Visit #3

Dear Kaelyn & Bryn,

I was happy to hear that you both had a good day today and that you slept all through the night for Tiffany.  I'm sure you are having so much fun!  Thanks for being such good girls so that Daddy and I could make this trip to meet Victoria.

Today was another great day with her.  It was so fun to watch her walk up the sidewalk towards us.  She had the cutest little pony tail right on top of her head.  She came up and gave us both hugs and then went straight for the backpack.  She was excited to see the baby doll that we brought her, and was able to take it back to her room with her when it was time for us to leave.  She was much more silly today and we are all feeling more comfortable with each other.  There were a few times that she let our the cutest little laughs, I will have to post a video when we get home.

I can't believe tomorrow is our last visit and then we come home on Saturday.  Its not going to be easy to walk away from her orphanage at the end of our visit, but I just keep telling myself that its all part of the plan.  We will get home and quickly gather the remainder of our paperwork so we can get back here for court as soon as possible.

Little Victoria has learned that she has us both wrapped around her little fingers.  She would walk from one end of the playground to the other just to see us follow her.  Then she would tell us to sit down next to her.  One time she even climbed up on my lap and we got some great pictures of her.  We did some spins around and around, just the way you like it Kaelyn.  She was so happy, she smiled more today than the other two days combined.  She is so curious about the world around her, she is going to have so much to keep her busy when we finally get her home.  I can't wait to show her this big beautiful world!

See you soon girls,

Love Mommy

Visit #2

Dear Kaelyn and Bryn,

We had another great visit with Victoria today.  We were able to play outside with her.  Right when she got there she came up and gave me and daddy great big hugs.  She loved the toy phone that we brought, the one that you two loved so much.  She would push the buttons and then walk around to everyone and hold it up to each of our ears so we could say hello Vika.  We played catch again with the green ball and she started getting mischievous and throwing it extra far into the bushes so she could do some exploring.  She reminds me so much of you Kaelyn, it makes me smile to think of the three of you getting into mischief together.  She loves to run around and her favorite activity of the day was having us lift her up so she could throw the ball through the basketball rim.  She just wanted to do it over and over, so when we all got tired we tried to distract her and get her to kick the ball into the soccer goal, but she went right back to the basketball hoop and insisted we lift her up.


She also did more coloring and bubble chasing and blowing.  She is so good to put each crayon away when she is done with it before she pulls out the next crayon.  We got to give her some strawberry fruit snacks today and she loved them.  After our play time was up we got to walk with her up to her room and watch as she took off her extra layer of clothes and shoes and put on her inside shoes all by herself.  She is such a big girl and will be a great example to her younger sisters.  She was very excited to show us that she was wearing a big red hair bow today.  She kept looking at the pictures of you two and pointing out your bows and then pointing to her bow.  I can't wait to give her the cute pink bow I brought from home for her.  I'll be sure to take a picture of her wearing it.


We miss you and can't wait to see you soon.  We will be sure to bring you something fun home from Victoria's country and tell you all about our trip when we get home.  It will be very hard to leave Victoria in a few days, but it is so nice knowing she is being so well cared for.  Even the man at the security gate told us how happy he is for the little girl that will get to come home with our family.


Love Mommy

Visit #1

Dear Kaelyn & Bryn,

We made it safely to Victoria's country.  We left our house at 6:30 am on Sunday morning and arrived here at 10:00 am on Monday morning.  It was a long flight, but it went well.  One of our bags got left in New York, but it looks like they are shipping it to us, so hopefully it gets here soon.  Luckily it was the bag full of clothing donations for the orphanage, so not too big of a deal.

We are staying with an American Family that work for the US Embassy here and they are so wonderful!  They have made us feel so welcomed and at home, it has been such a blessing.  They have 3 fun little boys that have kept us entertained.

Today was a very special day.  This morning our facilitator and driver, who are very lovely people, picked us up and took us to the Ministry of Education where they asked us some questions about ourselves and why we chose to adopt a child from their country with Down syndrome.  The meeting went very well and they gave us our paperwork to be able to go to Victoria's orphanage.

When we first got to the orphanage and were checking out we could hear many children playing outside on the play ground.  We went up stairs to meet with the orphanage director, doctor and social worker.  From what we could see and learned from the director, it seems like a very nice orphanage.  The people we met with today were very kind and it was apparent that they loved the children there and were happy that Victoria had a family coming for her.

After a few minutes someone came in carrying a tiny little girl.  I almost couldn't believe it was Victoria, she was even smaller than I imagined.  My heart skipped a few beats, she is so cute.  She was crying a little and had a sad look on her face.  They then told us that she was sad to leave all her friends that were playing outside.  We all went into the playroom and pulled out some toys.  At first she didn't really look at us and was quite clingy to the social worker.  I pulled out some bubbles and started blowing them and she started getting more and more interested in the two stranger.  Next we pulled out a little green rubber ball, like the ones you both got for christmas, and played catch with her.  She has quite the arm and could throw really well.  Each time we threw it back to her she would out the cutest little giggle.

Next I pulled out the photo album with the pictures of our family.  She went through it many times and every time she would see a picture of me or your dad, she would say the word for man or woman and scoot over to us and tap our leg.  It was so cute!  Then when she would see the pictures of you girls she would make a little sign for "little".  She loved the bows in Bryns hair.  We also did some coloring and she played the little ukalalele for us.  She is so smart and very good at following instructions.  They told us that she plays well with other children.  We had a wonderful time visiting and playing with her.  We are excited to see how she reacts to us in the morning.

Daddy and I miss you like crazy, but know that you are being well cared for while we are away.  Its crazy that even though we are so far away and we don't understand much of what is being said here, we just feel like this is all normal.  We have a wonderful sense of peace and know that we are doing what we are suppose to be.  Victoria is such a sweet little girl and will be such a wonderful sister to you both.  She is going to do so well in our family and neighborhood.  Here are some pictures that we took today.

Invited Readers Only

We have been advised by our agency to make our blog private while we are traveling, so if you would like an invite to see updates and pictures from this coming week, please send me an email at rescuingv@gmail.com with your name and email address and I'll send you an invite.  I think we can only add 100 people to the blog, so first come first serve :)