Julie's Birthday

Mary Here,

My first Milos adoption post. I've been happily allowing Jim to have the honors, posting all we do. He would like me to do some of this, so you get to wade through both of our posts on some days, either one or the other on other days. He is much more susinct than am I...years of him working in radio, saying a lot in a very little space of time. I, on the other hand, must be very detailed in explainations for my job (nurse), therefore, I tend to be verbose.

My apologies. Feel free to skip ahead....

We had a wonderfully relaxing time in Germany, wandering the Christmas markets, buying nothing, going to the Therme, eating pretzels.  But, that all came to an end this morning, and we bussed to the airport, retrieved our overweight baggage from storage, and flew from Munich to Roma, then on to Eastern Europe. Rome was beautiful...what we saw of it, flying in, getting out of the plane and onto the bus. About 70 degrees, sun shinning, beautiful.  We wandered around the airport and then were on our way. It was dreary and raining flying in here.

OUr facilitator picked us up at the airport, and wisked us away to our waiting apartment. It is lovely!  High ceilings, a piano, 2 bedrooms, hardwood floors, heat and hot water 24/7, full kitchen with a dishwasher, and only one flight of stairs to walk up. Photos will be posted soon.

Vlado, our apartment contact took over from there. He showed us around the apartment, and took us out to exchange money into local currency, stop at local store for milk, not keifer, butter, and other necessities, then we walked to register us with the local police...a requirement of anyone coming here. All registered, and we returned to our apartment, where Vlado's car was parked, and he took us to meet another American couple (Sarah and John) adopting from the same orphanage. We also drove by the orphanage. We picked up Sarah and John, and went to eat at a little restaurant.  I had a great chicken with  bacon and veggies dish, Jim some onion soup. We talked for a couple of hours, "catching up" although it was the first time we had met. Adoption does forge friendships!

We returned Sarah and John, Vlado returned us, and we called the kids...missing them much. Joey assured me that he had been a good boy today. That usually means something not so good happened! But Julie says no, he was fine. James is keeping us updated on sports scores (thanks!) and everything is humming right along.  Happy Birthday to Julie, our eldest, and the stay at home mom in place while we are here adopting!

Tomorrow is our big day. Jasmina our facilitator picks us up at 10:30 for an 11am appointment with the offiicials, after which we should be able to meet our little Milos. We are very excited about this. Won't get much sleep tonight! We also start our language lessons....we need to learn to say please and thank you in the local language, at least.

After meeting Milos, a visiting schedule will be set up and we can let you all know what that is.

For now, it is time to get unpacked, and showered, then try to get some sleep before tomorrow.

Good night!

Mary