Day 9 - Getting things done...

Today was a very busy day!

Our driver and facilitator picked us up at 9am. We usually go to the orphanage at 10:30am but today we needed to speak to the Director again. Tatianna, our facilitator, told us to tell the Director we loved Everlyn and wished to adopt her. We were also to tell her that we would appreciate it if she would prepare the necessary documents. Sounds easy enough... By the way, the Director has to file a document with the Court that states they feel it is in the child's best interest to be adopted by the hopeful adoptive parents.

So, we walk into the orphanage and head upstairs. As we are coming down the hall, Everlyn's groupa is leaving the music room going back to their room. One of the caregivers recognized us and said "(Her birth name)! Your mama! Your papa!" Everlyn looked up at us and grinned....and then ran down the hall giggling. It was pretty cute.

We go into the Director's office and sit down. She asks how the "bonding" was going, etc? We tell her what we had planned....that we loved this little girl and would like to adopt her. She seemed much more serious today (a case of the Mondays?) and began to speak. What we got in translation was this.... She has to be 100% sure that the child is comfortable with us, it isn't just about us loving the child, she has to love us back, we need 10 days to bond with her before she makes her decision, she needs to check with the caregivers to see what they have observed about our interactions, etc. ((head almost explodes)) 10 days BEFORE she makes her decision to give us the document we need? Eric's jaw tightens... Migraine sets in.... How can I prove to her this child "loves us back"....she has known us 3 days, we are virtual strangers to her. She has spent all but one month of her 2.5 years in this orphanage. She has NEVER seen a man for crying out loud! Trying not to panic....

so, we tell her we understand and thank her and leave her office and head to the playroom for our morning visit. Usually the workers are in and out during our visit. Nope, not today. 3 or 4 of them are huddled over at the desk talking, pretending to work I think. Yep....we are being watched. This is our audition for adoptive parenthood. Here goes.....

In walks Everlyn...looking as cute as ever with that HUGE purple bow. Lucky for us, this little girl was in an awesome mood this morning. We played, sang, walked, played some more, colored pictures, snuggled and laughed. After about an hour, our facilitator came back in and said "I think it is time for her to eat." so we picked up her toys and gave her a few more hugs and kisses and sent her back to her groupa. Eric asked "So, how'd we do?" LOL! Tatiannas's response was "Director will have the document ready by noon.' YIPPEE! Eric kept teasing me about my "performance" but hey...I got the job done. We really did have a great time with her...it was just so awkward to be "judged" on our visit. I understand why they do this....and they ADORE this little girl and want only the best for her which I can appreciate.

We head to the notary to sign 3-4 documents. This is NOT like notaries in the US. notaries here are higher-ranking officials. They have to go to university, law school and work under a notary for 3 years. There was a young girl running all over to prepare the documents, check our passports and then once they were ready, we went into this FANCY room (think molding out the ying-yang with gold scrolly accents everywhere). There was a woman sitting at a large desk with a table in front of it. We sat down at the table, signed where we were told to sign, Tatianna paid the notary (who never really looked up at us), and the notary stamped the papers and that was that.

Then we headed back to the Regional Inspector's office. We also need their approval to file our court documents. They also must say it is in her best interest that we adopt her. Since we didn't meet the Inspector on Friday, we needed to speak with her today. She asked us how the visits were going. We told her how the visits were going well, how sweet and adorable she is, etc. Then she got a very serious look on her face and asked if we were aware of her diagnosis. (I think they are afraid to say Down syndrome here. LOL) We said yes, that it did not matter to us one bit and that we still very much wanted to adopt this precious little girl. She looked at another women in the room, and the two kind of rolled their eyes, shrugged their shoulders and both smiled and nodded. They genuinely DO NOT understand why anyone would want a child with Ds, much less adopt one. Their culture is NOT accepting of "diseases" such as Ds...yes, to them these children are "sick". I think they think we are insane.... I don't care. We love her...Ds and all! :o) We showed them our family photo albums and they liked them. We thanked them, got the document we needed and left.

We had a bit of time before the Director was to have our document ready so we went to a great pizza place for a quick lunch. We tried a "chicken crepe" which was like a very thin pancake with chicken, cheese and mushrooms in it.

Back to the orphanage we went. We picked up the document we needed. The caregivers were standing around and were MUCH friendlier than they had been that morning. I guess we passed the test! They even mentioned how it is my birthday tomorrow...not sure how they knew. :o)

So, back to the notary we went to get our last document notarized. It is our "petition" to the court stating (once again) that we are aware of her diagnosis (all of them), her social history and that we (still) would like to be considered as adoptive parents. Same thing.....we sign where told to, notary gets paid, stamps the paper and never says a word to us. I wonder what she is thinking...

Back to the apartment for a quick rest and then back to the orphanage for our afternoon visit. I am not sure if I was just worn out from all of the running around we did, but BOY OH BOY was this girl busy this afternoon!!!!! She was ALL OVER that toy room! She did sit down for a few rounds of Patty-Cake with Mommy and even sat on Daddy's lap to color Princess pictures with her Color Wonder markers....but most of the time she was on the move! Watch out world! She's a busy one! :o) When our time was up, we gave her back to a caregiver and went downstairs to where our driver was waiting. We saw her groupa playing outside. We felt SO bad that she missed the chance to go outside! Maybe we will get to take her outside tomorrow.

We had our driver drop us off at our favorite restaurant here, Zeppelin. We LOVE this place. They have a menu in English and amazing food that is reasonably priced...and COKE. :o) We ate and then walked the 4-5 blocks back to our apartment.

Here's Zeppelin:

We are TIRED tonight.....

Our facilitator is meeting with the judge at 9am to file our paperwork. She said that we should have a better idea of a court date after tomorrow. PRAYING it is early next week....although we are available this week too. LOL!