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| [9:00 pm] |
| Subject: So it begins... |
| Mood |
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 happy |
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Today we met our daughter. Wow. That’s surreal even just typing it. I’m not quite sure I can capture the experience in words, but needless to say, it was like nothing Sarah and I have ever been through. The day started inconspicuously enough, each of us getting a few hours of sleep (a few more days and we may actually adjust to this time zone!), then having some breakfast in our apartment. Then something weird happened. We washed our one pair of socks each last night and hung them to dry on the heated towel rack (swanky), but this morning they still were not quite dry. So I, being a very clever American, decided to microwave them for a minute to get them nice and toasty. I never expected them to catch on fire. Oops. I burnt our only pairs of socks to a crisp. Thankfully they were clean; otherwise the apartment would likely now be uninhabitable. (The day gets better, keep reading.)
Our trusty translator Eugene picked us up at 9 am, and we piled in his car, next to the representative from the department of education and a custody official. We didn’t say much to these people. They were there to oversee the process of “choosing” our child.
We arrived at the baby house (orphanage) after a short drive. The Dolphin House is a large building and is really quite nice. We’ll get a tour tomorrow so we’ll discuss more later. Together with our comrades DJ and Kim, we went into the music room and sat down at a table across from the aforementioned individuals, the orphanage director (Irena), and the ODA (orphanage director’s assistant) whose name I cannot begin to pronounce. Irena asked each of us to tell her what we do and if we had any children. After listening to DJ and Kim’s story, I could no longer remember the details of my own life and stupidly had to ask her to please repeat the question so I could stall for time. I’m not sure how “Benefits consultant for a global human resources consulting firm” translated into Russian, but they seemed to get the gist. The director was exceptionally pleased it seems to learn Sarah has a degree in Child Development, mentioning that they are peers. (Score! Bonus points!)
After the brief and painless inquisition, we were handed a set of 3 folders and told to pick which child we want to be introduced to. We have to go through this formality for the benefit of the department of education official, since officially, we are not supposed to have selected a child prior to arriving in Kazakhstan. So, we made a brief show of looking long and hard at the other 2 children (both of which were little boys) and “decided” that we would like to meet Asel. Here’s where it got weird…
Out comes the director’s assistant with a baby. Sarah and I looked at each other and said, “Is that her?” Well yes it was. We had to warm up our hands before receiving her, since everything in the orphanage is kept at about 85 degrees (including I guess, the caretakers’ appendages.) Finally, we did hold her, and thankfully she did not immediately burst into tears. She did carefully avoid looking at us, and seemed thoroughly confused, but hey, wouldn’t you be?
After about 10 minutes, they took her back and asked if we wanted to accept her. We said no. JUST KIDDING! Of course we said yes (she’s very cute – resistance is futile). Then we went out to lunch and to the mall to buy some socks. Seriously. We spent 8 of our Lufthansa dollars on 2 pairs of socks. That’s twice as much as lunch for 2 costs. Weird.
We began our visitation period today at 1 pm, spending an hour and a half with her. We will do this for the next 6-7 weeks, until she is officially ours (Gotcha day). Visitation consisted of the caretakers handing her off to us, then locking us in a room with a few other babies in it (they were sleeping, but we managed to wake them up just for fun.) Our only instructions were NOT to feed her and NOT to let her go to sleep. I am happy to say that we succeeded grandly on both fronts. We are awesome parents!
Though initially hesitant Asel seemed to warm up to us as the time ticked by. We managed to get some smiles and a few laughs by the end of the visit. She seems to like it when I make goofy faces and noises, so I’m thinking she’ll be happy 98% of the time, since goofy is my normal state.
We had a few toys to try to entertain her with, but it was plain to see what her favorite was – my camera strap. Very tasty too. She’s just learning to crawl and was putting all of her muscles and coordination to use trying to scoot over and grab it. Very determined.
When our time was up, we gave her back to the caretaker and said our goodbyes. Bizarro world continued to unfurl as the caretaker mentioned something about Mama and Papa to her when we walked away.
And that was the day we met our daughter. Oh, and then we took a nap, had dinner (Kazakhstani pizza, mmmmmm), and came back to tell the tale.
Goodnight and good luck. |
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