Meeting Karina

Over the next few posts I want to show you some of the journey to bringing our daughter home. I know it's all in the past so if you get bored just check back later and I'll probably eventually talk about something else. But I want to show you more of what we've done over the last few months and some pictures as we fell in our love with our daughter and her birth country.

This post is all about meeting our sweet little girl.

We met Karina in September. 

It was our first real time out of the good old U. S. of A. (I don't think crossing over the border into Canada for a few hours really counts.) Our first international flights. We were new at all of this, and a little nervous.

I quickly realized that I would not get any sleep on the nights before we left on our trips for Russia. Didn't matter how early I went to bed or how early we got up for our flights. Too excited, too nervous, mind too busy with things to think and pray about.

We left early in the morning - do you know what time TSA and the airport opens at Mid-Continent?? We do!!! We were the first visitors to the airport more than once. A big thanks to all the sleepy-eyed volunteers who dropped us off for our early flights :)

We managed to make all our connections just fine and actually arrived a little early in Moscow. Our luggage arrived, we made it through customs, made our first international phone calls, found our driver, and checked in to our hotel. To my surprise everything went smoothly. Apparently I had prepared for the worst. I was sure the plug in situation would be a mess, the computer wouldn't work, Ryan's phone wouldn't call like it should, and my flat iron would blow up. The hotel reservations would be lost, etc. But to my wonderful surprise, everything went so smoothly. So thankful to God for that. We even got to Facetime Addyson and Braden.

We experienced our first jet lag but were so happy to be this close to where our little girl was. 

We woke up early the next morning and met our driver. He took us to the region where our little girl lived. Each mile was exciting - getting closer and closer to her. It all felt very surreal.

Here we are in our hotel room before we left - so excited to finally meet Karina!!

When we got to the orphanage we thought we were first asking questions and learning information about our daughter. But suddenly a woman walked in holding her. And that fast she was in our arms. It just did not feel real at all. But holding her that first time was just like holding our other babies. The love God puts in your hearts for your children is amazing. No matter how they enter your family. We knew we loved her (mullet and all) and we would do anything for her. We were smitten.

So we started learning to know our daughter! She was so fun. We played and played and she giggled. 

She especially thought her daddy was HILARIOUS!! She actually preferred him over me. 

See her laughing??

She made a cute chubby scrunchy nose face just like Braden does.

And then she got tired out and fell asleep in our arms. Sucking her thumb. Just like Addyson.

We thought she would fit right in with our family. We looked forward to her playing with Addyson and Braden and could see them all having a great time together!

We were so in love with her.

So thankful that she didn't push us away and let us play and cuddle her. So excited about this wonderful little girl that God created and the opportunity we had to love her.

Ryan and I tried to learn how to share a baby. I *may* have called him a Karina hog a few times. Having twins kinda ruins you on the whole sharing bit. Always a baby for each of you!! :)

We got to visit her the next day too for a few hours.

She seemed tired out - like we had completely worn her out the day before playing so hard. Or that it was supposed to be naptime and we were interrupting. So it was more snuggling than playing. Which is a pretty good thing too!

Either way we had an awfully hard time saying goodbye. But as quickly as she was placed in our arms, she was gone.

But there was more work to do so we were on our way.

The culture shock eventually began to wear off. Besides being in a city of 13 million people and the shock that is to us country folk, it was just so different and we were trying to soak it all in.

The architecture in Moscow is stunning.

And the traffic is horrific. This really doesn't do it justice at all. I think later on I have some better pictures.

The countryside is beautiful. Totally changed once you leave the big city.

It was the beginning of fall and the leaves were just starting to change.

There are beautiful birch trees. They have what we would call hedge rows out of them along the farm ground in the country, but they are MUCH prettier than our hedge or osage orange trees. No comparison.

There were apartment buildings everywhere, even in the country. And the farther you got out from the city the more run-down they began to look.

Most of our time was filled with adoption appointments but we did end up with a few hours to do some sightseeing. The weather was beautiful. It was warmer than normal for Moscow for that time of year - it was in the 60's most of the time. Compared to the heat wave we were having back home it was awesome!

We were brave enough to attempt the subway - called the Metro. Thankfully our agency rep was so helpful and drew us maps and wrote things down for us, because there is no English on the subway and no one really speaks it. The subway was really clean and pretty.

We went to Red Square.

Toured St. Basil's.

The painting inside was amazing! So beautiful.

We thought this was Lenin's tomb, but oops - tomb of the unknown soldier. There's a small language barrier. Our Russian was pathetic!!

And had some McDonald's.

It was so packed so we ate outside and the little boy next to us was throwing french fries to the sparrows so we decided to try it. 

Check out these sparrows!!

The McDonald's ranked a little higher than the borsch Ryan had one night at the hotel restaurant. 

Wasn't anything like the way I grew up eating it. No chicken, but instead neat's tongue. Go google it - a delicacy . . .  to some.

We came home and waited for our court date. And snuggled our other two babies. Who didn't seem like babies anymore. And felt even more torn. Torn between the two we loved at home and the one we loved on the other side of the world.