She Remembers!!!

"D" is for Darling!

Today we had our play date with Deeana. Though we had some work to do beforehand... it gave us something to look forward to. We've been waiting this long, what's another hour, or two?

We started off early and headed out to pick up our translator. She helped us a tad today with Deeana, but mostly she will be here to help us with court and such. On Monday, we are on our own! :) Afterward, we went to the MOE and got permission to visit the orphanage again, and received her blessings. :) Easy Peasy.

Then we went to play. It was so comfortable to see all the familiar buildings we had seen just 3 months ago. The same roads we took on our drive to D's home. And when we pulled up, it felt like we had never left.

Once inside, we had to wait a bit... but that was ok, because we got a chance to meet and speak with another family that was adopting and currently on their 2nd trip as well. They are a Russian family, but live in Washington D.C. and are adopting a 3yr old boy. We chit-chatted a bit until the director came in and called us all into her office to sit, sign some forms and wait for the children to come.

First down the hall was Deeana. No problems when she walked in the door... They said "Mama, Papa" and she looked right at us. We called her and she walked, slowly, to us. No crying, nothing. We were shocked! Our translator insists she remembers us, recognizes us... and I believe it.

We went outside to play, where Daddy carried her down the wet steps. We pulled out her favorite "O" ball and played catch with her. She was so happy and all smiles! She loved it! Shortly after that, I took her to the swing, which we aren't quite sure if she cared for or not, and gave her a push. She looked around a lot and didn't seem very interested. We did some more playground stuff... but overall decided to pull out something from our bag. When we mentioned it to her (translated), she got very excited. She remembered our bag of toys I think... So we pulled out a magna-doodle, finger-puppets, coloring books, etc, all of which she thoroughly enjoyed. Eventually, the rain and the mosquitoes got the best of us and we headed inside.

We ended up reading the CareBear book she liked so much previously and a new puzzle. Deeana and I even got some alone time while Daddy and Marina (the translator) had to run an errand. It was tricky to communicate with her, but we still had fun.

At the end of our time together today, we practiced High 5's and then gave each other big hugs and kisses (and even blew each other a kiss). We will see her again on Monday after nap time and we plan on bringing her some Goldfish (Hayden's favorite) and some apple juice.

When we were done playing, we had to go finish our "business" part of the day. More paperwork, the medical, went over some court questions and dropped off Marina, and then stopped off at a real grocery store. Thankfully our driver, Andrey, came in with us and read the packaging for us. He is such a riot and it is great to have such good company while we are here. We couldn't be more thankful.

This weekend we are totally free and plan on doing some exploring.

Paka for now,
Mel

Posted by Mel at 1:00 PM