3/17 - A Little More Fun Before Heading Home

This morning the kids and I had some time to ourselves before we were to meet up with Ilga and Janis again. They invited us to a children’s play/variety show at their church. Today the kids were hungry for their cake so we got to have our mini birthday celebration for both of them together. It was cute. Christina and I sang “Happy Birthday” to Olegs and then Olegs and I sang to Christina. They pretended to blow out candles and then ate some pieces of cake. I forget what the cake is called but Ilga says this is her son’s favorite cake. It reminded me of a nutty bar. It had wafer layers and peanut butter and chocolate in it. It was delicious but very rich. You know it’s rich when Christina says she doesn’t want anymore because it was too sweet for her. LOL!

After our cake breakfast, we had time to play Twister and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots before Ilga and Janis came to pick us up. Christina also enjoyed doing some painting while we hung out. The plan today was to go to the church play first and then Ilga and Janis would take me to the airport and the children back to the children’s home. The kids were happy about that because they had full backpacks and plastic bags with toys so they didn’t want to lug all of that on the bus.

Ilga and Janis picked us up in time to get to the church at 1:00. One of Christina’s friends named Elizabete (“Liza”) came and met us there so that was a treat to see her. Liza is a beautiful and sweet girl Christina’s age who was hosted at Christmas and is now being adopted by friends of ours. We are so happy that she will be another Latvian friend that Christina will have here at home. After the show was over, the kids had tickets that they could exchange for free gifts. The line for the gifts was a mile long so Ilga broke the news to them that they would have to take the bus/tram back to the children’s home since they’ll be staying awhile longer. We had to leave now if Ilga and Janis were going to get me to the airport on time. The kids weren’t too happy because that meant they would have to lug all their loot home on the bus. Oh well. At least that wasn’t my decision. That was Ilga’s call.

So at that point we said our goodbyes and I gave them hugs and kisses before leaving for the airport. I got a little nervous when we were leaving town because there was a big traffic jam. Ilga and Janis couldn’t figure out why the traffic was so backed up on a Saturday. It turns out there was some big exhibition of some sort that was causing the backup. Luckily, it didn’t last too long and we were on our way.

We got to the airport with a little time to spare so we decided to get a bite to eat. I might as well not say where because there’s only one place we’ve been eating when we eat out. Yes, Lido! They are everywhere, even in the airport!