Visiting Naomi

Finally on day three, in the late afternoon, we got to go visit her. It went so great; Craig and I are really renewed in why we are here. After five months of redoing documents, empty promise of dates and non-stop worry, it all came back to us when she walked in the room being lead by the hand of a staff member. She was wearing a little dress and had a huge bow on top of her head. She is adorable.
Like before, she seems to recognize that we are strangers, which is good. She was kind of serious, but willing to play with us. We saw the beginnings of a real Daddy’s girl today. She thinks I’m okay, but she can’t take her eyes off Daddy.
They have a piano in the visiting room at the orphanage. She sat on Craig’s lap and pressed the keys. She tries to imitate the notes Craig plays, I already made mental note that I’ll be signing her up for piano lessons. She shifted a little and bumped her bare knee on the piano; she rubbed her knee and looked up into Daddy’s eyes. Craig kisses his finger tips then rubbed her knee. She paused a moment then rubbed her knee and looked up at him again, body language loud and clear that she’d like another one of those finger tip kisses from Daddy. She’s already wrapping him around her fingers! It was so fun to watch.
She seemed pretty interested in looking at the board book and photo albums we brought. We coaxed her into saying Mama and Papa as we pointed at photos. When the orphanage caretaker came back to get her, she recognized the woman and went quickly with her and didn’t look back at us. Craig and I both felt that was a good sign, she is attached to her care givers. We’ve heard that attachment disorder is one of the toughest things for children in institutions to get over.
On the ride back to the apartment (this was Friday afternoon) they told us we can’t go visit again till Monday afternoon. Bummer.
Craig asked our lawyer and interpreter direct questions about documents and court dates, he was obviously putting pressure on them. The answers always seem vague. Then suddenly the lawyer said there is an American pro hockey player living in our apartment building and she thinks he can get us tickets to the hockey game. Sweet!
So now we have Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning with no agenda at all. Maybe walk to the store to buy diet coke and beer? We went to the store once so far. We bought some food and few bottles of beer, they sell them in singles. We like the Amstel the best, but last night we each drank one and fell asleep at 9pm. Three other American families are coming soon; we can’t wait to meet them.