Saturday's Visits

We had 2 visits with Grace today and when we went to her room to get her, she actually put her arms out to me. Talk about melt my heart!! She is just such a sweet child but she does know what she wants and does not want. She also cried when she bumped her head which is GREAT!! Most kids in an institution won't even bother crying as their cries will not be heard. Grace shows appropriate emotions and reactions which is wonderful. She's starting to show more interest in toys as well and played ball with us today by rolling it back to me. Very smart little girl we have here.

We really had a great day all around today. Jim and Mary(the family here adopting sweet Milos) and us spent a lot of time together today. They showed us how to use the tram which was so easy and will save us $15/day in cab fare to and from the orphanage. We then had lunch together at a Mexican restaurant. It was a cute little place and the food wasn't bad either. We then hit the open market but didn't find anything that we couldn't live without. We were in search of a nice dress for Grace to wear the day we spring her from the orphanage. The one we brought is WAY too small. She's much bigger than we expected :) With no luck there, we continued walking to the pedestrian zone which is like a big mall area similar to our outlet malls in the states. We did find her a sweet dress and leggings but failed to look at the price and it was around $70...yikes!! Oh well, we haven't spent money on souveniers yet so I felt I could splurge on Grace. We then took the tram back to the orphanage for our 2nd visit. The weekend staff is a little more laid back, should we say, and the children were hungry and fussy. We decided to walk the halls a bit with Grace and one of the nurses yelled at us. Oops!! We are confined to a very small visitation room. Not a lot to do in there with a 2 year old who doesn't have much interest in toys. ANYWAY....we then hooked up with Jim and Mary and decided to try a hamburger at a "fast food" joint. Umm....disgusting!! It certainly was not beef and I actually had to spit my bite out. Oh well. Next Jasmina(our facilitator) met us and took us to a professional basketball game. We were invited yesterday but didn't have much interest but decided to go tonight for something to do. I'm sure glad we did. We had a blast and the game was very exciting. We did lose by 2 points but it was very nerve wracking. We weren't sure what was going to happen after the game as there were many helmet wearing police officers at either entrance to the gym. The crowd was rowdy and would throw rolls of toilet paper and other objects on the court floor if they didn't agree with the ref's calls. Did I mention how LOUD it was in there? However, at the end of the game, the team players shook hands and there were no riots going on. We made it back to our apartment and are now catching up with emails and having something to eat. We're hoping to get some sight seeing in and had actually planned a tour today but the weather wasn't nice and the fog rolled in which would have made it difficult to see the sights. Maybe monday.

Now for prayers. 1. the adoption minister to sign our case on monday. If this happens, we can have the adoption ceremony on tuesday and get the passport and medical on thursday. Then all that's left is the visa. However, the US embassy doesn't do visa appts on fridays so we'd have to wait until monday. 2. please pray they will make an acception(they've done it before) to do our appt friday so we can all leave as a family on saturday. More details on that later in the week once we know in the minister signs.

We are very excited to know that Grace's birthfather will be coming here on monday to meet us. Her mother most likely will not be with as she is suffering emotionally from all of this as are Grace's 2 older sisters. So sad. Please pray for Grace's birth family that they have peace with their decision knowing Grace will be so loved and given the best opportunities to reach her fullest potential.

Well, that's today's adventures. Tune in tomorrow for more....
Good night!