2 Weeks as a Family

Tomorrow marks 2 weeks as a family. We are all doing great. Ananya is adjusting to her home well. We are trying to establish a schedule. Its not going too well. I have to give it more time. Ananya has made so many improvements since coming home. She is now starting to bear weight on her legs when we stand her up. She is starting to play with her toys. She likes to eat. She eats everything I give her and throws a fit if I don’t feed her fast enough when she is hungry. It is amazing to watch her develop everyday. We made a trip to the doctor today. Anthony has pulled a muscle in his leg. It did not seem to be improving and I just wanted to check it out. The doctor gave him permission to be lazy for a couple days and stay off of it.

We have a visit with our social worker on Monday. Ananya has her first doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. We can hopefully start PT, OT and speech therapy soon so that we see many more improvements.

I love my life. I love watching my children play together. I love watching Patrick play with Ananya. I love watching Ananya smile when I walk into the room. She is gorgeous. Her and Anthony together are more than I could have ever dreamt of. Everyone always says that you love your child more than life itself and the love does not diminish when you have more children, but it is multiplied. I never worried about loving Anthony less, but I am still amazed by the feelings that I forgot I had when Anthony was younger. After waiting so long to have another child in our house, I am amazed. Its like starting over again. Sometimes it feels like I’ve never done this before. I will try to be more diligent about posting but at the present moment we are having computer problems. I’ll post more later. I will try to take more pictures and post them as well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANANYA!!!

Today our baby turned 2. She handled the day very well. We are trying to establish a schedule at home. Anthony is just a great big brother to Ananya. I'm so proud of him. We had some great pictures taken. I've attached a few of them now. We opened birthday and late Christmas presents at Grandmas. We had a Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake that Grandma bought. She didn't really know what to do with it so I stuck her hands in it.

The trip home went well. We didn't rest well on the flights though. We are all happy to be home and eating our normal foods. I'm going to bed now since I got both kids asleep by 8:00. I'll post more tomorrow.

We Will Be Home Tomorrow!!!!

OK. I'm so excited. I've told Anthony several times to go to sleep and here I am on the internet. I CAN'T SLEEP! I just want to leave so we can be back in America (cue the Star Spangled Banner). We leave the hotel between 630 and 645 am. We fly out at 955. The funny thing is that I want home so bad but I want to come back soon. It has been beautiful, starving but beautiful. I was not at all prepared for the dietary needs of Ananya, but most of the things that she needs (or I think that she needs) are at Food Loin. I will miss India. Never have I seen such driving. Its crazy yet fascinating. We had a lazy morning and left the hotel at about 330. We ran by the doctor again because I realized they never gave me Ananya's shot record back. When I realized that I almost threw up with worry. No worry though after a tense minute the lovely lady pulled out the right file and handed me all my paperwork back. We walked through Khan Market for awhile. We ate Indian McDonalds (that was an experience, Anthony got a kids meal and I had to give him my sandwich because his chicken was ground and mixed with curry.) The crispy type chicken sandwich isn't bad though. Remember to order it without lettuce. We bought a few gifts then had the driver drive us literally where ever he thought we should see. He took us to several tombs with beautiful gardens and through some slightly crowded streets. We returned to the shop where I had my shopping spree and picked up the items that were hand made for me (OHHH, AHHH very fancy). Then back to the hotel. I tried on one of my sarees. I'm pretty sure I got the crazy thing on right. Patrick thought it was beautiful. I wore one of my new suits to dinner at the Japanese restraunt in the hotel (Patrick keeps wondering where the shrimp sauce is). Dinner was good and it was the 2nd time we ate in the restraunt. Ananya threw another fit later this evening. She was way over tired because she work up from her nap too early. She had her 2nd bath this morning after a good breakfast at the buffet. She had yogurt, banana, and sugar doughnut. Mommy however didn't get to eat because they started clearing the buffet before I got a plate. The service in the hotel hasn't been great. Anytime we are in the restraunt we have to ask for coffe with our breakfast. I wouldn't stay here (the Nikko) again. The Hindusthan in Kolkata however was so great. The staff was wonderful and so helpful. Anytime we asked for something they brought it right away. The waiters in the restraunt just dolled over Ananya and all of us actually. The courtyard was beautiful to sit in during the day. We fly in the morning and Patrick is excited about that. He just loves Lufthansa airlines now. The service on the way here was excellent. I am so glad that our layovers on the way home are shorter. We may have to run to catch our flight to DC because we only have a 1-hour layover in Munich, but in DC we have 3 hours. That should be enough to recharge our appliances (Nintendo DS and IPOD) with AMERICAN wattage (thank god) and get the baby a decent meal (as well as the rest of us). We have had problems with getting the power converters to work here and so I can't post any pictures tonight as my camera is dead. Our other digital (which I can't download DUH forgot to get a USB cord) is now full thanks to the wonderful hotel driver. We have a total of 4 rolls of film to develop when we get home as well. Well I'm going to try and sleep for a few hours now. My next post will be from the good old USA. YEAH!!!! I can't wait to introduce our new princess to everyone. See you soon.

