Today is one of my most melancholy of the year. We lost my mom over 12 years ago, but her birthday is still a memorable day for me! Happy Birthday, Mom! Our youngest nephew, Matthew, is also getting baptized today. Wishing we could be there!
We spent the night as a cozy family of three under a mosquito net, with the fan on, the windows closed, bug spray on, and mosquito bracelets on. Yet...I still ended up with a bite on my arm. Spider we think. Surprisingly, I was relieved! Because if a mosquito was determined enough to make it through our five layers of mosquito repellent, we are really in trouble!
There is no shower in our room. The two-person whirlpool would probably take the hot water supply of half the village to fill up, so Makena and I hopped into the almost empty bathtub and got cleaned up together. Then shared our one towel. We maybe got half the airplane guck off of us, but it is better than nothing. Charlie about had a fit when he realized that there was no shower. He is faring very well though.
After everyone was clean I went to dry my hair. No blow dryers here. I dragged our blow dryer with us only for it to stop working after about a minute. Ahh...hello curls! Ugh. We love the hotel because it is the closest to the orphanage and we are planning to walk to spend time with baby love today. We don’t really like it for much else. A friend just came here and stayed in this hotel for a few nights. She declared it to be “rustic”...she was right!
We have no transport today, so we will work on getting over this jet lag, calming Makena down a few notches (she is a WILD woman), and spending some time with baby love at the orphanage.
We are able to walk to the orphanage from our hotel. The orphanage, Home of Hope (HOH), is an amazing place that is always busy. Today was cleaning day so we got to witness them washing the cribs out, scrubbing down the play area, and we also got to meet many of the resident kiddos. Absolutely broke my heart with all of the kids who just were desperate for attention. To all of the Rwanda waiting families...keep waiting! While we have not seen the nursery, nor will we be able to, there are a lot of beautiful children waiting for their forever families. Makena was quite a crowd drawer...even people just walking down the dirt hill would come over and touch M’s hair and her arm or face. Even if she was in my arms they would accost her. It was a bit much for her to take this morning. Poor thing.
It was like we were a tourist attraction. The kids swarmed us and tried to get into our bags and get us to pick them up. Makena had her doll out and as the kids came at us the sister told us that we had to put her away before the kiddos got there or we would lose the doll! All of the kids want to shake your hand and say hello. There were a few brave ones, and after a few minutes, many many more came up to meet us. There were a couple of kiddos who stole our hearts. Charlie had a little boy decide that he belonged to him. He was such a smiley kiddo, probably 18 months old, and he was just so desperate for attention.
They let us take baby love up the stairs to the spend some family time on the terrace. She is an amazing little girl. They dressed her in a fancy dress with a nice warm jacket. She was very responsive and happy! Her little laugh just melts my heart. Even after the trauma of Friday, we are so glad of where we chose to stay and are confident that the paperwork will work itself out (although I pray constantly for God to guide us and that paperwork through the system quickly!). What a joy it is to have both girls together. Makena is still a wild woman, but she was able to calm down a bit today and we have high hopes for tomorrow. M befriended Sister Antoinette from Kenya and so she now has a special friend. Everyone loves baby love and all call her by name when they see us.
We returned her to the sisters and took a walk up to the roundabout in town in the hopes that we might find a convenience store or somewhere with some civilization. It is quite a walk up the hill and around random corners, always watching for the cars and motorbikes zooming down the dirt roads. And let me take just a moment to clarify dirt roads. When I saw that Step Town Motel was on a dirt road, the road that I pictured in my mind was not the same as the reality. The holes and rocks and deep crevices are something that must be experienced to truly appreciate. We thought we stuck out in Asia - that is nothing compared to the looks that two white adults with a Chinese girl get here! That walk up the hill took some guts and lots of courage. It sounds silly, but I will not walk there alone. There were lots of kiddos trying to get us to give them our things.
Low and behold...the Rwandan version of Wal-Mart! Charlie sat with a guy on the airplane from Nairobi to Burundi and learned all about shopping here. Turns out, all of the clothes are used. I kind of thought he was making it up, although he is a successful business man living in Nairobi as an expat from Norway. He was right! At the store, it seemed that everything that could be sold used was. Kid bikes, kitchen appliances, clothes. Wow. What an interesting concept. We still didn’t find any Coke Light. Ugh. After our interesting shopping trip (they made Charlie leave his backpack at the door and the car carts only had three wheels ... but there should have been four!) we walked out to discover that there was a Bourbon coffee right next door. Jackpot! Not only did they have great free trade coffee, but they had table service with delicious food and, wait for it, Coca Light! Overjoyed! It tasted quite terrible, but it didn’t matter. Yum! We were also able to get online and check our messages. Our adoption agency had said they would email us, and since our hotels Internet was out, it was a relief to check our messages.
Back down the hill to the hotel for a nap. All of us needed one. We woke at 2:30 in order to go see baby love again. She had on a little dress (6-9 month size and it swallowed her). Baby love! Makena was so excited at one point that she started jumping on the steps and proceeded to fall down them. Lovely. Baby love’s starting to hold her head up a bit and loves to use those strong leg muscles. She spit up a bunch when we were there, so we assumed that she had just eaten. They are very clear on the visiting schedule, but are not yet forthcoming in her schedule. Charlie made up a little game with her that guaranteed her a giggle. Makena tried to hold her a few times but was so preoccupied with shooing flies away that we had to keep taking baby love back. I just loved on her. She has dark chocolate skin and long legs and feet. Our little beauty.
The afternoon snack and wait for dinner. Our motel is actually a bed and breakfast - dinner is from 7-10. We will be first in line I’m sure. We have high hopes for the coming weeks. As baby love comes to know us, we are soaking in all of her. Then there is the paperwork, the legal adoption, and the immigration work. Please pray that all goes well and that we are able to bring baby love out of the orphanage soon!
