Days 4 and 5

I guess our groundhog days have officially started, you who have adopted from here know what I'm talking about. At first we were told our court would be Monday or Tuesday next week,now they say Thursday/Friday next week. Enough on that before I start a pity party. Hehe, really I just miss home and more than anything my other kids.

Yesterday Alanna was very tired during our visits. We saw her cry for the first time. During our afternoon visit she started crying about 10-15 minutes before it was time for them to come get her. It was a screaming cry, like something was wrong, but we did not have a clue what. I couldn't believe they didn't come sooner, because she was LOUD! And it was heartbreaking!

But today she was Miss Content again. We tryed to tone down the stimulation a bit, I think she is getting too much of it and she is overwhelmed. If any of you have ever seen Gary play with kids, you know this is hard for him, but he has learned quickly. We have noticed she stimms quite a bit, but we are finding things to replace this, like taking her hand and massaging it, etc.... Half way into our morning visit she fell asleep on me. She went into a deep sleep, thumb fell out of the mouth and everything! They had brought her to us 15 minutes late so I think the caregiver was trying to be nice and let us keep her later, but we had to meet with city council and we needed to leave. So at 15 after we carried her down to the front office, and they called her caregiver to come get her.
I think she must have stayed asleep because she was not tired during our afternoon visit. We had to sit in the hall and wait for the visiting room. A mother walked out smelling strongly of smoke and perfume, I think it was a birthmother visiting her child. Then they came and got her 45 minutes early, They explained, that there was another Mama and Papa that needed the room. Umm, I know they have other room, but we had a little over an hour with her, so we just kissed her goodbye and off she went.
This orphanage allows us to come on the weekend so that is great!

A note about city council: this region works a little differently. One of the things is we have to meet with the city council, they review our paperwork ahead of time, ask us some questions, 5-10 mintues worth, then vote, yes vote, like raise your hand if you approve of this adoption. They questioned us for not even 5 minutes, then voted, all positive!