Our Last Day

This has been one of the greatest trips. Our daughter is amazing. Anthony has been wonderful. He has gotten to see a wonderful country and seen poverty he could never have seen in the US. He has handled it wonderfully. We are all ready to come home though. We want hamburgers at McDonalds and food that isn’t really, really spicy. I personally want people who understand me. Ananya will be happy to be home where she doesn’t have to be in the baby sling so much. She wants to play more. Anthony just wants to go to Grandma’s where he can play. We haven’t seen much of New Delhi except through a car window. I’m too absolutely exhausted to go much of anywhere. Yesterday after we picked up the visa packet, our driver took us to a nice shop. I admit it was rather expensive, but the items are beautiful. I bought myself some gorgeous saris and salvar kemeez. The boutique was more Beverly Hills than we normally do, but they are making all of my sari tops and actually making a few of the outfits. Patrick said it was ok because I don’t normally splurge like that. I know a lot of the things will still be wonderful looking when Ananya is big enough to wear them. One of the scarves is actually a gift for her when she is older. We have one more day to get through. We have to pick up my things at the shop this evening. We have to find something to eat for lunch and dinner. We will be so ready to leave in the morning at probably 6 am to go to the airport. I have to pack all of our stuff again. At least this time I don’t have to worry about having everything with us in case luggage doesn’t make it with us. All I really need is enough formula for the trip and her visa documents. I can’t wait to feel like I’m back in civilization (I just feel like I’m missing everything now because I’m so far away from everyone). Once I have processed the trip I will have some regrets of things that we haven’t done, but I have started to have some system overload and remembered quickly that with Ananya we can’t just continually go everywhere. Anthony too just wants to come back to the hotel and play on the computer. It is 3am and I’m going to try to sleep more. I just haven’t slept well even when I have the chance. I think I just miss having at least 1 dog in bed with me. I can’t wait to talk to everyone and tell you all about my trip. I will try to post pictures later. They will not post right now.
PS Anyone wanting bonus points from me will bring me a large starbucks on Saturday afternoon. They have wonderful coffee here, but I haven’t seen syrups. Anthony wants McDonalds with an unlimited supply of ketchup and all TV in English.

More Pictures :o)

I wanted to post a few more pictures of our grand adventure.

