45 HOURS TILL WE LEAVE LATVIA!!!

Let me start off this blog with a huge THANK YOU! This trip and the road to get here has been tough! BUT...I cannot imagine how it would have been had we not had friends and family, like all of you, to pray for us, Leigah and the entire process. We still have 2 more trips to go but I know that we will be prayed for and that God has made the way possible. So, from the bottom of our hearts ~ THANK YOU!!!!

So, today we went into town to eat lunch at Cili Pica (#5) before we had to meet Daina this afternoon at 1:30. We each tried something new this time. Leigah picked something off the kids menu but I am sure it was more of a dessert pizza than an actual meal but we only have a few days until we are home so what the heck! Instead of tomato sauce it had raspberry sauce, in place of normal toppings it had two pineapple rings for eyes and a strawberry puree for the smile, kiwi eyebrows and Crushed, sweetened cherries for the pupils of the eyes. Yeah, she loved it. Usually Joe & her share a 30 cm pizza, this pizza was 25 cm & she ate the entire thing w/o help. She studied her pizza as she ate it but then again she studies everything before she eats it. I don't know if it's because she's never tried it before or because of her eyesight but either way, Joe & I get a kick out of it.



The other day we saw people carrying flowers all over town and it was because it was Int'l Woman's Day. It's not just for mom's but for any woman or girl. Well, today there were a lot of police around. But no one knew why. But there were also two guards standing in front of Freedom Monument and there were flowers at the base of the monument. We don't know if some diplomat was in town or there was a parliment meeting or if it was a memorial day for something but it's always fun to watch the changing of the guard and when they change positions.


Daina got to our apartment at 1:30 and explained some things to Leigah about traveling and then we left for the US Embassy. We needed to do our VISA interview for Leigah. The gentleman was very friendly to both Leigah and us. His first question was what we planned to do for school... Homeschool, of course. He asked if we understood our VISA only lasted for 7 months and to make sure no matter what that we were back her by Oct 9th ~ Okey Dokey!!! Then he said we could pick up he passport & VISA tomorrow between 3-4. Then we can officially leave Latvia!!!! YAHOOOOOO!!! Sorry, just a little excited!

Well, that brings me to our travel info. We've received a few emails and messages asking when we get where...

We leave Riga on Saturday @ 2:40pm and head to Frankfurt, Germany. We will spend the night in Frankfurt at the Holiday Inn, with free continental breakfast and airport shuttle! We will leave Frankfurt @ 8:40am and arrive in Chicago at 11:15am. We have a 5-hour layover in Chicago but that's okay because we need some time for customs, eating lunch and cleaning up before we board our plane to Springfield, MO and arrive in Springfield at 6:20pm.

Tomorrow is our final day in Riga and we are going to pack, head back to Lido for lunch(the one with the skating rink), feed the ducks in the park near the US Embassy, then pick up Leigah's VISA and clean the apartment. We have done a pretty good job of eating all the food we have purchased. We will only have a few things that will be wasted. The time is finally about done! We are almost there kids! Anyway, that's it for now.