So here's the short of it,
Happy Anniversary Liga and Valdis!
And here's the long.
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| Mednieku pils Inčukalnā |
Seventeen years ago today, we woke up in Riga, Latvia. After lunch Victor, our in-country adoption facilitator drove us from the city to a small place in the country called Incukaln (pronounced Inch-u-kahln). Our destination, the Incukaln Home for Children housed in an old hunting castle. There had been an outbreak of hepatitis and it was under quarantine at the time. Compared to the stories he heard from others who went to adopt children, we were hustled in and back out and given little opportunity to see the grounds or meet many of the other children. We were asked to take pictures of about 10 other children to bring back to The Open Door agency.
This picture was taken within 10 minutes of the first time we met Liga and Valdis. Neither of them spoke any English. "Hallo" was as close as they got! I had memorized about 50 Latvian words and we had an English-Latvian dictionary! What an adventure we would have over the next months until the kids learned enough English to communicate with us.
i just stumbled across your blog trying to look at pics of the old orphanage i was from. reminds me of the olden days. well not really since im still young but i dunno, theres always that piece missing when youre adopted and i like to check up on the country i was born and raised until i was adopted. I didnt know there was a breakout of hepatitis. -aija
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