Hello, WA!

 What a long day! Really, one of the longest, most exhausting days of my life. 

We had to wake early to get on our flight. We decided not to mess with a hotel this time so that we could have our own car home. We'll be getting home ridiculously late and don't want to bother anyone with having to pick up us, the little one, and all 10 million suitcases. 

Thankfully, everything went smoothly including the layover in MN. We made it to WA in good time. 

Of course, once in WA, we had to navigate the enormous airport and then take a shuttle and then finally pick up our rental car. By this time we were starving so we were on the lookout for food. 

We thought we'd struck gold when we found an authentic Ethiopian restaurant and cafe. Wrong. The service was terrible and we had an odd feeling like we weren't supposed to be there. They didn't have the dish we asked for and there was no coffee menu to speak up. We decided to cut our losses and duck out. Found a coffee hut nearby and bought coffee and huge muffins to tide us over. 

Little A was at a visit with her mom so we went straight over to Foster Mom's (FM) to meet her and her mom who cares for the girls during the week. They were very pleasant and welcoming. We sat and chatted and just got to know each other before little one came back from her visit. 

Seeing A in person for the first time was so emotional. We have such big feeling for her, but she's little and doesn't really know us. So we said hi and tried not to rush her or smother her. She was quiet and wanted to be held by FM. We gave her some space and FM told us later that she whispered, "Uncle Ben and Aunt Jenn here for ME" while patting her chest. Sweet, sweet girl. She then requested we hold her. Um, Yes!

Yes, I cried. Sweet bundle. 

After warming up to us, the girls decided we should play in the back yard and we were fine with that. We went out with them and watched them jump on the trampoline. Then we explored the backyard where we found slugs and then a frog. The girls were fascinated with the slugs which reminded me of the slugs Gabe printed for them so I gave them their slugs when we went back in. 

We ate dinner and visited and then sat nearby as FM put A down for bed. We stayed for a bit and just visited until we were exhausted and decided to head to our hotel. 

With our exit just a stone's throw away, we had a tire blow out. FM offered to come and sit with us, but it was late and there wasn't anything we could do. We made half a dozen phone calls and were feeling pretty low about how much it was going to cost and how long the wait was going to be when FM showed up anyway. She insisted on calling Triple A and was able to get someone out quickly and they had the spare put on and it didn't cost us anything. We were so incredibly grateful! We'll still have to have the tire patched, but that's no big deal. 

Our night ended up being a really late one which meant it was a LONG day for us - especially when you consider WA is 2 hours behind us. We were running on pure adrenaline. 

I've been nervous about this day for months and I'm glad to report it went really, really well. Little one was so sweet and seemed to warm up to us really well. We had a great first day with her and I'll never forget how precious it was to hold her for the first time.