What a wonderful thing to be HOME again...our beds, the ability to do a week's worth of laundry AND dry it in 5 hours, being able to pet our dog and cat, ice water, to see all of our wonderful friends that we missed, to hug grampa and gramma again, to drive to the store whenever we want. Wow, we sure take a lot less for granted now!
When we got home, it was time for a tour of our house. We saved the best for last, a surprise for all of us. My amazing friends (Robin, Jill, Sheri) had completely decorated Gianna's room for us while we were gone. We walked in and saw Minnie and butterflies amidst the violet background (remember her name Ibolya means Violet?), which happen to be two of her favorite things. She had to go in and explore every drawer and nook and cranny, and was so happy that this was all hers. What a blessing :)
Chalkboard dresser with English & Hungarian labels!
Timberly and Rhonda - artists behind the door sign
Everyone asks us: "How is she adjusting?"
I can honestly say that she is fitting in perfectly with us. She likes it (and lets me) fix her hair and paint her nails and dress her up, and helps me cook and clean. She loves it when "Appa" tickles her, and now says "Tickle me" at every opportunity. Her and Monkey are still the best of buds, doing everything together. The first day home, they raided the dress up clothes and we had Mario and Batgirl running around the house rescuing the cat and saving the world from the dog.
And of course her favorite things are the Princess dresses, given to us from a dear friend. You can tell from her eyes and her smile that she really feels like a beautiful princess when she wears this. That's the one biggest difference I see in her, in contrast to the first days when we met her - her eyes have just seemed to 'light up' and come alive as she explores her new world.
We caught them holding hands when they were watching a movie. Monkey is so protective of her, and she just gravitates to him. They usually want to play together, and I always catch Monkey teaching her new things and coaching her on English words. It's just too cute for words, really.
Everything is new for her. Life is so fun when you think about someone experiencing everyday things for the first time, and seeing her eyes light up. Escalators, elevators, airplanes, fish, electronic toys, flip flops, baths, sweet potatoes, sparkly toothpaste, shopping cart cars, talking on the phone...it's like Christmas morning when something new comes along!
The third day we were back we made a short road trip across town to Gramma and Grampa's house. She was pretty shy, but grampa started being silly with her and playing peek-a-boo and the giggles started escaping her mouth. Since then we've been there once more, and she seems to really like them.
We have made a couple of visits to our friend's house, the Cravens as well. They are the kid's Godparents and are the other house that we want her to feel comfortable in. The second time we went she ran downstairs with little Elsie to play (the first time she's really been out of our sight), and seemed to have a wonderful time.
We are hitting school hard now that we are back, with a checklist for each one to get done for the day. We are working on letters and numbers and animals, along with English phrases with Gianna, and she makes progress every day. They also have their chores like making their bed, brushing teeth, trash, switching out the dishwasher, feeding the pets, and putting away laundry...and she loves to help out with anything. Today we made cookies, carrot cake muffins, and rice krispy bars and the kids both helped out.
So - does that answer your question? She's adjusting remarkably well, fits in perfectly with our family (not to mention looks like us - bonus!), and we really have no problems with her at all. God is good, and it's abundantly clear that He had her picked out for us right from the start.
By the way - THANK YOU to everyone who followed our adventure. We had over 4,500 page hits in about 2 months! It was good to know that people cared enough to read, not to mention all the other countless blessings you all showered us with. I'll continue to blog sporadically if something big happens...like Grampa John and Gramma Tere coming to visit next week.
Szia!
It's Tuesday night, 10:00 pm. Earlier in the afternoon I had booked a full-fare flight from Budapest to London for Thursday online...after trying 3 times and having my credit card denied. I didn't really have access to phone service here, so how do I call the credit card company? I tried it through my Gmail account, you can actually call a phone number through your computer - and it WORKED! It says .01 cents per minute...I'll believe that when I get the bill. Well, after about 2 hours I was able to book them.
Back to 10:00 pm. I decide to check on my confirmation email to make sure the deal went through. Instead I get the "I'm sorry, we were unable..." email. Yikes! Back to the drawing board. Finally at 11:48 pm I have different flights booked - at 10:45 the next morning. 2 hours early to the airport, 1 hour taxi ride, 1 hour to pack and get ready...leave 30 minute cushion just in case...we have to get up at 6! Nobody slept all night.