Checking In

Wanted to let every one know that we are all still doing well. We had Embassy day today and go to get "THE PACKET" (the visa packet to those who havent been here) tomorrow. We will be all finished tomorrow morning but our flight leaves on Friday. We will try to relax a little and see some sights. Maybe do a little more shopping. We made it to Delhi on Monday night and checked into the hotel at a little after 8pm. Ananya had a great first plane ride and slept most of the 2 hour flight. Mommy however isn't faring so well. I got sick during take off, took dramamine but I knew what I really needed was food. Luckily the angels at Jet Airways serve a meal on a 2 hour flight. I got to eat after Ananya fell asleep. I felt much better and slept through the flight. Anthony has discovered a couple more times that he doesn't truely like Indian food. Mom has a bit of an upset stomach (just heartburn) from all the spices. Our hotel actually serves hamburgers and they have pasta and fried rice. We will survive. There was also an Indian wedding going on when we checked in and Patrick got to see how beautiful Indian brides are. Today was a really busy day and my lack of sleep caught up with me. Once I saw a familar face at the Embassy, I started crying. Poor Anila and Lenin were trying to reassure me that they knew it was hard but it was almost over. I just knew I had forgotten a piece of paper. Luckily after Visa photos (too cute ones to be exact) and a quick doctor visit, I found that we got our exit interview without any problem. Our packet will be ready by 9 am. We had a lovely dinner with our friends Grace and Shane at their hotel. I had to coax my guys out of their hotel room (they are staying at the Sheraton). We got some pictures of the girls together. We are back at the hotel and I'm going to take a quick shower and crash. The trip has been tiring and even though Ananya only weighs 15 pounds or (slightly less), she is very tiring 24 hours a day. I love her to death but the girl has a temper. One minute she is fine the next she is screaming her head off because she wants to eat now even if the formula is too hot. She doesn't drink out of a bottle or sippy cup so I have to use a spoon or give her drinks straight from the cup. I believe I included a picture of her milk beard. HEHEHEHE!!! Fun adventures of today: I washed my clothes in the sink (they are taking forever to dry) and we saw about 30 monkeys on the side of the road this evening (our driver said it was some Monkey holiday, something about a Hindu god). Well I must go so Anthony can get back on the internet. I will post more tommorrow. Love everyone and will talk to you all soon. P.S. India is really beautiful. Sometimes even the really dirty and dingy things are just amazing.

The Journey

Anyone that has not taken this journey can know the joys of our babies. The love is the same as with any other child you may have, but the appreciation is so different when you stare at the pictures for so long and get “developmental updates”. No one in the whole time we waited saw, held or visited with Ananya. Pam and Joel got a short look, but Ananya is very shy of new people and no one wanted to freak her out. It was so hard to not have any personal accounts of how her personality is or anything. The moment she was in my arms (scared, mad and screaming), everything else was gone. It didn’t hurt anymore. I had prepared myself for the negative reaction. I didn’t want to have the picture of a perfect “Gotcha Day” and be crushed. I’m very glad that God put in my heart that it wouldn’t be all happy and smiling. Within a few hours, I had her smiling. Within a day, she won’t leave my arms (even for me to turn around and get a diaper). To finally have her little head snuggled on my shoulder makes all the waiting worth it. I know why so many families do this repeatedly.
Adoption is definitely one of the greatest experiences of my life. I have met so many great people (Tami, Jynger, Gayle, and Gray) and so many great friends (Melissa and Brian, Kristi and Jason, Grace and Shane, Anila and Lenin, Adrienne and Agni, and so many others that I can’t even name). Once we got to the orphanage, I got to meet one the most amazing people I have ever met in my life, Anju. She oversees the orphanage and takes such wonderful care of these children. I can not imagine doing the job that she does. I would want to bring every child home with me. All of the people at Dillon and in the ISRC orphanages do amazing things. They are truly gifts from God. I can never tell any of these people thank you enough. They made my daughter strong and brought her to me. After seeing all of the children at the orphanage I realize the Ayahs that Anju has are not just good, they are THE BEST. They do so much for so many children.
Ananya is amazing. For such a little girl to have so many things change suddenly, she has handled this with grace. She smiles and plays and snuggles. Even the few times she has cried, you can’t really blame her. In the blink of an eye, her entire life was turned upside down. Within hours of being back at the hotel, I had her on the floor. When I turned for just a second to grab something, she was sitting. I couldn’t believe it. No one ever told me that she could sit on her knees. Yesterday, she was grabbing at the computer. She took a ball from Anthony’s hand. When I held her up on her feet, she started to bear some weight. She is already thriving and the journey has just begun. Without any limits, she will excel so far.
Like Patrick has said since we got here “We are on a mission from God”. Truer words have never been spoken. This trip feels like it is going to make a HUGE difference in all of our lives. Not just by bringing Ananya home as our daughter, but how we live our lives, how we help other, and how we see the world outside of our view.
I can not put into words how amazing the journey of adoption is. If you are reading this, open your heart. Stop for just a minute and look into your heart. See is God is calling you to make a huge difference with even just a little time or effort.

