A day we will never forget

Today is a day that we will never forget. It’s the day we met our daughter who we plan to name Lily Grace, and our hearts were totally captured. It’s actually hard to put into words how we feel right now, because it’s such an overwhelming experience. I’ll just give a synopsis of the day below though:

Our interpreter and coordinator took us to the baby house this morning and after being escorted through the home, we saw her across the room in her little walker, jumping around and scooting along the floor next to several other babies. We were smitten and of course, I immediately burst into floods of tears, which was not surprising, but it meant I couldn’t see anything for the next 5 minutes! Total cuteness cannot describe how absolutely adorable this little punkinhead is. Big grin, animated face, little dark brown almond eyes that follow you everywhere and soft dark brown hair sticking up on top of her head. And two new teeth on the bottom, just peeking out of her gums! She seems to have a pretty laid back personality from what we can tell after just one day. We’ll see!

We got to play with her for two hours this morning and then put her down for a nap, break for lunch with our interpreter and our traveling partners, Maggie and Danny who are also adopting at our baby house. Then at 2 p.m. we returned and got her up from her nap, and had the experience of feeding her for the first time. A great mixture of mashed potatoes mixed with turnips and ground meat. She liked it at first but then quickly became disinterested in her potato mixture, preferring instead to watch the little boy next to her get fed. After she was finished, she promptly drained her bottle in about 20 seconds flat. Apparently she’s a fan of juice.

At this point, Steve had to go with our driver and interpreter back to the airport to try and identify our missing luggage, so it was just me and Lily Grace for the afternoon visit. I respectfully bundled her up in a snowsuit and hat (Russians and Kazak culture is very big on making sure little ones don’t get cold!) on this lovely, sunny 60 degree day and we went outside to visit the playground along with Maggie and Danny. She was intrigued by all of the noise of the cars driving by, and she got to practice her favorite activity (jumping) on my lap as we sat on a bench. She has some strong legs. I had to keep a good hold on her so she wouldn’t go shooting off the end of my lap.

We then went back inside for more play time and then, of course the day would not be complete without the first changing of the diaper. Steve made it back from the airport in time for that!!! I know he was really relieved that he didn’t miss that “first!”

After leaving, we went to pick up some supplies and groceries for our apartment and then came back here to unpack the bags that DID make it here. (still missing the ONE bag that had all of my clothes… they think it may still be in Germany… hmmmm) We’re pretty wiped now, but wanted to share the great day we had. Wow. Are we really about to be parents???

To be continued…..

Tonya and Steve

P. S. Our agency has asked us not to post any pictures of her on the blog until she is legally ours – you’ll just have to take our word for it that she’s one of the most adorable babies you’ve ever seen. :-)