Trip two...final day at the orphanage.

Today was a really great last day with T. It started out with another short trip to the Stop & Go and then we headed to the orphanage and arrived by 10:00. The kids were excited to see the car drive through the gates. Quite a few of them met us at the car. I headed in to meet T and I found her on the second floor near her room. She was all ready for me to take her upstairs.

When we got upstairs we started the usual routine. T started checking out what was in my bag for today. She broke open some of the snacks and shared them with her friends. It was a small crew up on the balcony, so I took the opportunity to try to do a little photo shoot. My translator directed the kids to go get some of the other kiddos from our agency and asked to have them get ready for a photo. Most of them made their way to the balcony with fresh clean clothes on and primped hair. The kids were so cute. Some of them were up for the photo and others no so much. I will not look for a job in photography because I was not successful in getting smiles out of some of them. I got their pictures just the same. I always wonder if the kids get annoyed when the blans (the white people) come and ask to take photos, specifically the older ones. Smile or no smile, I know that every picture is a treasure for us to receive as adoptive parents. It is hard to be away and not have any contact with our kids, so at least in a photo we can see with our own eyes that they are doing "alright".

As I was taking photos and waiting for kids to come upstairs there was a whole lot of activity happening on the balcony. Someone got into the bag of balloons that I brought. T cracked open and distributed the 6 bottles of bubbles that I brought. She also took out the clothes that I had brought for her to choose from for today. She selected her outfit, which was the one I suspected she would pick. It was a dress with a pink top and a leopard print skirt. She will be our little diva for sure! 

After she changed into her outfit she pointed to the other outfit and said, "J", the name of one of the other girls in her room. I asked her if she wanted J to wear that outfit and she said, "Wi!" I got J dressed and the two were good to go. The sweet thing about this little friend is that her mom and I have connected a lot through Facebook because we are with the same agency and they went on their bonding trip about two weeks or so before we went on ours. We both love that the girls seem to be friends. This week was a great glimpse into their little friendship and it was so sweet. I wish I could share the photo that I took of the two of them walking hand in hand together. The photos will serve as precious memories for them when they come home to the States. 

The kids chased bubbles on the balcony and kept themselves well entertained today. T asked to go down to the swing set most of the morning. I held her off and tried to distract her with other things for as long as I could. It was really hot today and I was already soaked in sweat and we were on a shaded balcony. I couldn't imagine how hot it would be out by the swing with no shade! I even pulled out the beads to make necklaces in hopes that it would occupy some time. Fortunately, there were not a lot of kids on the balcony for this activity, so it was less stressful and I didn't have to worry about many hands trying to grab at the beads. For my friends that know me well, you will be happy to know that I let go of my OCD tendencies and just let T make the necklaces HOWEVER she wanted. I will admit I restarted her once because the beads were not facing the "right" way, then I reminded myself it really doesn't matter. The necklace will likely be used to barter for something or just get broken and lost. The point was to do an activity together and that is exactly what we did....and I enjoyed it.  When we finished the necklace I gave in and was able to more than imagined the heat out by the swings. We stayed out there for all of about 10 - 15 minutes. I think I lost about 5 pounds today in water weight. Perfect!

After the swings we headed up to the second floor balcony to see what the ladies were up to with the other kiddos. T and I sat down together and just watched what was going on around us. A couple of the older kids were being "playful with her. I couldn't tell exactly what they were saying but she clearly didn't like it because she flipped them off...as in with her middle finger...multiple times. This would be one of the joys of communal living with mixed ages. :) We will eventually work on that when we get home, but we will be picking our battles, so I apologize in advance if you ever meet our daughter and she decides to address you in this manner. We'll work through it, don't worry! :) 

So our goodbye was, well, hard twice!! I misunderstood what was happening and thought it was later in the day. I heard one of the ladies I was with say that we need to do something soon. I thought I heard leave soon. I popped up to tell Linda that I wanted to give some gifts to T's nanny so I would do that and then I "would be ready". Keep in mind it is pretty much chaos wherever we are, so fully comprehending what anyone is communicating at any given moment is sketchy. Linda said, "Ok", I am sure thinking I meant I would be ready to help them with what they were doing next...nope I meant ready to say goodbye to T and leave...not to return until some unknown date.

I headed downstairs and gave the nannies a couple of items and then proceeded to start the goodbye with T, explaining through my translator that we will miss her so much and we will come back as soon as we can. With a choked up voice and the tears rolling down I asked our translator to tell her how much we all love her and cannot wait to have her home. T balled hysterically, which was heartbreaking. I left her with her nannies and then headed back up to the balcony to let Linda know I was ready...to leave...whenever they were. To which she let me know that they still had sandwiches to make for the kiddos and we had another hour to an hour and a half. (Oopsie on my part!!)

My translator and I waited a few minutes to let T settle down and then we went back down to her room. He let her know that we have a little more time and I got to hold her close a while longer. I just stayed down by her room and noticed the nannies were doing hair in preparation for school tomorrow. I asked if I could watch and they gladly welcomed me in. One of the nannies asked one of the kids to get me a bucket to sit on and she put it right next to her. It ended up being such an enjoyable hour or so. I watched them and interacted with them a bit through my translator. I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this very normal part of their day...well...other than a blan sitting there watching them it was normal. :) 

When it was ACTUALLY time to go, the other translator came in and let me know we were leaving. I hugged T one more time and did not drag out the goodbye. I figured the first time was hard enough. T started crying again as I left the room. God bless those nannies for having to deal with the aftermath of the heartbreaking goodbyes. I am thankful I had the opportunity to get to know them a bit more this trip. 

Homeward bound tomorrow. It will be a long travel day. I will try to catch up on the day I missed my blog and will also try to blog about some other things that I haven't shared yet about this trip. Stay tuned!