Just as a last note after all that, check out the link to Celebrations that I have posted. Adrienne and Agni are such wonderful people. They are waiting to travel to India to get their son (they have a 3 year old daughter). Adrienne is planning some cruises for next spring to benefit Orphancare, Dillon’s fund for the orphanages the countries they serve. The cruises sound wonderful and money could not be spent in a better way than to help all of the children in the orphanages.

More Pictures :o)

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday.

Saturday was a Busy Day

Saturday we had a very nice day. We met our friends from Dillon at the hotel. It was nice to finally put a face with the voices. They got their children later in the afternoon. We got to spend alittle time with them beforehand. We went sightseeing a little as well. We saw Victoria Memorial, dancing monkeys and the Planetarium. Victoria Memorial is beautiful. Cameras are not allowed inside. The carvings and design is just amazing. They have a lot of paintings and things on display as well. There are sections of the exhibit that show the history of Kolkata. Patrick and Anthony looked through a lot of the pictures. We walked around the grounds for more than 30 minutes. The gardens are gorgeous. There were a lot of couples sitting under trees talking. Before we went in there was a guy with dancing monkeys. I’ve post a picture but it was much more fun in person. The man started singing and the monkeys danced. One of them did a flip. Anthony was very amused. **BTW-This is why I told Anthony not to pet the monkeys in India**. We tried to go to St. Pauls but it was closed at that time. We went to the Planetarium. We made it just as the English show was starting. Anthony and Patrick loved it. Ananya didn’t like the dark at all. She was just starting to get sleepy. She took a short nap. We then went back to the hotel. We had lunch. We had most of the waiters at our table. One in particular, a nice man named Philip, paid much attention to both of the kids. He and Patrick talked as well. He even gave Patrick his address to keep in touch. After lunch, we caved and let Anthony go swimming. I think the water was alittle cold because he didn’t stay in for more than a few minutes. Ananya seemed to like just being outside playing. She paid lots of attention to what her brother was doing as well as the other boys in the pool. I had Ananya’s shoes off and I dunked her feet in the pool. She acted a little scared, but started smiling as soon as I held her close. Once upstairs, I couldn’t stand the suspense anymore and went down the hall to see if Grace was back yet. Jadyn is just a beauty. She was sleeping at the time. We had to go back to New Market to pick up an outfit that Patrick had ordered. By the time we got there it was getting dark. It was even more crowded than it was Friday. When we got close to the shop, people kept pointing us to the right shop. I guess an American family with an Indian baby attracts a lot of attention. We went to a few other shops while there and I got Ananya a few outfits. (Patrick finally realized just how far you could haggle them down and so we got good prices this time.) Anthony ended up with another Indian shirt. I still didn’t get anything, but we can look in Delhi as well. There as one little girl that sort of got to me. She was about Anthony’s age and just started following me. I didn’t have any candy on me at the time. She just chatted with me and told me how pretty Ananya was. She asked her name and told me her name was Puja. I just wanted to make the world perfect just for her. She was the most beautiful little girl. Before we left Patrick had Anthony give her a little money (we were already in the car so we wouldn’t get mobbed). All in all it was a good day. I think it may have been alittle much for Ananya at the end but all is well now as everyone is resting.

Day 2 :o) It keeps getting better!

I never thought it could be true but today was better than yesterday. Once Ananya finally got to sleep, I laid down with her. I didn't sleep soundly though because I woke everytime she moved. Breakfast wasn't one of my greatest moments. I wasn't so concerned with eating because I couldn't get much down her. She had a little porridge. A little juice. I've kept at the water today. I've given her alot through a medicine syringe. As you can see we finally had success with lunch. She threw a fit anytime I didn't get the food in fast enough. Dinner wasn't the greatest though. I ended up slowly pouring it into her mouth from the bottle with the nipple off of it. She did however take some small pieces of solid food from our dinner plates. We went shopping today. I got her to go to sleep for a while at the shops. She is such a strong girl, and sooo strong willed. Tonight she went to sleep rather easily. We are all still doing well. I admit though I would like to be home soon. I want normal grocery stores so I have lots of options as to what to feed her. I definitely don't want to have to worry about Anthony getting sick. I do realize though that we need to experience this so that we can tell her about it. Its been a great trip. Tomorrow we may get the chance to see 2 other families from our agency. They both pick up their children tomorrow. Hopefully we can all have alittle time together. Well I'm going to go for now. I'll continue to keep everyone updated.

