Beautiful

Today we met our daughter and found out what her name meant....'Beautiful' and that is what she is! Wow is all I can say. It's past midnight here- we got her today and it was completely amazing. She is so sweet- definatly shy to us but w/ her friends she was a little chatter box so in time that will change- she is very quiet yet so incediebly trusting w/ us.
She is sleeping like a real princess in our hotel back in Delhi- that somehow got upgraded to a suite :) After a very long lice treatment and major scub down she fell asleep in 10 seconds after we said our prayers. I dont have much time to write but for the families of children in Basundhara....your children are so amazing... they are so happy and very eager for their families to come- I gave the gifts and got pictures too :)
Tomorrow is embassy work. I was really hoping to write more but my wifi is endind and I need sleep! THanks for your prayers everyone!

Maybe today...maybe tomorrow

Hi we are now in Orissa and staying in a hotel only 20 minutes from Sova!

I have soooo much to say but not much time- we are doing great and ready to get our daughter.

We met up w/ Ginger and Joel- the other family traveling w/ us, they are great and we are really enjoying their company.

There is a minor problem in the city and we might have to wait to go to the orphanage until tomorrow- we are meeting Rajeev for breakfast now and he will let us know. If you dont here from us today then we are probrably getting Sova! Otherwise, I'll write more later!

Day 1

Because of lack of sleep, we were showered and eating breakfast by 8:30- which consisted of mostly Indian type food buffet, I enjoyed the little rasin spice pancakes.
We met Rajeev today- he is our agencies in-country contact who will be guiding us through the week. 1st stop...coffee at a cool cafe- after dodging auto rickshaws and mopeds we went Shopping! It was a 4 story building w/ hadicrafts from all over India which ranged from really cheap to a $10,000 large wooden elephant. Elephants is one thing that this store was Not lacking. Everything was here and it was the highlight of my day...Im sure Rajeev and Mike had better moments ;)
We spent the rest of the day at the hotel, Mike is enjoying the movie channels that we do not get at home and Im about to take a Benadrly to ensure I Sleep tonight! I will fall asleep the sounds of horns...I kid you not...it is a constant drone if beeping that Never stops.
Tomorrow we meet up w/ the other family traveling and we all fly w/ Rajeev to the girl's region. We arrive late and check into a hotel before going to the orphange in the morning. I cant wait!

We're Here!

(Sorry this is long- Im going to be using these printouts as part of Sova’s adoption journal so that’s why it’s detailed…I don’t feel like writing up 2 :)
Im glad that we left for the airport early because we got so lost in New Jersey…it had to be the worst area that you can get lost in. We even ended up getting a police escort back to the highway!
We sat on the runway for about an hour and a half before we took off. Somehow we ended up getting the best seats near the emergency exit w/ full feet room. ‘Big Mike’ as my friends used to call him in highschool-really apprectiated that! We sat next to a young Indian mother traveling alone w/ her baby girl. We made friends and ended up bouncing her on our knees and walked her around the cabin to give her mother a break. When we held her we just lookede at eachother and laughed. She had the biggest brownest eyes, we couldn’t help but think that she looked like Sova, as we imagined that Sova looked just like her as a baby. We are one of the 3 white couples traveling to Delhi on the plane, I cant stop looking at the Indian people as I really think that they are the most beautiful people. As soon as we started flying east the sun started coming out so we had to all keep our windows closed to sleep. But there was no sleep for us- we definatly tried-closed our eyes and layed upright frozen, but I don’t think we really even slept. We were given Indian chicken curry and other unknowns to me…I ate the brownie J
It was cool watching the screen above us that showed our flight path- when we were over Switzerland I really hoped that we would have to do an emergency fuel up or something to get a better look J
After going through Immigration we had to walk through a roped off crowd of people holding up signs for the tourists. I nervously scanned the crowd- Mike found our names 1st…I was nervous because our plane was almost 2 hours late- I didn’t know if the hotel driver would wait for us. I couldn’t stop smiling when we finally breathed in the notorious Delhi air. Immidatly we were pinpionted and 2 men ran up and grabbed Mike’s bags out of his hands even though Mike said no thanks- they wanted to bring them to the car for us for a tip. Out hotel guy came to our rescue and pryed the bags out of the man’s hands.
The 40 minute drive to the hotel was slightly overwhelming…although it was dark so Im sure I didn’t even see it all. There are cows, camels, and boney dogs walking around the street. The driving is crazy and the horns don’t stop beeping. This I could take in w/ an exciting smile but then I had to do a double look. Was that crowd of people really sleeping on the highway medium? Yes. And for the rest of the way, that is what I saw. I knew people lived on the streets of India but I never imagined it to be like this. They are litteraly on the sidewalks and street and sidewalk mediums.
When we came to our hotel we were ready for sleep- Mike is still sleeping- the sky is just getting light now…unfortunatly I could not sleep. The hotel is quite nice, the said they upgraded us too- we are on the top floor overlooking a foggy city. It is still monsoon season here, our driver said that today was the 1st dry day in a while. So anyways, we made it and we ready to see India! We meet our agency contact in the morning.

