10/19/04-A visit along with some packing...

It’s packing night. Tonight is our last night in the hotel. Some time tomorrow, we will be moving over to an apartment. One of the other couples also mentioned that this will be our last night of uninterrupted sleep. Panic began to rise as the reality of that statement settled in. Tomorrow, we will be a full family with two little rug rats running our “home.” Not legally mind you, but for all intents and purposes, we will be a family. We’ve been trying to convince ourselves that we are ready for this, as have all our adoring fans of the Adoption Show, but tomorrow we will start to see if we are ready to do this. Guess there is no turning back now. (As if there ever was…)

Today, we were visited by the social worker. Her job is to speak for the children in court. I’m not sure what her role is outside of the adoption process. I don’t get the sense that she visits the children or checks on them. But, after she arrived (late) each couple had a few minutes where we sat with her and she asked us questions through our interpreter, Lena. She asked what we did for a living; whether we had any biological children; how long we’ve been married; whether we’ve had experience around children, and questions like that. It wasn’t too hard, though I found her facial expressions disturbing. She had a condescending look on her face that bordered on disgust. But, apparently we passed and can move on. None of us spoke to her for more than five minutes.

At lunch, we went to one of the Malls and bought these zippered blanket thingies to use when we take the kids out of the orphanage. They will also be good to have around the apartment over the next few weeks for lying on the floor or using in their cribs. (Yes, they will be providing cribs for us.) We spoke to Amika and Joe this morning and they said their apartment was nice – much roomer and a real shower (with hot water). They said the outside was to similar to all the apartments we’ve been to (Mary Jo cannot get the phrase “crack house” out of her head), but are nice inside.

Today, we did our usual routine and hung with the kids. For now, the kids have shifted their roles some. Grace wants to go around exploring and visit other people. (She does seem to want to have much to do with us. I guess we have become her silly old parents who just embarrass her.) Jack has been more of the homebody, hanging with Mom or Dad. The orphanage visits have gotten a little boring. It is much the same routine each day. It will also be nice to just spend all the time with them and let the day just go as it goes. (Of course, all the parents out there are probably saying we will soon cherish that time when we can just leave them and go off on our own.) Here is a picture of Jack sitting by Mom and Grace visiting Francis, one of Steve and Lisa's kids.



Odd schedules had Mom feeding Jack this afternoon and Dad with Grace. They both ate very well in the morning and afternoon. Today was Jack’s 10-month birthday, so they weighted him. He was 18.3 lbs, which means he has gained almost 3 lbs. in a month. We doubt Grace has gained that much. She is still very tiny, but I think she is getting stronger. She pulls herself up and stands with a little help. Jack is still unsteady when he tries to stand. I call him “noodle legs.” I’ll be interested to see them both when we take them to their doctor in Pittsburgh. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do a little dietary work on them both before that.

Well, back to our packing.