Yesterday started with early morning Macarena and ended late with green strobe lights from the street flashing 60 feet up into our room and crazy European rap. We didn't sleep well so once we got back to the hotel after our morning visit, we took a nap.
We were awakened from our nap with a phone call. We were informed that Eva's grandparents were driving over to see her and meet us today. Like in an hour.
We bustled about trying to look presentable from our suitcase dressers and got some chocolates as a gift. When we arrived, we met Eva's grandparents AND her great-grand parents. They are young! We learned that Eva's parents were married when they were 18, and I think they said that they had Eva when they were both 20. Their doctors told them Eva would get the best care through a special needs orphanage, which was what we had figured all along. It's a very common story amongst special needs orphaned children.
Eva's mother and father could not come today, but we saw some beautiful pictures from their wedding. They are a handsome couple and that's not a surprise seeing how cute Eva is.
Eva's birth family seems to be very, very kind. It was so nice to meet them and see how much they care about Eva. They have showered her with gifts over the last few years. She is also the only little girl in her room who has disposable diapers. We learned tonight that her family buys her diapers.
And we are meeting them again tomorrow. They are bringing Eva some more diapers and a good, heavy coat. I'm sure after seeing Daniel and me in short-sleeves, they were concerned about how we would dress her:) But lemme tell ya, it was HOT in the orphanage tonight! Daniel and I were *glistening* and I don't know how they held up in their sweaters and coats...
They brought a nice cake and we had a teatime snack. It had lots of wheat and sugar and milk...I am now sick as a dog. I'm sure everyone wanted to know that. Oh, the joys of food allergies and hypoglycemia and traveling...
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| The caregivers were so sweet to set up teatime for us. And our lovely translator for the day: Alice! |
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| Eva is in a nice new dress from her grandparents...it lasted five minutes until she began sweating profusely and they put her t-shirt back on. But didn't she look cute! |
Eva was with us for part of our meeting and she did very well. She was a little frightened at first from seeing so many faces, but she adjusted quickly. She recognized her grandmother immediately. She showed off some of her new English: hey, hi, okay. She also let everybody know that Daniel and I are momma and poppa. So sweet!
