Days 12, 13 and 14 -- We love those morning naps!

We have settled into a routine for the morning visits, and we have really come to realize how correct Angela was about our little guy ... he just doesn’t have the stamina to play for 90 minutes straight. The family whom we share the play room with have come to the same conclusion. So, we all play hard for an hour, and then we let our little guys sleep for about 20 minutes. Since we have started this routine, it is amazing how much happier everyone is! (Except maybe the caretakers, but one of them walked in on our sleeping baby one morning to put medicine in his nose, and we did not get scolded. YEA!). We really enjoy the company of the other family, so we spend the last 20 minutes cuddling our sleeping babies and chatting with each other. (I’ve stopped short of checking my Blackberry during this “bonding” time, but don’t think it hasn’t occurred to me – HA!).

Between visits, I finally made myself work out, using an aerobics DVD that we brought from home. I really should do this every day, and I have no idea why I don’t. We’re all convinced that we’ve contracted sleeping sickness (whatever that really is) because we all feel like we can sleep and sleep yet never feel quite rested. I often wonder how I am going to work an entire day when I return to work without my mid-afternoon nap!

We walked in to our afternoon visit and found ZM wrapped up in a stylish head dress. We both just started laughing, and he looked so adorable and so dorky. We had no translator with us (still the “holiday”) and the regular caretakers were also on holiday. So, we are not exactly sure of the purpose of this fashion statement, but we think it has something to do with the fact that he is coming down with a cold and the caretakers believe it is important to keep the children’s heads completely covered when that is the case. (Or, they were just having fun dressing up the one kid in the room who would let them do it – who knows?!?!). We of course left his head dress on him throughout the entire visit, and we promise you that the photos from that day will be some of the first that we post. I believe that I giggled for the entire 60 minutes, as he just looked so adorable and SO GOOFY!

We grabbed dinner at Pizza Blues that evening with Matt, Suz, and Crystal. A new family arrived today to The Shiny River, and half of the couple, Nathan, also joined us for dinner while Lori was still adjusting to the time zone. We know we’ll spend a lot of time with them over the next couple of weeks.

We only had one visit on Saturday. I feel the pain of all of the waiting families, because while May 1 was a “one day holiday”, the country does seem to stretch the holiday across a few more days. Several families were told they could not visit at all on Saturday, but we somehow lucked out again and had a morning visit. When we arrived, ZM was dressed in his cute blue jeans (from Aunt Mindy) and one of the “toddler-ish” shirts that we brought from home, and he looked like he’d grown from a baby to a toddler right before our eyes. We made it through almost the entire visit before ZM nodded off – because we had the place to ourselves, he wasn’t quite as busy playing with his buddy, so his stamina held out for a bit longer.

As each morning visit passes, we help out a bit more as we get him ready for lunch. On this day, the substitute caretakers were more than happy for our help. We got our little guy changed back into his regular t-shirt and tights, washed his little hands in their pint-sized sink, and sat him on his tiny little chair. I wrapped the appointed towel around him – he attempts to feed himself, but he is still way too messy for only a bib! And, the caretaker motioned for me to get him two pieces of bread, so I did that as well. Of course, while doing all of this, I loved on all of the other kids as much as possible, giving extra hugs and kisses to Anne’s little guy Timmy. If only I could scoop one or two of them up and stash them in our back pack and make a run for it! We pray every day that every single one of these kids will have a mommy or a daddy soon, and we know many waiting families who wish they were here right now. Something in that equation just doesn’t add up, and it is frustrating for us all.

We didn’t escape before watching the caretaker feed to ZM what looked liked stewed tomatoes. She was shoveling it in SO fast – it was a bit tough to watch. These kids are encouraged to eat FAST, and every day we see at least one little guy choking or gagging – either by shoving too much food into their own mouths, or because they can’t swallow fast enough to get ready for the next bite being fed to them by the caretaker. We understand why it is this way, but oh my, it’s tough to see.

Before dinner, we headed to a big toy store in town, because our play room mates found a puzzle for their son that ZM really favors. We couldn’t find that puzzle, despite another one of my great pantomimes that seemed to register clearly with the clerk who went off in search of the puzzle. Instead, we settled in on a Noah’s Ark that has many animals and buttons and sounds – perfect for our noisy play room. But, there is only one of each animal – what’s up with that?!

We then met up for a group dinner at the Chinese Restaurant. We enjoyed a fantastic dinner with our friends Nathan (Cape Cod, Lori still settling in), Suz and Matt (Tampa), Crystal (Orlando), and Sevi and Paolo (Cape Town, South Africa). The food was great, the conversation was better, and the company was the best. We really are making memories that will last a life time.

When we arrived to the baby house on Sunday morning, we couldn’t wait to show our little guy his new Noah’s Ark. And, he loved it – as did his play room mate. We have some great pics of these two little guys playing with all of the animals. We heard a few more “ooh”s and “ahhh”s out of our little guy, but not nearly the screeches that we hear from his little friend. We are confident that ZM will find his voice soon enough, but he is still a shy reserved little guy, and we hang on every little giggle.

After an hour of hard play, we danced our little ones to sleep. Our friends brought some great music today, and we just love being in the room with them. If we end up leaving after court – which is looking entirely likely – we know that our friends will cuddle ZM occasionally as they continue to visit their son.

As hard as it is to do (“never wake a sleeping baby!”), we woke ZM up by promising him that lunch was about to be served. He held my hand as he toddled (more like drunken stumbling as he was still half asleep) his way into his room. He settled in for lunch, and we were off.

We then had an amazing afternoon visit. The regular caretakers are still not all back from holiday, and the caretakers were so busy when we arrived. So, I pantomimed something along the lines of “can I get him ready?”, and I got the nod of approval. So, I was able to change our little guy’s diaper, put on fresh clothes, and cuddle with him while doing so. I heard new coos and noises during those few minutes – which melted my heart but also made me understand yet again that the caretakers really coo and cuddle with these guys whenever they have even a moment of one-on-one time with each child. We had an hour of play time that just flew by, and I swear I heard ZM say “mama.” Glenn definitely heard something that “sounded like mama”, but he’s maintaining it was an accident. I’m sure if it had been “papa”, the story would be different. :-)

We had a quick dinner – just the two of us tonight – at Pizza Blues because we have a lot of homework before us. We have to create a journal entry for every visit, and we need to pick out a photograph for each day. We also met with our Coordinator, and she gave us the run down on everything that we have to prepare for our two court speeches. Fortunately, in this region (and maybe others?), you can write out your speech and read it – we just have to choreograph it out as we are both expected to speak about the same amount of time. Our journal and photos are due to our Coordinator on Tuesday, and our speeches soon thereafter.

We’re inching ever so close to court and we should know our court date within the next 48 hours. We are projecting that our Court Date will be on either Monday, May 12 or Tuesday, May 13.

Our last official bonding day is Monday, May 5. Of course we will continue to visit ZM every day thereafter, until we go to court. What happens thereafter remains to be seen, but we are relatively certain we will come home after court and return for our son roughly one month later. Yuck. But, we think … at least today, at this minute, as I type this … that this is the right decision for us.

Those details will emerge soon enough.

Thanks again for all of the support. We feel it. We cannot believe how blessed we are, and we promise you all that we know it and we are humbled by our good fortune.