Since my last post, we have gone through the preparations for traveling, skyped with our new daughters and safely arrived in Santiago, DR. It has been a whirlwind of a not-quite-two-months since my last post. When I go back and read that post it feels forever ago and, yet, I also cannot believe how far we have come!
We arrived in Santiago late on December 11th. We spent 15 hours from the time we left our house to arriving at the house we are staying at here in Santiago. I am grateful we have had this week to acclimate to the DR before we get to meet our daughters next week. Here is a re-cap of our first 3 days/4 nights in Santiago:
Sunday: We got to the Santiago airport around 9:30pm. We had three flights to get to Santiago - the last leg from Miami to Santiago was pretty emotional for me. I was filled with awe that we had made it so far, worry over getting through customs with all of our luggage (see picture). I decided mid-flight rather than let my worries get the best of me to begin praying and praising God for getting us this far and to guide our paths in the steps ahead. Shannon was sitting by my side and I was able to get some "just us" snuggles in too. After getting through customs - with very helpful airport employees to help with the massive amount of luggage we had in tow - we went outside and were greeted by the manager of the house we are staying at. He had arranged us a taxi and escorted us right to the house. Let me just say, if you are ever in Santiago, I would definitely recommend this place! He gave us a quick tour and then left us be to recover from our long day of traveling. We snapped a few pictures and then went to bed.
Monday: Our first full day in Santiago was a bit of an adventure. You see, our flight into Miami arrived with only an hour until our flight to Santiago. While we had planned to eat dinner between flights, by the time we got to the gate, our next flight was already boarding - so we skipped dinner. Needless to say, we woke up a bit hungry Monday morning, but quickly discovered we needed to exchange our US Dollars to Dominican pesos if we were going to be purchasing anything. We originally thought this would be no big deal, we'd just Uber our way into town to exchange some money and buy groceries. Boy were we wrong. Uber saw that we were using US credit cards in the DR and put us on "pending", unable to get a ride anywhere. We then tried contacting our house manager to help arrange us a ride - only to find out later his phone was at the repair shop and he wasn't getting our texts. 1:30pm rolled around and we had not eaten anything more than some trail mix and the delicious bananas grown on site and we were beginning to worry about what to do long term. After letting us know our last document needed to meet our daughters was issued, our social workers through our agency were trying to problem-solve with us too, but things weren't working. At least we were stranded in beautiful weather and surroundings! Just when I was starting to say "OK, God - you got us here, please help us feed our kiddos" the house manager showed up 'unexpectedly' to see how we were doing. And like that, we were on our way in a taxi to get groceries. By Monday evening - after eating a real meal - spirits were much higher and despite the initial challenges, we decided Monday was a success after all. It may have been a bit of a learning curve for us to get where we needed to go, but we did it together! The day ended smiling about the baby gecko we found in the bathroom and loving the produce we were able to purchase.
Wednesday: Today we ventured into the center of Santiago to see some historic sites. We saw la Fortaleza San Luis and el Monumento de los Héroes de la Restauración. Santiago is a beautiful city, surrounded by mountains. Perhaps the biggest highlight of our day was getting official word that we will in fact meet our new daughters on Monday!! God is so good in giving us this week of rest and discovery and preparing us for meeting our girls.
Tomorrow we will get to travel to Jarabacoa to meet with a missionary family who works with our agency and actually has connections with a family from my school back home. God never ceases to amaze me in the small details like this connection with the missionary family. We will get to hike the mountains to a waterfall, eat lunch with them and see the school they work with. While I cannot hardly wait for Monday to come to finally meet my daughters, I am also trying to enjoy the small moments and discover bits and pieces of the country. I am in awe of how big we are blessed - from friends and family back home praying for us and taking care of our house and pets, to our sister church friends here in the DR checking in on us and making sure we are doing well - God has definitely orchestrated even the smallest of details in this adoption adventure. I am honored to be a part of it and look forward to what the future holds following HIS plan for my family.
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