Great Weekend- Part One

What a great weekend! We were ready and excited to come down to Kansas City to meet our new (soon to be) son and daughter. The whole concept of coming down to a different town to "meet" your kids is very surreal in itself- but off we were to do just that!

Our first meeting took place in a sitting area outside of a restaurant at the mall. We were greeted by the case worker and adoption recruiter and introduced to Arlvelt (pronounced Ar-velt) and Lena. We had bought some Wisconsin (badger) gifts for them. A t-shirt for Lena (we were told she is a "tomboy") and a hat for Arlvelt. Lena opened hers right away and liked it and took her coat off so she could put it on. Arlvelt just let his bag sit on the table and he was sort of "reserved". I said "do you wantto open it or are you going to wait?" He said "I'll wait"...but then brought the bag closer as if to start to open it- maybe.

He said "i think it's a hat- feels like a hat", To which, Mike replied- yeah, but what color does it feel like? Arlvelt sort of laughed and that was last bit of "being reserved" that we saw from him! haha!

We then ate at this cool restaurant where youorder your food forma phone at the table and then a train brings you your food and lowers it down to your table. Pretty neat- and loud- which was good becasue WE were very loud. We all got along great from the word go. We also got to meet their 17 year old half sister and really enjoyed our time with her too.

There is so much we could write- but we'll just use photos to share most of the events. We know and havebeentold that there is usually a "honeymoon" period with foster/pred-adoptive kids...and I'm sure to some degree that's what we are experiencing- but hey, our marriage had a honeymoon period too and we are still going strong with that!

Enjoy the fun, crazy and sweet sides of ALL our children! Oh , by the way, the names to call them by are Lena and A.V.

Lena just turned 7 and A.V. is 8 (turning 9 in May)

(if there are no photos below it means we couldn't post them from our laptop- check back tomorrow s I'm sure they'll be up by then)