Ready or not!

Well my to do list is slowly dwindleing...It kind of feels like Im getting ready to go give birth- I want everything perfect in the house before I leave. I walked around all afternoon looking for another spot to clean. I even had the boys wash and vacum the car w/ me- it was actually raining out while we did this but I needed to burn off some nervous energy!

We are ready...the boys are ready- I really think that even Caleb knows what is going on- when we talk about India he pouts and says, 'me come too!'

So 1 more day...I never thought this day would come!

Sova-Grace Elliana Turner...

Yes- it's long but everytime I would look at her little face- I just saw the name 'Grace'... but we decieded not to change her name so we are hyphinating her 1st name to Sova-Grace...Im sure most people will just call her Sova which is fine- it may just become a 'mommy & daddy' name.
As for her middle name, 'Elliana' means 'the Lord has responded'- this is obviously perfect and means a few different things to us.

Thanks for your prayers for safe travels, peace for Sova, the bonds of attachment to start forming, and for the embassy paperwork to go smoothly.

India here we come!

India Itinerary

This is what our week in India will be like:

Thursday after a couple hour drive from CT we will depart from New Jersey- non stop to Delhi @ 8:30 PM

Arrive in Delhi, India- Friday 8:15 PM(Talk about LONG FLIGHT...we skipped our date night this week because we will have almost 24 hrs. belted next to eachother :)
Our Hotel will be holding up our names when we arrive (Hopefully!)

Sat. morning we meet up w/ our in-country contact from our agency- Rajeev.Maybe we will shop?

Sun. we are meeting up w/ the other family adopting- we will all fly together to the region of Orissa- a tribal region where the orphanage is.staying at a nice hotel overnight

Monday Aug.25th is what the adoption world calls our 'Gotcha Day!' We spend the day at the orpahnage- pick up Sova and fly back to Delhi that night w/ her.

Delhi is the capitol and where the US embassy is- that is why we fly back there. We will stay in a nice hotel and do our embassy work on Tuesday and Wednesday- visa interveiws ect-

Once we get her Visa (hopefully Wednesday AM) we will drive w/ Rajeev and other family to Agra- about 4 hours away and stay in another hotel near the Taj Mahal.

Thursday I think we are touring the Taj.

Friday the other family leaves- we'll just hang out by the pool.

Saterday the 30th we will drive back (4hrs) to Delhi to catch our 10:50 PM flight HOME!

We arrive in New Jersey Sunday Aug. 31st at 4:30 AM...yikes...then we drive a couple hours north to home sweet home Connecticut!

Just thinking about our 1st day home is making me tired! It will seem like a very long trip because we are going to be missing our boys like crazy.