India Part 1

Traveling to Delhi to get Avika was an adventure to say the least!  It felt crazy that we were finally traveling to meet our daughter after waiting for two and a half years.  We started this journey with an application to our agency in February of 2012.  Avika was born in April 2012.  We were matched with her in the spring of 2013, and we received word our embassy appointment was scheduled early August 2014.  We bought plane tickets that morning and left the next day!

 

Here we are at the start of our journey in the airport in Durango. Only 24 hours of flights and layovers ahead of us!

On the plane somewhere over Russia?

We got into Delhi late, then woke up early to go to the orphanage to meet Avika!  This is the alley/side street where her orphanage was located...

 

Moments after first meeting her.  She was definately a little leery of us, but allowed us to hold her and try to play a bit.

Unfortunately we had to take her to her first medical appointment right after meeting her for the first time.  We wished we could have spread this out a bit, but we were on a tight schedule.  This is us in the car on the way to Max Med.  She was less than impressed with us!

We were able to make it through her medical without incident, but she did throw up on me in the car on the way back to the hotel.  Quite the introduction...

 

 Day two:  a trip to the embassy to get a form we didn't know we needed, a little shopping and a mendhi session (!), and lunch at a south Indian restaurant (found out I love dhosa masala) near Connaught Place.

In the afternoon we were able to go back to the orphanage and spend more time with Avika.  I think we won her over a little this day.  We got lots of smiles, a couple of hugs, and she seemed sad to see us go at the end of the afternoon!