July 15, 2006 continued from Part One...

Our adoption coordinators immediately went to work weighing the kids and taking photos of them. I was so impressed with how hard they work and how much effort they put into every little aspect of our adoptions. After the kids were weighed and got their photos taken, they were given a lollipop. They loved it. The kids were playing with the adults, climbing in and out of the pick-up beds, and playing soccer. They all looked really healthy and seemed very happy.

The nannies came out and were asking which babies/children belonged to which parents. They seemed so pleased to be able to meet us. They also seemed to really care about the children.

I walked around the orphanage. In the kitchen area there were bowls and bowls filled to the brim with rice and beans. I think we may have interrupted their meal time. There were some babies upstairs in cribs. There was a little boy walking around without a diaper. I think they were potty-training him. Unluckily for me, he ended up peeing right by me and got it all over my foot. The nanny by him gave him a little lecture.

I went out on a balcony where a very old lady was watching the kids below. She seemed so happy to see me and smiled huge and petted Georgia. I just wanted to give her a big hug, but instead I held her hand and squeezed it. She radiated love.

One of the couples in our group that were adopting an adorable little boy fell in love with a beautiful teenaged girl and talked about maybe adding her to their paperwork. Everyone was all a buzz about that! ;-)
I did feel relieved that I felt nothing for any of the kids, beyond goodwill. I really hope we are done at 8!

We hung around the orphanage for a couple of hours. I tried to introduce Georgia to as many people there that I could. I even asked a nice mom, that spoke French, explain things to the teenaged girls. I was hoping they would take Georgia under their wings like they had Talley.

Once I was holding Talley and then a girl took her from me and Talley started to cry and reach for me. That touched me!

I fed Talley and Georgia some peaches in the cab of the truck and then gave Georgia peanut butter crackers and fed Talley a bottle. Pretty soon after that, we piled back in the truck for our next destination--seeing the new orphanage that was under construction. It is out in a rural area and we had quite a drive.

Continued...