Next morning we wait in the lobby at 7:00 am, drinking coffee, scrambling to use our last bit of wifi access to find a hotel in London on my phone. Expedia gave me a Holiday Inn right near Heathrow airport for $195, the cheapest available, so I booked it right as we were walking out to the taxi, hastily taking a screen shot of the address right as my wifi was cut off. Our flight out of London left at 7:45 am, so we had to stay the night.We pay about $35 on a 45 minute drive. Cabby tells us "there's about 5,000 cabbies in Budapest. 4,900 of them crazy." This created a lull in the conversation as we sat in silence, wondering if he was one of the 4,900. But we did end up at the right airport, so he wasn't all that bad. After wandering around lost for about 10 minutes, and waiting for about 1 hour, we are told that they don't have any record of our tickets. I leave daddy and the kids in a huddle around our luggage as I go in search of somewhere to try to purchase new tickets. After standing in another line for about 30 minutes I purchase tickets for 12:20 and have to pay $300 more than my original plan. But, it's a straight shot instead of laying over in Munich for 3 hours...so I guess it will be ok. Only 2 hour delay too - not too shabby. Can't you tell we are happy today? Poor kids...but I have to say they were wonderful travelers! Not one complaint, just bored and quiet, being good helpers.
Another FIRST: Gianna has been telling us "nem lehpuhleur, Ibolya" for 5 days now...as if she's saying she will not get on the airplane. But she also seems excited about it, and points to the airplanes in the sky whenever we see one, and she was awfully vocal when we drove into the airport and she saw planes everywhere. She was so proud to be pulling her own little rolling Little Mermaid bag behind her too. So when we got on that first plane, the first she's ever been on I'm sure, she was all smiles.
We got to London with no more problems...except now we have to find our hotel. My last minute flight change took us to Luton airport, not London Heathrow. I have no earthly idea if this is anywhere near Heathrow, but I figured they were both in London so we'd be able to take some sort of ground transportation to where we needed to go. Silly me, thinking this would be easy. After clearing customs we look around the lobby for ground transportation. Do we rent a car, take a taxi, take one of the three different bus options? Is there a hotel shuttle? Well, at least they speak English around here!!! Thank God for that. I once again leave the weary travelers to guard the mountain of luggage in search of help. After asking at 4 different counters, I finally concluded that a taxi would be the cheapest option. "Cheap" being a relative term. It was the coolest taxi I've ever been in, and the most expensive at $150 for the 45 min ride. The bus would have been about $200.
I tried not to stress out as we drove on the wrong side of the road, but every time he turned a corner or made an exit I thought we were going to hit oncoming traffic.
We made it to our London hotel at about 3 pm, so we had the evening to kill. Dinner at the nearby pub sounded good, and ended up being fantastic food, and we had free tap water with ice!!!! Praise the Lord for free tap water. We had "Honey glazed cumberland sausages, Melton Mowbray pork pie wedges, Wagstaff cure ham, piccalilli, and crusty bread" for an appetizer. Fish and chips, and a cheese tart to follow. And get this - FREE ketchup packets! I've gotten used to paying $.50 per packet. I love this place!
The next morning we catch the 5:00 am shuttle (only $18 for the 10 min ride) to Heathrow. There is a flight from London to Chicago at 7:45 that we want to try to catch. I say try, because we fly standby with employee benefits. There are 13 open seats, so we have a good chance. We end up getting 4 seats together, right up in First class. Score! 8 hours of luxury, and a chance to catch up on a little sleep. We've never been in First class before, so this was really a treat.
Each of us had our own little "cubicle", with room enough for an extra seat for a guest to come sit and visit you. The chair swiveled 90 degrees and reclined all the way to flat so you could turn it into a bed. We each had a tv loaded with movies, music, tv shows, and video games. We got a sheet, blanket, pillow, and were given pajamas, socks, an eye mask with ear plugs, a toothbrush and toothpaste, lotion, chapstick, kleenex packet, and a pen in a little bag to keep. There was a menu with about an 8 course meal choices that we could order whenever we wanted, or split it up. Unlimited drinks of whatever kind. Free newspaper...I mean this was really getting spoiled. We each had a Bose noise cancelling ear phones to wear as well. It really made the 8 hour trip enjoyable and relaxing. A much needed retreat from the stress and discomfort we'd been through recently. Praise God for His unexpected blessings!
