Gotcha Day!

June 21, 2011

 

Today was Gotcha Day!  This is a term used often in the adoption community as the big day you take your child out of the orphanage.  This was our day – check out day.  And it was just perfect.

 

Kate has been so well loved at Toukoul and really cared for, physically and emotionally.  They gifted us with an embroidered knapsack and a traditional dress for Kate.  They also agreed to take pictures of Kate in her room, in her crib, etc.  They would not allow us to go in there but took my camera and returned with a treasure trove of priceless photos!  They were so tender and kind, and of course there were tears.  We are very thankful for the staff and especially her nannies.  Of all the nannies, this woman seemed the most attached to Kate, and Kate to her; I noticed it on both of our trips.  She shed tears, too. 

 

There were lots of tears in saying good-bye, mostly from me and none from Kate (thankfully!).  Just as with a birth mother who gives up her child for a better life, this is certainly a loss for the staff here, too.  To care for a child this many months and then to see them go (especially one this beautiful and sweet!  J); that is tough work.  We signed a one page document and that was it.  She was ours!  Voila!  Just like that! 

 

I found out answers to many of my questions which also put me at rest.  Here’s a summary.  All of the children at Toukoul are 2 years or under.  There is a five-story tan stucco building with lots of windows/rooms where the majority of the children live.  Some children live in a one-story white stucco building labeled “Clinic.” Kate has lived in this building since she arrived to Toukoul 9 months ago; this always puzzled me.  Was she always sick?  I found out today that sign is there just because the nurse’s office is in that building, too.  Let’s just say that signage is not one of their big priorities!  At least we know Kate hasn’t been living in the sick bay all this time!  However, chicken pox did make its round through the orphanage recently and I can see tiny white scars across her body.  I’ll confirm with the doctor, but it looks like she had it, too.  She shared Room #3 with 2 other girls.  Her clothes were always embroidered with a “3” and now we know that’s how they determined which room to return the laundered clothes to.  Room #3 is part of Ward A which has 14 total children (including Jack and Hayley Skinner) cared for by 4 nannies at a time. 

 

She eats about 5 times a day, including powdered milk/not formula (via bottle), vegetable soup, and a porridge that they make with potato, meat or fish or egg.  Interesting!  She received a bathed every morning.  They put Vaseline on her skin and parafin wax on her hair.  When I asked, “what makes her cranky?” they thought about it and then laughed and said that she prefers to have all the toys!   Here she is, ahem, enjoying all of the toys and making the other girl cry…oh boy, we have some work to do…

 

She enjoys playing with toys and watching TV, especially when there is music.  They are on a tight schedule at the orphanage so her sleep cycle is very regular and she doesn’t mind going down when it’s the right time.

 

We had had a doctor’s appointment which got postponed, so we had some unexpected extra time.  Eric strapped on the Baby Bjorn we haven’t used in several years and we slowly perused the grounds to take it all in one last time before departure.

 

Kate was really nervous getting into the car, especially when it started up and began to move.  She’s been in a car one other time in her life.  She was 3-months old and being transported from Bahir Dar (the region where she was found) to Addis Ababa.  At that time she sat on a caretaker’s lap, as they don’t do car seats in Ethiopia.  Several other children were in the car with her, including Hayley Skinner – each had an assigned caretaker and lap.  This time her caretaker was her daddy and he kept her snug in the Baby Bjorn. 

 

 

After looking around confused and concerned for a few minutes, she fussed for a bit, and then conked out!   This kid is on a schedule and it was naptime!  After arriving back to the guest home, Eric carried her up 5 flights of stairs, we took off her shoes, hoisted her out of the Bjorn and into the pack n play.  She was out cold that whole time and had a great nap!

 

After naptime, we gave Kate a bath which was a lot of fun.  Especially when I saw that she has no lice, scabies, diaper rash, or any other “scourge” common to orphanage dwellers.  Excellent!  She’s used to being bathed regularly so it was an easy task.  I finally had the chance to play with her hair, which seems somewhat coarse but does have some great ringlets.  And she already has a lot of hair; perfect time to try out a new headband.  Ridiculously cute!

 

Dinner was ready downstairs so we joined the Skinners for chicken, mashed potatoes, and vegetables.  When I turned my head for a quick moment trying to get Kate all set up in the high chair,  she dumped a bowl of rice cereal all over the place and I sprang into action cleaning it up realizing how out of practice I am!  Duh!  You don’t put the bowl of runny food in front of the 1-year old.  Oy!  Luckily, it all started coming back to me after that spill, including sign language which we started on with “more” and “all done.”  The kids have been practicing their sign language at home to help Kate with it, too!  We didn’t have any powdered milk, so gave her some of the formula we had (she liked it for about 2 minutes and then, not so much!), a fresh bowl of rice cereal and some mashed potatoes.  She ate like a champ, although seemed uncomfortable in the high chair, so perhaps they fed them differently at the orphanage.

We walked down the street to a local grocery store (we needed to get some of that powdered milk!!) and had lots of stares, and smiles, from the locals.  She waved and cooed and charmed everyone we met. 

 

After getting back, she played in a Bumbo with some toys and babbled away while we posted and cropped and emailed before bedtime.  One of her favorite things to do is to clap, then look around the room expecting everyone else to clap, too…like a perfomer on stage rousing the crowd into the beat!

 

We didn’t know how she’d do at bedtime considering she was already asleep when we put her down for her afternoon nap.  Well, we put her down and she didn’t like it.  I comforted and cooed and stroked and she popped her thumb in her mouth and settled down.  When we turned out the light and went into the bedroom, she cried.  I learned early from some wise, sage parents to time the crying because it will seem to your bleeding parental heart that they are crying for an eternity, but usually turns out to be mere minutes.  She cried for less than 2 minutes and has been out ever since.  Phew!  I forgot to mention that they still wake up the children for a MIDNIGHT feeding of a bottle of powdered milk (yep, that’s midnight).  So we’ll see if she wakes up at midnight.  I’m sure not going to wake her up!!!  But she’s adjusting FAR better than we expected and we can’t wait to get her home!!!

Well, we GOTCHA, ‘Lil Kate Baesel!  Actually, you got us…you got our hearts.  For good.  For ever.  For real.

PS:  the family with the baby switcheroo issue from yesterday is doing much better.  They told the Skinners (we avoided them as much as possible just to ease their pain) that they are fine now and just needed to go back to their hotel and hit the “reset button.”  We’re very happy for them...