The last 2 days..

The days here are flying by right now, so I'm not even sure what I posted yesterday...haha, but here is a quick summary of the past 2 days.


We woke up yesterday morning (Saturday), after intermittent sleep.  You always wake up about 2 am and can't go back to sleep...that's what we were told and that's what we are experiencing.  So we slept in until about 9 am.  Eugene, our tour guide/driver called and offered to take us sightseeing for the afternoon, to which we quickly agreed.  We want to be able to tell Blake about his culture and his country's history someday.  We spent a couple hours in the museum, it was really interesting...Eugene is incredibly knowledgeable of his country's history.  People here are passionate about their country and its history.  Jerad got his history lesson in the bathrooms after the tour...haha!  I won't go into detail but let me just tell you he found out he had to use a 'squat' pot...you can only imagine. The worst part of the deal, I realized today, is that you have to grab your toilet paper in the lobby before you go into the bathroom...oh the things we are learning!

Here are a few more of my observations:

1. Much like other people have stated, the people here dress very fashionably.  I LOVE the style, although it would take me years to walk as gracefully in heels as women here do. People are very thin, largely due to all the walking, I'm guessing.

2. We ended the night at TGI Friday's, as most adoptive families have commented on eating at in their visits, we had to continue the tradition.  What I noticed was, no ice in the drinks, portions were small compared to US standards (probably how they are supposed to be), all tea is served hot and in your own little teapot, and the napkins are thin (so don't make a mess).

3. I love to hear the translator is very knowledgeable and is very good at English, but today I loved it when he was speaking about his dog.  See, dogs here run loose all through the streets, they don't seem to notice people at all.  I asked our driver/translator, Eugene, if he had any pets and he said he had a "sausage dog."  Hahaha, Jerad and I were talking later and my first thought was "is he joking?"  Then, (remember I'm running on 0 sleep) "did he eat his dog?"  But Jerad finally corrected me and said he probably meant he had a Weinie Dog.  I hope you think that translation was as funny as I did. :)

4. People here drive crazy.  As I was warned.  What gets me though, is, if there are not any parking spots left on the street--people hop the curb and drive on the sidewalks!  Niko, our first driver, said that cars were very hard to come by a few years ago, most people were on a 5-year waiting list...so the streets were made very narrow with few spots for parking.  Well, after the country's collapse, cars became more accessible as more people moved to the city for jobs/schooling, which lead to this chaos.

5. The facilitation team go above and beyond their call of duty to help you out.  Today Eugene, our driver/translator/tour guide too us to eat Pizza, then he took us to his mother's house where she served us tea, chocolate, and fried goat cheese with fig jam on top.  She looked at pictures of all our kids and asked us lots of questions, then she showed us some of her pictures.  She even sent us home with some berries that are supposed to help keep our immune systems running strong...not sure if I'll try them or not.  But LOVED the hospitality, her apartment was beautiful.

Eugene and his mother

Now on to the good stuff...
We had our SDA appointment today at 11 am, right after Sarah and Shawn.  We found out Blake was born on Nov. 1, 2009, he was given up at birth, his mother was the only one listed on the certificate.  We were able to exchange one of the RR pics for 2 of his baby pictures.  His birth name is Vladislav and they call him Slovak...so we'll see what they call him at the orphanage before we make any major name decisions.  Although, we do have to have a name chosen when we get there right off the train.

As for the next 2 days, we should receive our referral tomorrow afternoon about 4-5 pm, then we hop on a train at 6:40 pm and head to Blake's region--we should arrive there about 9:50 am the following day...yeah you do the math?  Looong train ride.  I'm praying we sleep better tonight, because so far it hasn't been quality sleep.  Good 'ol jet lag!

Rubbing the lucky beetle before our SDA appointment

Outside the SDA Office before our appointment