Then our fun little connection in Chicago where we were detained in Customs for about 15 minutes (we had a 1 inch thick package from the American Consolate that we had to give them, to be able to bring Gianna into the country). This was a little nerve wracking - what if something was missing, or went wrong...then what?! Thankfully they gave our passports back and said "Have a nice day". Yes!!! She's officially a US citizen instantly!!
We literally ran through the entire airport to meet our connecting flight, where there were quite a few open seats so we already had seat assignments. (Thank you to Brenda and Jeremy, our flight angels). It was like the scene from Home Alone where they are running through the airport with frantic looks on their faces, bumping into people, and everyone looking at them funny. It was exactly the same scene, and we arrived at the gate out of breath and sweaty. The sign told us it was going to be delayed about 30 minutes. In this case, praise the Lord for delays.
We finally touched down at home, about 36 hours after we started the trip. We were all running on about 11 hours of sleep, and were now in a time zone that was 7 hours earlier than where we started. But we were HOME!!!
Gianna had perma-grin as we told her this was her forever home "mindig otthom". After our little first class vacation, we were all in pretty good spirits considering all the stress we had been through. And gramma and grampa and a couple of friends met us at the airport to welcome us home. Careful not to allow too many hugs or kisses yet, everyone was excited to see our new little girl - especially little Elsie who had a sign and came running up to us ahead of everyone else to say "hi Gianna". I suspect these two will be good friends in the near future!
I never found my red ruby slippers that I wanted, so I could have just tapped the heals together and said "There's no place like home" to get us here fast. But we made it safely and happily, and that's all I can ask for. Our travel adventure is over! Time to begin the new adventure of figuring out how to be a family of four.
Monday 9:15 am - took the metro (underground train) to the American Consulate to get Gianna's VISA. Two at a time through security, leave all electronicals in the drawer and given a number, and take a drink of that water please.
10:35 am - Got our number 400, and had to give the guy at the window the sealed envelope from the Dr. We waited almost 2 hours, had to pay $870 for translating the documents, and left Gianna's birth certificate and Hungarian passport with them overnight. We were told to come back tomorrow to pick up the VISA. That's the LAST step - pick up the VISA and we CAN GO HOME!!!!! This calls for a HAPPY DANCE!!!
Mistake #34: we didn't write down her passport number and exp date...and we have to have that to book flights. So we can't book any flights until tonight - hopefully some are open for tomorrow (crossing fingers, praying profusely...)
Before we caught the metro back to the hotel, we played in the park for a bit. I spotted what looked like a coffee shop, so daddy went in search of mocha and cappuccino. He came back with these Dixie cups filled about 1 inch high with a "mocha". LOL. One sip and it was gone!
Kiddos played, and then we wandered around downtown for a bit, to see what there was to see. Found a bunch of cute bistro restaurants, and tourist shops.
Had a bit of broccoli cheese / almond soup in a cup and a panini.
So many beautiful buildings and amazing architecture everywhere...
We actually found our way back to the train station! This is where you go underground to purchase a ticket...if we hadn't come out of this one on the way here I would have never known it was the station. We also got a free ride on the longest, fastest, steepest escalator I've ever seen.
We had some time to kill at the hotel to soak in the 'thermal' tub and swim in the pool (by the way, we weaned her off of the water wings, and she does the doggy paddle all across the pool ALL by herself now!! Teaching her how to swim under water now, and not plug her nose. She's so quick to learn!)
4:30 pm - leave to meet the Montreys at TGI Fridays. Our last time to see them in Hungary...we will really miss them! They are good friends now, and we have been so glad to share this experience with them. They are finalizing their adoption for 4 girls TODAY!!
We took the trolley (cable car) this time. This one is free, just hop on and off when you want. Google showed me which busses to take, and we made one connection and made it to TGI without a problem.
We were all SO excited to finally get some "Americanish" food. We actually got a BIG glass of tap water with ICE. Ice, I tell you!! The food and the atmosphere was almost exactly like being back home. Michelle and I finally felt relaxed, and it was wonderful. We have had a wonderful time here, but it's really time to go home now.
It was their youngest new daughter's birthday, she turned
4 today. We asked the waiter if they could sing Happy Birthday in
Hungarian for her. They came out when we had all finished eating and
sang for her, and we recorded it. We'll have to play the song to Gianna
at her next birthday in February.
