April:
Hey everybody! This morning the visit was great. We spent the time outside in the courtyard with the toddlers and a couple of groups of babies. Everybody was in a great mood and the cheerful tone of the caretakers and the kids was a joy to see. The women who work here are so amazing! They always pick the babies up when they cry, they sing and play and bathe and feed and comfort and referee and, when the babies are asleep, they clean the kids rooms, on their knees with a bucket of water and a rag. Then, when the kids are up it starts all over. It never ceases to amaze me how cheerful they are and how much they LOVE these kids. Grace is particularly attached to Natalia, who funnily enough, was also one of Kai's favorites. He was a ball of giggles when he saw her again.
Natalia (aka Natasha) put Kai in the 6-kid buggie with Grace's buds and off he went. When they came back a 1/2 hour later, he was fast asleep. So, we spread out our blanket and let him sleep in the sand.
This afternoon we had a great meeting with the director. She was so sweet and kept saying how happy she was that we were back and what good parents we were and how attached our whole family is. She gave us the lowdown on Grace, but mostly we talked about how Kai is doing. She is a really nice lady and we were so happy to be able to tell her what a great reputation the Taldy babyhouse has among adoptive families and how grateful we are that our children got their start here and not somewhere else. Kai has no problems going to the babyhouse. On the contrary, he looks forward to it. He asks about the baby all the time when we aren't there and I think what he is mostly asking is "Hey, can we go to that place with the cool toys where that baby live?" I don't think it has anything to do with Gracie.
She is still a little under the weather but nothing serious. Kai seems totally cured. I am working on a 6 day headache that doesn't want to end no matter what I throw at it. Oh well.
We won't be able to post tomorrow and possible not on Sunday either because we are going on a roadtrip. We are going sightseeing. First stop, a highly recommended visit to the town of Tekali (Kerri, Aida has relaxed a lot since last year, and this was actually her idea). Then we might head up into the mountains with a guide depending on weather, Kai, availability of reliable transport etc. It will be nice to do something different for a little bit, although I HATE missing the visits with Grace. If all continues to go well, we should have custody of her on Wednesday, so we might as well enjoy the relative ease of our lives now.
Seems like Zach and I are mostly taking turns posting these days. Guess it's my day. He sends his love, as does mom. Kai would, I'm sure, if he had a clue what this webpage was about.
Love to you all!
