Sunday, November 2, 2008

Well. Today has been our first complete day. The flight was long but thankfully uneventful. Elona from the Family Law Center (FLC) picked us up at the airport. I was surprised that we didn't have to fill out any customs declaration forms or have our luggage checked. We got our passports stamped in Copenhagen by a rather unfriendly customs agent who sort of grunted and muttered something under his breath but that was it. When we got off the plane in Vilnius we just collected our bags and walked out. Even in Mexico they randomly search bags. I'm not complaining it was just a surprise. Elona took us to the small flat we are renting from a very nice lady named Loretta. It has a small kitchen and Elona suggested that we go together and buy some food. She took us to a small grocery store and we bought some sandwich type food for dinner. Even though it was supposed to be around 9am for us we were very tired. We only slept a few hours on the airplane. We had a salami and cheese sandwich and went to bed around 9pm local time. We slept well and are feeling better now. We are also now on a more local schedule.
We slept in this morning and got ready to go at around noon. The flat we are staying in is in Old Town Vilnius so there are lots of restaurants within walking distance. Lots of shops and souvenir stands. We ate lunch at a restaurant pretty close. The waitress spoke English so that was easy. I think it may be our local haunt. Michele had a Lithuanian-style omelet and I had Lithuanian Raviolis with bacon sauce. The raviolis are the ones that I tried to make back home. Here they are much smaller and the bacon is much thicker sliced but other than that I was pretty close. After lunch we came back to the flat and Loretta took us to the Maxima, which is a supermarket. It is pretty difficult to try and shop when your not sure if you're buying what you think you are buying. Not to mention that everywhere we go people stare. You'd think we were back in a small village in Guatemala where the people could count the white people they have seen on one hand. Okay, maybe it's not quite that bad but we definitely stick out here. We even overheard some parents saying something to the effect of "look Americans" to their kids. Fortunately everything American is cool here so I guess that includes us. Hope Lina thinks so.
Elona says that the number one question that everyone wants to ask us is why we want to adopt an older child. She said that this is highly unusual. That people who come to adopt always want babies or very young children. And it is especially unusual because we are so young. Loretta asked us our ages and told us that she thought I (KC) was 18. They think that Lina will be very happy about being adopted by a young couple. Fortunately the "why" question is one we are very familiar with as everyone wants to know why. So I'm not too worried about trying to explain to most people. I'm only worried about trying to explain it to the Judge, but that's next trip. I'll try and upload some photos we have already taken and maybe some video of the inside of our flat.
We'll try and write as often as we can but once Lina comes to stay with us I think we are going to try and see more of the country so there might be some time gaps. Hope this finds everyone well back home. We appreciate all your prayers.