On the way back to the bus we had a ceremonious balloon release (instead of just popping them and throwing them away like we wanted to), so we could 'happily' get rid of them before we got on the bus. We watched them both float up into the sky and said our goodbyes...it kind of symbolized saying goodbye to Gianna's old life and saying goodbye to it. We're ready to get her home and start our NEW life!!!
Gianna is picking up English quickly, at least it seems like she understands 60% of what we are saying. When we say "let's get dressed" or "hold my hand" or "are you hungry?" she responds. We're still using Hunglish, as we call it - like saying the Magyar word and then repeating the English word right after it. "Neitz, Look!", "Nem, no", "Yo, good"...and weaning into just saying it all in English.
Monkey is a little harder to ween off of Magyar though...he picked it up so quickly that he can have a whole conversation with her in Magyar without even thinking. Now that we are trying to switch over to English I can't get him to stop talking in Magyar! We have two Hungarian children now, lol.
Once we get back into English speaking land we'll be more strict about just talking English. It's hard to fully make the transition here, with everyone around us speaking her language, so Hunglish it is for a few more days.
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Another highlight of the trip - yesterday we found a Starbucks!!! After 45 days without seeing one we finally found one when we took the train to the mall - and of course made a bee line in to order a great big frappuccino. I was in heaven while I sipped my familiar foamy icy drink. The menu was all in English too - what a treat actually knowing what we were ordering and being able to pronounce it. AND they had wi-fi - what a luxury!
When I tried to order a cheeseburger at Burger King the menu was all in Magyar and I had to order a Sajtburger. Thank goodness a lot of employees at stores here speak at least a little English. I just said Cheeseburger and she knew what I wanted. I asked her how to say it, and she said "Shiteboigoi" or something like that. Cheese is shite I guess. Interesting.
The mall is amazing - it starts underground, right as you step off the train and goes 3 stories up. Lots of stores we recognize like Claire's, Starbucks, Burger King, Lee, MAC...and some that are similar like Women's Secret.
Before we headed back on the train, we decide to surface and see what is outside around the mall. Right across the street I spotted a bunch of little tents, as if a market was set up. We headed over there and raided some of the kiosks and bought a bunch of souvenirs for people.
Then we went back underground and bought another ticket (they are just one-time tickets for $1.50 each per person. Go as far as you like, it's one price) for the train and figured out which side to wait on after asking a couple of people and pointing to our destination on the map. Not sure how to read the signs, so it's a little stressful not knowing how to tell which train is correct. When the train stops, you literally have 5 seconds to get on or off, so you have to be ready and make sure you're holding the kids' hands or one might get left behind!!
Back to our neighborhood, then we had to catch the trolley back to our hotel. They stop every 5 minutes roughly, and they are free. There is really no way to know their route, but we just ask the hotel which # to get on. This one is not our trolley, it's one of the busses. No time to actually get a picture of the trolley, or he would just leave without us! Once again, you have to be on your toes and know exactly when you want to get off and be standing by the door while the bus is still in motion so you can get out before the doors close again. Did I mention how much I miss my car??
For dinner to save money, we just go to the little grocery store across the street from our hotel. We have a fridge and a hot water boiler...so tonight we had ramen noodles and crackers and cheese. Check out the package of ramen noodles - forro means "hot", so it looks like we are eating hot boogers for dinner. I miss my kitchen.
Countdown: 4 more days!
Our first full day in Budapest.
First...breakfast at the free buffet at our hotel. This wasn't a "buffet" of dry cereal, toast, eggs and a waffle maker with cups of batter...no this was something worth a picture to remember. Full bakery bread and pastry goodie selection, espresso machine, meats and cheeses and all kinds of fruit, oatmeal with all kinds of goodies to sprinkle on it, eggs cooked 4 different ways, and cereals galore. We're paying Holiday Inn prices for this room thanks to George's magic, but getting the royal treatment...
Then Daddy had to walk to the passport office with Rita to pick up Princess's Hungarian passport. When he got back and showed it to her she took out all of our passports and named them, and was so excited that she had one now too! She'll actually have two passports - we pick up her American passport on Tuesday, as she'll be a dual citizen of both countries. She is counting down the days until she gets to ride in an airplane still.
