Day 9

(Disclaimer: my camera has been giving me a tough time the whole trip. Today, it was very uncooperative so half the pics are from Nathan's cell phone.)

It's only day 3 in region, but we have already settled into a routine.
I get up, work out, and "shath" (as we call the shower/bath combo). Nathan makes me tea (I have officially replaced my morning coffee with green tea), he shaths, we get ready and go to the orphanage. We visit AG, eat lunch, and then _(fill in the blank: laundry, market, nap, friends, BLOG etc.)__, eat dinner, watch a movie, go to bed.

I have always been honest on this blog, so I will continue. I was really struggling the last two days. I didn't expect to, so that was really hard for me. First, the sharp contrast in the baby we are seeing versus the baby in the picture really threw me off. I realize it really it doesn't matter what she looks like (at all), it just caught me off guard and took a minute to adjust! Secondly, it's really hard to bond with your baby when you see her 30-60 mins a day and you can't feed her, change her, bathe her, or dress her. Yesterday, they told us not to hold her so much because she gets sleepy. It's hard to bond with your baby when you just look at her. And they're all looking at you. They are watching to make sure you don't do anything wrong, that you follow all the rules- in this big quiet room. It's just hard.

That being said, today was a good day.

Her diaper isn't full- they had a burp cloth inside her diaper)

We got there at noon as planned, and after just a few minutes waiting, they brought her in. Two ladies we hadn't seen before. She kicked and squealed and smiled coming into the room! She seems to be that happy all the time, but we're pretending that was about us :)  They put her in a walker to "play". They were really sweet with her and she just smiled and smiled at them.

{It is so obvious that our baby girl is very well taken care of here and we are SO grateful for that. She is always dressed and bathed. They clearly all adore her. Some of the other families are not having the same experience and we are so thankful that this is where she is right now.}

The ladies asked to see our photos and we showed them our book. It was really fun actually, they were asking lots of questions (neither spoke a lick of English, so we all got tickled trying to explain our family- most Americans can't figure us out!!).  They reminded us of a few of the rules: we sit on the floor on the carpet only- me on my knees, not my bottom. They told us that the baby eats food and loves her "milk mix"/bottle. We gave them the diapers we brought for her groupa, per their request and then they left!!

It was just the three of us in the room the whole time! It was wonderful.

She was so fun and our's.  She's already figured out that Papa is for playing and Mama is for cuddling, lol. She gets wild and playful with Nathan (p.s.- she has an outie!!)

And she's very ticklish!

As soon as she's in my arms, she snuggles- today she KISSED ME (as in, intentionally smooshed her little wet lips against mine)!!! It was so unbelievably sweet!!

She played hard for a solid 30-40 mins and then she ran out of gas. She only wanted to snuggle. Nathan tried leaning her back/upside down and she yelled out and shook her head 'no'! Ha! We can't decide if that was intentional or just really good timing.

As soon as I cradled her, she started falling sleep. We didn't want to get in 'trouble' like we did yesterday so we tried and tried to keep her awake lol. She dozed a couple of times (our first time to see her sleep!!). So sweet. I felt like we were torturing her, so I was kind of glad when the nanny came back to get her for nap.

After our visit, we decided to walk around and get more familiar with the area. We were starving since it was nearly 3pm and decided on Pizza Bella. There was a lot of ham involved in both our pizza and our pasta, but both were very, very good. We walked a bit more and found the biggest.toy.store.ever. It was incredible! We bought a snowsuit, hat, and mittens for Anna Gray. There is no way the things I brought with me for her will keep her warm- it's soooo cold.

We just got home and will spend the rest of the night doing laundry and dishes, probably something really light for dinner since we had such a big/late lunch and then movie! It's Nathan's turn to pick :)

It was a really good day.
Paka paka!