Thursday, May 21, 2009

Beth Meets Hope!

Kat, Ally and Beth

Beth meets Hope for the first time.

First, let me explain the top two pictures. On Tuesday, Beth had two friends over, Katherine Rowell and Ally Sanders. They had the great idea of painting their arms and legs. I am not sure who initiated this idea, but the name Beth does come to mind. We got some great pictures and stained clothes out of this idea. Our white Bichon, Molly, came away with purple and pink ears. I was told it was an accident, but I have my suspicions.

Now, I get you up to date on our second trip to Moldova. We arrived in Atlanta with six very large bags to be checked along with three carry ons. We were not able to print our boarding passes from the kiosk, so we proceeded to a line (with all of our luggage!) in order to talk with a Delta agent. However, we were told we needed to be in another line (the kiosk assistance line), so here went again. However, the agent who told us about the different line, came over and pulled us out of this long after just a few minutes. We think she felt very sorry for us! She took such good care of us, and we were on our way feeling much lighter having checked all our large baggage.

When we got to our gate, our name was called out, and we had been bumped to first class!!! The flight had been overbooked. What a blessing. Beth did a great job during the journey even during the eight hour lay over in Frankfurt. When we arrived in Chisinau, another plane de-boarded, so the airport was packed and the customs line was long. Customs was passing people through quickly, so we had no problems.

Despite requesting Albina have two vehicles at the airport for all our luggage, she arrives in one small compact Toyota along with Marina (more about her later). I was thinking no way are we going to get all our luggage along with five people in that car, but we did. It was not a comfortable ride being in the back seat with two large suitcases and three people on the road filled with pot holes to Chisinau, but we survived. On our way to the orphanage, Albina handed Hope’s passport to Andy! She had gotten it today. We didn’t ask any questions about “how,” we were just so glad to have it!

We arrived at the orphanage late. Hope’s group had just gotten in bed. We think the caregiver woke Hope up for us (we were not quite clear on this), because she really cried when we took her. While we didn’t like to hear her cry, it was good to know she could protest about something. It was reassuring just to see this emotion. We took her outside, and she began to notice Beth. Beth was the only one who got a little smile from her. She liked being outside, especially watching and listening to two dogs close by, but she seemed very tired. After our visit, we were able to kiss her good night and put her to bed. Tomorrow, we will get her “for keep.”

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