Same routine again on Day 4 – we were picked up about 9:45 to head to the orphanage. You might wonder, “My goodness what do they do with their mornings if they don’t leave that late!” Well, 9:45am here feels like 1:45am to our bodies. That means, no matter what time we go to bed, it takes lots of effort to drag us up at 8am. We turn on TV and somehow try to get the gist of an American program dubbed in this language. This morning we watched “Dual Survivor.” Other choices have been Fear Factor, Back to the Future, etc. We have a mini fridge in the room so we buy milk at the market. We brought cereal from home because we are cereal snobs and couldn’t find one here we liked. This week it is Frosted Flakes. He usually hops in the shower while I pretend I’m awake. We also have to have me shower, check emails from home, repack our toy bag for Sweet Girl, list out any questions we have for the day, prepare any gifts for new people that day (adoption center worker, etc) and then make sure our valuables are locked up and get out the door. It’s tight every morning.
Anyway, on to what you care about. This morning we got a new outfit out of sweet girl! She looked adorable with her pigtails and denim jumper. She found her little air rockets in her toy bag and pretty much knew right what to do. That held her attention for oh, 3 minutes.
On the next pass through the bag she found her morning juice box. She used the ice cream dishes from the Playdoh set and poured Mama and Papa a glass. I have issue with drinking juice from something Playdoh touched, so when I said nyet, Sweet Girl drank it.
Vita had to take a paper to the court so she left us alone for most of this visit. Poor Sweet Girl tried so hard to talk to us. She’d ask us questions and He would repeat the “words” back to her. She would get exasperated that she was asking a question and he was asking it back.
When Vita got back she talked to the director and we heard some interesting news – we were being invited to go see the art exhibit the kids were in! It’s pretty unheard of as far as all my research goes for the director, facilitator, adoptive parents and child to get in the same car and go somewhere! We left the morning visit excited about the afternoon.
After Kraft Mac n Cheese in the room for lunch, we headed back to the orphanage. It was raining and pretty chilly so we weren’t sure if the offer still stood or not. But when they brought Sweet Girl to us it was clear she was ready for a fieldtrip! We looked through our pictures again while we waited for the director.
And then we were off into the rain!
Here’s the exhibit. I think it’s sort of a gallery for amateur or independent type exhibits. The hardest part was trying to act interested, trying to keep Sweet Girl from touching all the toys set up and trying to show the director we knew what we were doing (because court is on Friday and the director has to give her consent!
Mama and the star of the show!
Looking very confused as to where she is and where the doctor or airplane are (she only leaves the orphanage to go to the doctor and we’ve also talked with her about leaving with Mama and Papa to go on the airplane)
This doll that she’s clinging too is a baby we brought her.
Spying some of her friends from the orphanage.
On the way out the door we tried to continue our displays of excellent parenting. I was carrying sweet girl (apparently her shoes couldn’t get wet) and also holding my purse and an umbrella over our heads. All went well the whole block to the car waiting on the corner except I thought my arm was going to fall off. We got to the corner and I got the car door open, but couldn’t figure out how to get her in, the umbrella down and all the logistics without a drop of water on anyone. Well, I decided to set her down on the pavement in front of me while I opened the door and shuffled her in. Except.. I set her down in the most massive torrential river of water that immediately washed over both our feet. She immediately started crying that her feet her wet. Oops. So then I had to get a crying wet child and me and the wet umbrella in the car. It was traumatic for me 🙂 And where was everyone else in this? Waiting on the curb watching it all because there was no where else for them to go. A+ parent here!
We left and dropped the director off at home. Poor Sweet Girl started crying when the director got out. She thought we were taking her then. We explained that we were going back to the orphanage and we’d see her tomorrow. Might be a good preview of what’s to come in several weeks!
On the way back to the orphanage she continued to be very unengaged and didn’t say a word or move. We just looked out the window and watched the buildings pass in the rain.
That night He and I braved the rain and we walked around the mall and went to a souvenir shop we’d been to last time. The prices were pretty good and I had a couple things I wanted to pick up. We then did dinner at good old faithful, McDonald’s and stopped by the Market before heading back to the room.
soholdfast 
That photo of her is incredible!!
that picture! i want to kiss her face and those sweet sqeezed closed eyes.
do you get that picture??