Was so beat last night I just couldn't post - had to sleep!!!! We have been averaging about 2 hours of sleep per night (last night was the first night that Gerry didn't wake up at 2 am raring to go). Then after about an hour of sleep Tuesday night, we took the 7 hour death race to our girls' region (think wooden roller coaster ride with giant potholes and dodging semis). There were only a couple minor mishaps on the way, both involving Gerry and a squatter potty - pee on my shoe and a Rescue Bot that almost fell in the hole!
We arrived around noon and dropped Mom and Gerry at our new apartment , went to the social worker's office, signed papers, and went over to the orphanage (it's referred to as a boarding school here). It was lunch time, so we waited and waited for the director to come to the room (Grant and I thought we were waiting for the director). About 45 minutes later, "D" came rushing in!!! Hugs all around!! She is sooooo excited to have a family and is just the sweetest girl :). She was excited to look at the photo book we brought that has photos of our family, the cats (a big hit), our home (with her new room), and activities around us. D had big smiles and kept showing the social worker and our facilitator the photo of Gerry with his "I love my big sister" shirt. She also seems very happy to have grandparents and kept going back to those photos. She does not seem shy at all, and really likes affection, wanting to sit close and hold hands. She is just absolutely awesome!!!
After a little while she asked if it was ok if we met her brother. He is 18 and still attending school (we are not quite sure why he is allowed to stay there since 16 is the age at which kids "graduate" at this orphanage). She showed him the photo book, and it was so hard for us to watch as he got tears in his eyes and told the social worker that he wanted to be adopted, too. The US will not allow children to be adopted after they turn 16 :(
It is difficult to communicate because of the language barrier, but we played games of tic tac toe and took turns taking photos. We will have to think of some activities to take some with us today - we can visit for about 2 hours in the afternoon.
The director came in for about 30 seconds at the end of the visit, and we did not get a chance to ask any questions or get information, but he signed the paper we needed - thank goodness!
We cannot get our next referral appointment for our little one until next week because of the holidays, but that will give us a chance to visit more with D this week. Plus, it will have be nice to have a break from traveling since Little One's orphanage is 3-4 hours from here, in a village in the middle of a field. This will be quite the adventure!
Our new apartment is nice and has good internet - woo hoo! The microwave smokes but our facilitator is awesome and will take care of this I'm sure. She and her husband drove us around yesterday to our appointments, and took care of everything we needed to get done. She even took us to the grocery store and helped us find what we needed. Beware to those of you traveling, make sure to tell your spouse how many bags you paid for if he is bagging at the other end of the conveyer belt - poor Grant got stopped by security because we only paid for 3 and he had used 4 bags!
Ok, time to go try to figure out the washing machine before we head out - mom and I have found that you just start pushing buttons and hope for the best. And if it doesn't seem to be working, push lots more buttons! This new washer has a metal locking basket - wish us luck - I have heard stories of clothes getting trapped!
