The last 48+ hours have gone quickly and have been a flurry of emotions, stress and sleep deprivation by all! We left our home at 8 am Friday, June 25th to head to Chicago to pick up Meggie from O'Hare! Her flight was supposed to land at 6:30 but came in early (although it still took 1 hr 45 mins for customs. When the kids started out the whole crowd was cheering. Even those around us were cheering because they had stood there with us hearing our stories of these incredible Latvian orphans! When Meggie came out she was all smiles and recognized us. I say that part because it has been 5 1/2 months and although she sees our pictures on Frype... well, you just never know. Anyway, she instantly came to me and gave me a hug and I kissed her. The kids surrounded her and loved on her. We got our family picture taken for New Horizons for Children and she was ready to go. As soon as we were leaving the airport, she was taking her NHFC T-shirt off that was over her clothes and her ID tag! When we got to the van she was not in the mood to talk or anything... she wanted to sleep! Before we were out of the parking lot, she was asleep. It was 4 am to her. She had left her foster home early, early in the morning on the 25th and got a plane at 12:25 pm and arrived at 2 am in Chicago! She was exhausted.
We drove for 5 hours until we got close to St. Louis (12:30 am). When we got to the hotel, she was wide awake!!!!! She was talking, laughing, coloring and hungry!!! So, we had a picnic on her bed! The other 3 kiddos were tired but awake because they didn't want to miss a moment. So until 3:00 we were up... but I decided I couldn't function the next day w/o some sleep, so I turned on Disney, turned off the lights and said watch & enjoy! At 4, all of them were asleep! We had to get up at 8am to go to Six Flags in St. Louis! Yeah we are nuts to decide to go to a place like that after the previous day but in hindsight... it was a great decision.
Our trip to Six Flags pushed us to communicate with a non-English speaking child through our actions and facial expressions (oh & a little bit of charades!) When we pulled into the parking lot, her eyes were saucers and she smiled from ear to ear! She loved the waterpark and it was an awesome time for her to rely and trust in Joe. They went into the wave pool and although she can swim, she gets nervous when the water is on her face. She had to hold onto Joe and allow him to protect her! AWESOME!
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