or tired and of course, butchered their language. Luckily, I was able to point to words in my Latvian phrase book and they would tell me the correct way to pronounce them. When we got home, we were able to piece together that they wanted bacon and eggs so of course we made it for them at 10:00 at night.
We gave them the tour of the house and introduced them to Grandmother who gave them both big hugs and kisses. They were such sweeties and hugged and kissed her back even though they'd never seen her before in their lives. We knew instantly that these were two special children. They are even more beautiful than their pictures and are so well mannered. We're told that will change though as the days progress.
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