Today started like most days we wake up, I worked out, The
Man drinks coffee, and then we get ready for the day.
We ate breakfast, packed our lunch, said good-bye to the
people that were staying here, and then we waited….. We waited…. We waited. We
tried the wifi here and IT WORKED!!! So we were able to upload our blog from
Day 1 and kinda check facebook. We really have a touch and go experience here
with wifi… we are pretty much unreachable for 90% of the day….. Which really
doesn’t matter too much during the day because we are busy, but at night it
sure would be nice. One thing I miss….
ANYWAY, finally our ride arrived and we loaded into the
vehicle and drove to the orphanage. Another interesting drive full of honks.
Another fun observation is that people give thumbs up to say hi.
We arrived at the orphanage and The Man and I step out of
the car and stand there waiting as our driver talks to another guy.
A few minutes later
he looks at us, smiles, and says “I thought you would just go on in” our driver
says (our driver is also one of the main people in charge of adoptions for
Chances for Children…)
“We’ve never been here, we don’t know where to go.” We both
said.
“OK” he says and walks us into the orphanage. This is kinda
the feeling we have gotten these past few days we’ve been here. We have no idea
what we are doing, and no one here seems to want to give us too much
information… Or they don’t know what information to give… and we don’t know
what questions to ask. It’s been an interesting time… we are going with the
flow the very best we know how…
Anyway we enter the orphanage and 3 kids run up and
immediately want our attention and to be held. The man leads us to this side
room and we wait for Benithy there. We wait for quite a while and as we wait we
play with some other kids that are coming in and out of the room.
Finally our child is brought to us! And just unlike a fairy
tale meeting… she is bawling, she does not want to be with us… The lady that
brought her in plops her on my lap and walks off and we are left with our
daughter in all her glory! J
So we get out our picture book and we just sit and try and calm her. Eventually
she stops crying (and I’m not using the word eventually lightly)… she settles
into my arms a bit looser, and then passes out cold. Our first moments are
literally crying, snuggling, and then sleeping…. Just like a baby I suppose!
We sat there for a while just letting her sleep… Just
letting me sink her in… Just letting us BE with our daughter. She does the same
small snore that The Bash does when he is fast asleep. Then another Chances for
Children worker showed us all around the campus. We saw the rooms, the play
rooms, the “TV room, the new building they are working on, their garden, their
kitchen, their dr. office (medic center)… they have an amazing set up for these
kids. Then we played! We played from about 1-5. We tried to really focus our
attention and time with Benithy, but there are so many kids of all ages that
want your attention. SO many yell out mama!! Papa!! And hold their arms up to
you. I thought being a kindergarten teacher was a lot of touching…. Oh no… this
was touch overload! I do believe that Benithy warmed up to us both quite a bit
by the end of our time. We spent a lot of time just following her around as she
ran room to room… By the time The Man and I loaded back into the truck to go
home we were both over exhausted physically and mentally and emotionally. How
are we going to expel this much energy and touching for the next 14 days we
asked each other!!!
We may get to bring her back to the guest cottage the rest
of our stay here. We aren’t sure yet. That should be an experience on its own,
but a great way to get some more personal bonding time with her. Please pray
and The Man and I adjust to so many things all at once.
I wish I could show
you a picture of our adorable, dimpled, sweet sweet girl, but we are told we
cannot post pictures until she is legally ours! So, we will do our best at
texting and showing you in person when we return. Until then… just picture the
sweetest girl ever… because that is her!
Her name is pronounced: Ben-ee-tee
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