Austin, Texas.

Last week Valerie and I travelled to Austin, TX, to meet for the first time two girls we're adopting.  We've been in the "process" of having these girls placed for about 6 to 8 months, and they're FINALLY here.  Maria is 6 and Fatima is 5.  They'll be going to school where I did however many odd years ago that was (I don't want to list it and make myself look old)!

From left to right, Fatima, Me, Maria and Valerie.

This was taken at the San Antonio Zoo on Friday, February 26, 2010.







Our first meeting went well.  It was on Thursday, February 25, 2010 about 1:30 CST in the afternoon.  We met at their foster mom's house in New Braunfels which is about 15 minutes south of Kyle (where we were staying).  Our introductions were pretty simple.  We introduced ourselves as Steven and Valerie, but told the girls they could call us Mom and Dad, Mommy and Daddy, Steven and Valerie, or Steve and Val; whichever they were most comfortable with.  It wasn't long and they were calling us mommy and daddy.  They never even gave themselves a chance to call us anything else.

This picture was taken at DFW airport Monday, March 1, 2010 about 8:15 CST in the morning.

It was a very early (and very long) day for us, since we'd gotten up around 3:30!

Me, Fatima, and Maria with Valerie standing behind us. 

We took the girls from their foster house for a little while and went to Burger King.  The intent was to maybe get a treat and spend some time with kids playing on the playground, but this particular BK didn't currently have one.  The space was there, but I don't know if they had just removed or were getting ready to install their play equipment.

Friday morning we went to San Antonio with Valerie's brother and sister-in-law and their three girls.  Ever since I found out San Antonio was only an hour or so south of Kyle, I had a very strong desire to see the Alamo.  I don't know why, but the Alamo has always been (in my mind) a very LARGE building, and an even bigger part of American (especially Texan) history.  While the spirit of the place impressed me, I have to admit the actual building was anti-climatic.  I do wish I could have spent more time there, but we were in a rush to meet the girls and their foster mom.

The Alamo - Est. 1724 A.D.

At the Zoo, we saw so many different exhibits.  Actually, the San Antonio Zoo and Aquarium is the 3rd LARGEST zoo in the country.  They've got 3500 animals covering 600 species located on 56 acres of land.

I've seen Bald Eagles flying, and every once in awhile sitting on a branch, but I never realized just how big they were until I saw one at the zoo.  It was HUGE and absolutely majestic.  No wonder it's the symbol of our country.

Kangaroos!  A whole pen full of them.  This was THE most important exhibit for our girls.  Maybe it was because I told them it was snack time after the roos!

The San Antonio Zoo and Aquarium also has lots of crocodiles and alligators.  Smaller than I thought, yet no less imposing.

We went to dinner that night after the zoo and got the girls home a little later than we'd thought.  They were extremely tired, which I guess is a good thing.  If they weren't tired, they didn't have any fun, right?

Saturday morning their foster mom brought them to where we were staying in Kyle, TX.  We had breakfast, and then did some shopping at the outlet stores in San Marcos.  Talk about a shoppers dream.  The Prime Outlets center was voted "Third-Best place to Shop in the World" by ABC's The View.  It is also the largest outlet shopping destination in Texas and the "largest in the world" (Prime Outlets San Marcos).  We got some swimsuits for the girls and some nice clothes they can wear to school.  Not that they didn't have some clothes already, but it's always nice to get NEW things!  We had lunch at Subway, shopped a little more, and made sure the girls were home at a reasonable hour.

Sunday we picked the girls up, ready to come home to Washington.  We ran a couple of errands, got some "collegiate" shirts (University of Texas Longhorns for Fatima and me, and Texas A&aM Aggies for Maria and Valerie), and went back to Charlie and Brenda's house for dinner.

Bedtime came early, since we had to catch a 6:30 flight from Austin to Dallas.  After getting the girls settled in for the night, we finished packing and got a couple hours of sleep.  Our flights home weren't too bad.  AUS to DFW is only about an hour, but DFW to PDX is 4 hours or more.  Maria talked and drew in her coloring books for most, if not all, of the flight; however Fatima was asleep before they got out the soda cart.

It's been a great few days since then.  Life will be different from this point on, but I'm looking forward to it - and I know Valerie is as well.

We'll try to keep this updated as best as possible.  Until then!

Ahhh....

So, I tried setting up a website today through our ISP.  Wow, what a mess.  It shouldn't be hard to do, but for some reason the ISP only allows "basic" pages to be written with it's editor.  I even tried using FrontPage, with no success.  I followed the directions on the website, but it just wouldn't work.

I told Valerie what was going on, and she suggested I use this website instead.  We've got some family who use it already and it seems to work for them, so here we are!