Then the Dr. came to meet us at the hotel. She was a very nice, soft spoken woman who already knew Gianna as she has met with her once or twice before. She just checked her with a stethoscope and measured her, and filled out her final report. Then she took her vaccination book that was filled out in Magyar cursive (which means absolutely no chance of me trying to decipher it) and copied it into English so I'll have something to take to our Dr. Everything else went into a sealed envelope that we'll take to the American Consolate next week.
Now we had the rest of the day to ourselves...and all we needed to do was find a new swim suit for Princess because apparently I packed too well and can't find it anywhere. AND how about find the Cat Cafe!!??
If you haven't gathered this from the macskababa post,
I'm a little crazy about cats...and anything little and furry in
general. Several months ago I read about something called a "Cat Cafe"
in Japan (apparently there are about 80 of them - read more here)
and I was about to hop on a plane just to go to Japan to sit in a room
and sip a latte and be surrounded by cats. Yes, I'm that crazy. So you
can imagine my delight when I heard there is a Cat Cafe RIGHT HERE in
Budapest, where I am actually AT right now!!
Daddy is a great sport, and let me drag the whole family
to the trolley bus on the corner so we could hang on for dear life as the driver careened down the main road, and
then walk about 9 blocks to the place where Google maps said the Cat
Cafe was. Sure enough, we found it!
When you walk in you are greeted by this little door man and he takes you to your seat. He's waiting for the next customer at the top of the stairs. :)
You pay a flat fee for unlimited time, unlimited drinks, and one dessert. And unlimited following around and petting of the cats. I think we paid $24 for an hour and a half of kitty therapy and about 3 drinks each. I call that quality time :)
Mostly they slept and acted annoyed at being bothered...as you would expect.
They were perched on all kinds of wall mounted baskets and shelves. This guy just had to get a peek, lol.
I'm good now. I've had my 'kitty fix' for the day.
There was a whole shelf full of books and games to help you waste time until the cats woke up and came rubbing your legs. I didn't need to wait. I just went over and grabbed one out of his sleeping tent and woke him up.
OK, now that you really think I'm a crazy cat lady (I am)...on with the rest of the day, which isn't quite as enamoring as the cats, but oh well.
Daddy and I were hungry now...except for once the kids were NOT hungry! We pumped them so full of free drinks their tummies we full. Ooops. But we stopped at a Gyro bar to grab a bite. We see these meat cones at all the gyro places we've seen in Europe - quite impressive! See how they are made here. They just shave some off onto your pita when you order it...and it's to die for.
Then we walked past Heroes Square on the way to find the bus...
Couldn't find the bus. Finally went to a hotel to ask how to get back and walked 5 more blocks to the stop...I really miss my car.
2 years of paperwork & appointments
78 friends and family support
6 days of visits to the foster home
30 days of temporary custody at our apartment
2 visits from the social workers
2 trips to Budapest
29 rounds of Fagyi (ice cream)
...all for one little girl. Gianna Ibolya is now an official member of the Harrington family!
We left the apartment that we've called home for the last 40 days this morning at 6:30, to drive about an hour to Nyireghaza where the guardian office is. Kids were a little excited to be moving on. Can't say I wasn't a little relieved also.
Met with the social workers again so we could review their reports that they had written about us. Everything was all good, and they asked us if we wanted to proceed with the adoption. That was a no brainer - YES! We signed some papers and we were given 6 copies of the decree. Voila! Instant addition to the Harrington clan. She's officially ours now!! We went downstairs to get her new birth certificate printed. Here she is holding the new birth certificate listing us as her parents.
We walked around the corner to another office to handle some other paperwork that our facilitators took care of for us. By the way - Lifeline Children's Services has been amazing, and all of our facilitators here (Rita, Adam, Victoria (social worker), and George not shown) have been fantastic for us. Couldn't recommend them enough! Monkey especially likes Rita :)
Then we were off to Budapest, a 2.5 hour trip. We had to go to the Hungarian DMV as I call it, to get her Hungarian passport. Somehow George and Rita worked their magic and turned a 6-8 hour wait (no kidding!) into 5 minutes. I told you they were GOOD! We'll pick up her passport in the morning.
On Monday we go the the American Consulate to get her American passport going (she'll hold dual citizenship, which is cool), and pick it up Tuesday morning. Then we are free to come home!!
Catching up on some pictures I couldn't post before, here are some from our 30 days in the apartment.
