Meeting Our Daughter

On our trip to India, it felt like every possible thing went wrong (though my friend Malinda gets the "award" for worst trip since hers also involved broken bones).

Missed connections: one
Delayed flights: two
Hours of layover with no internet: eleven
Hour of travel: forty one
Number of times I cried: too many to count
Glasses of airplane wine: not enough

To add to the stress, our phones weren't working properly to communicate to our agency and the orphanage that we were going to be late. The plan had been arrive in Hyderabad in the early morning, shower, maybe nap, and then head over to meet her in the afternoon. The reality was landing in Hyderabad, dropping bags at the apartment and racing over to try to see her. We could have just waited until the next day, but we knew she had been told we were coming that day, and if she waited all day AND WE DIDN'T COME- we felt like our whole relationship would be starting off on a broken promise! Trust, shattered!

It's possible we were overthinking it.

We also had eventually contacted our agency, and they notified the orphanage we'd get there around 5 pm, so we assumed she was still there waiting. Turns out she was not, but they pulled her out of her foster home to come over. That was not what we intended, but we only realized it after we'd been waiting a while when they said she'd be here in "two minutes." So when she arrived, she seemed very confused, and I don't blame her. She did come right over to us, and we got some things to entertain her out of the backpack we brought. 

I started blowing bubbles and she immediately said "Me!" and reached for the wand. I handed it over, and shortly after she also demanded the bottle of solution, which I reluctantly parted with.

 She blew bubbles for a while and then wanted to explore the backpack. Since we'd had about thirty seconds at the apartment before racing off to the orphanage, we had just grabbed a few toys, and the backpack was still full of things from our travel. She immediately found the Ghirardelli caramel squares and ate one with much getting caramel all over her face and hands. She proceeded to unpack the rest of the backpack, and asked to eat everything that looked remotely like food, including the instant coffee packets. The rest of the visit mostly felt like trying to keep things from becoming total chaos as she flitted from thing to thing, dumped bubble solution on the floor, and wiped her caramel hands on everything. We got about two photos taken before she also took the phone, and proceeded to take 200 close up selfies of her chin.

Our first family photo. I call it "No! Me!" 

The best of her photography

That said, there were also many sweet moments, like when she was eating a granola bar and fed a bite to each of us, or when she took Geoff's hat off and rubbed his buzz cut, and giggled. She has a huge dimple in one cheek, and the cutest raspy voice.

We kept the visit short since it was so late, and made plans to see her again in the morning. I know it probably sounds like it was overwhelming, and honestly it was, and surely even more overwhelming to her. We were these strange looking, sounding, smelling strangers and she was in a place she's not used to being. Adoption is challenging, most of all for the kids, but since I've writing this a few days late I can say that we've made so much progress already. She's the bravest girl we know, and we are so lucky to be her parents.

Stay tuned for visit number 2!