Daily update

Hello everyone!!

Well today was another good day in Kyrgyzstan. We once again went to the orphanage but this time it took longer. We got stuck in an unbelievable traffic jam. Way worse that LA, NYC and Houston combined! We didn't move for quite awhile and then the car overheated and so the driver of our car, Victor, and the driver of the car next to us, jumped out and pushed the guy out of the way. This was all at an intersection where there were people going in the totally wrong directions in what I would say was the wrong lanes but there aren't any lines in the road so who cares! Once we got out from behind the dead car our driver flew around a bunch of people just to have a policeman jump out in fron of us and tell us to back up and let someone cross. So we needed to go straight but our driver took a right so I thought we were going to go around the block. Oh no, we just went right to make a u-turn in the middle of the road and go back towards the intersection and make a right turn. It was actually alot of fun =)

So we got to the orphanage and A was participating in a little concert that the kids put on. She had maracas, another kid had a guitar and then a man was playing the accordian. It was so cute. When we came in the gates she came running over to us and we managed to kinda get her back into the show but she was pretty distracted. They were doing the chicken dance with the kids, you know the one with the arm/hand/body movements, she was so funny. We got video of her trying to do the dance.

So then we just hung out for awhile. She took a puzzle we showed her to one of the caregivers but then freaked out when the little kids in her group got any of our attention. She would flail at them and want them away from her Mama and Papa. She doesn't understand how to play with toys, she just takes them and walks around cause she doesn't want to let them go.

After we hung out with her we were able to meet with the director/lead physician and she answered our questions.

We learned the following about her:

She was 1.8kg at birth which is 4 pounds! She was a tiny little thing! She was premature, her lungs didn't work right away, they described it as her lungs being closed. The birth was natural and she spent 3 1/2 months at the hospital and then went to the orphanage.

She was named by someone at the baby hospital and her name means Like Moon. Her records don't say why she was placed for adoption but most likely it was because of poverty and her problems at birth. Her birth mother was 24 when she was born and it was her first pregnancy. We have her birth mother's name and place of birth but we will keep that information within the family. She has been healthy although she did have pnuemonia twice before her 1st birthday. They have taken really good care of her, she is tall for her age and a month ago weighed 16kg or 35.2 pounds! They will take height and weight measurements on Friday and they said we can trace her foot so we can figure out a shoe size.

Noone came to visit her from her family and neither did any other prospective parents. She was late with walking, she was almost 3, but she has done very wel developmentally in the past year. She is eager to learn and likes puzzles and tasks. Her leg, she is diagnosed with CP in one leg, is getting stronger and stronger. One eye has strabismus (crossed) which we will need to have looked at ASAP when we get home so she can see better which will result in learning easier. They have taken good care of her leg, they have given her over 20 different courses of treatment in the form of medicines, massages, and physical therapy. They said swimming would be great for her.

They basically gave us the go ahead to teach her boundaries. They indicated that she can be stubborn and she knows how to behave but that when parents come suddenly kids forget everything to see what they can get away with.

The most emotional part of the day was when they reiterated again just how much she wanted a family. She would run towards parents who arrived hoping they were hers and then would be upset when they were for someone else. I guess eventually she just stopped running for the gate but never stopped wanting a Mama and Papa. Today, when we came in, she got to run to the gate and be scooped up by her waiting parents.

Elizabeth