Visiting Vennela, Day 2

Today we were a lot more prepared having me Vennela once, and we came with a backpack full of only Vennela-safe items and snacks she could eat all of. We had to go the orphanage again, and she was already there when we arrived and came right over to us. Though she did unpack the whole backpack again (and did eat nearly all the snacks) she was a lot more engaged with us instead of just the things we brought. Despite being very food focused, she offered us bites of her snacks on her own initiative, which was very sweet. We colored for a bit, and played with the Play-Doh. She wasn't terribly interested in the toy cars, until she put one behind her back and I pretended it had disappeared, and dramatically looked all over for it. She laughed and laughed and repeated it a dozen more times.

The staff member from the foster home who brought her said we could come visit in the afternoon, so Vennela went back for lunch and a nap while we did some paperwork and shopped for traditional Indian clothes with our guide Kumar. 

We headed to the foster home late in the afternoon; I felt bad for the staff as we didn't know what to expect so it just turned chaotic pretty quickly, but I'm sure they're used to chaos living with eight little girls (with another eight big girls upstairs). The girls were trying to pry open our shopping bag so I gave them the backpack instead, and immediately everything was everywhere. We finally got most of them focused on coloring and things calmed down. We used that time to talk to Padma and Hanna, the house nurse and teacher, and learn more about Vennela's schedule, likes and dislikes, etc. We spent a little time playing with the girls, who are all so sweet. They were all  so eager to talk with us. We made a plan to meet in the morning and head to court together for the court date, and said goodbye to Vennela for the day.