SURPRISE!!!!

Ok. So everyone that knows me knows that I'm not patient at all. How were we supposed to sit in a hotel in the same city as our daughter and not get to go get her???? When I called Ms. Roy this morning, she gave me the option to come today and pick Ananya up. What could I say but of course. I couldn't help it. So we hurried up and packed up our stuff and met our daughter at about 320 pm Kolkata time. Boy was I glad that I didn't listen to any of my friends and prepared for the worst. She took one look at me when they handed her to me and started screaming. The ayah actually had to take her back 3 different times before she quit screaming. Even when she's scared and mad she is beautiful. Anthony was able to calm her down a couple of times. She really likes her brother. Patrick had her for a little bit and she didn't cry until she came to me. Of course my heart broke but it was repaired within a few minutes. She stayed quiet in my arms until we went to the other orphange building. Then another ayah took her to calm her down. We were able to see all of the babies. I held a couple of them. This little girl stole our heart all over again. I am typing with her curled up in my lap fighting sleep. She refuses to eat anything and screams everytime we get anything near her mouth. In the morning I may have to be mean mommy and force water with a syringe if she won't take it.

Now lets rewind. We left Charlotte on time at 1155 Tuesday morning. Anthony got antsy in the airport because we breezed through security and had to wait for our flight. We had a 50 minute flight to Washington. Anthony had a great time. I think someone should pick me up in Washington so that I don't have to fly back. We had a 5 hour layover at Dulles. Got told the wrong gate but we were at a quiet place and I got a little rest. We had a 6 hour flight to Frankfort. Then a 4 hour layover. Not too fun. European airports don't have as many restraunts as American ones. We then took a shuttle to our flight and then flew 8 hours to Kolkata. The airport was kind of scary but we made it through. All of our luggage made it here. We had to get a taxi as well as the hotel car just because we had so many bags. Patrick rode in the taxi to the hotel. That was apparently an experience. Also at the airport, there were children begging (now this was 2 am) Patrick had a really hard time not forking over cash. We made it to the hotel in one piece. We went to sleep at about 3am. I was up at 1015 and called Ms. Roy at about 11. She asked if we wanted to come today or tomorrow and or course I couldn't wait. We quickly gathered all our things and had lunch at the hotel. We now have 4 empty suitcases and a new baby.

Anyways. This child will not quite wiggling because she is sooooo sleepy. I posted a couple of pics. Most of the good ones are one the camera that I can't download until we are home. I will post more as I have the chance. I must put my precious rotten butt to bed now.

Tommorrow We Leave

Hi everyone! I just wanted to post one more time before I start one of the busiest days of my life. Of course, I have 10 million things to do today. We leave for the airport between 0730 and 0800 in the morning. I have to make sure to get all of our things into the suitcases. I have last minute cleaning to do and such. I want to thank everyone who has supported us on this journey. It has been a long road, but all the pain of the last 6 months is GONE. We now only anticipate seeing India and FINALLY seeing our daughter. Words can not describe the feeling. In 3 and 1/2 days, very long days, we will have Ananya forever. I will post pictures and descriptions of our experience as I can. I pray I get everything done today. I will let everyone know how this all goes. I'll try to post on Thursday and give everyone an idea of our first glimpse of India. Talk to everyone later.
Love you all.

We Really Are Leaving :o)

We really did it!!! We bought our tickets!!!!

In 7 days we become a family of 4. YEAH!!! :o) We leave Charlotte on February 13. We will be back February 23 at 11:00pm. A day later our daughter will turn 2. I can't believe this is finally happening. We have waited so long to meet our precious little girl. I have alot of packing to do and of course last minute details to attend to. I will keep in contact with everyone and post pictures of my angels together at last. Everyone pray for us to have a wonderful trip and that all of our paperwork is completed so we can return home on time. This has been a long journey for our family with lots of heartache. We have grown in our faith. I can't wait to move to the next part of the journey and be all together at last. We thank GOD for bringing us this far and pray HE will make this a wonderful trip for our whole family.

BTW. (Dad we got a great deal on tickets even if they were last minute.)