Day 6 - settling into our routine

Hard to believe this week is over half way done already!  So much work and anticipation building up to this trip and these moments, and they will be in our past so soon!  I'm already dreading saying "paka" to my girls on Friday - oh how they have stolen our hearts!! 

This morning, we headed to visit with Abigail first.  I was glad we were getting a chance to visit with her in the morning, as our previous two visits had been in the afternoon.  Yesterday's visit she had been very distracted, the toys we had brought weren't holding her attention, and she wasn't thrilled when mama's attention was on someone else, so we were praying for her to be more engaged today.  (Yesterday's visit was not bad in anyway, we had a great time - it just wasn't a seamless/smooth as they days before - it's to be expected!) 

Anyway, today, she marched right in, handed out toys to both of us and was ready to play!  We had different toys with us today, and she was very interested in all of them!!  She was in a GREAT mood, ready to play and spend time with mama & papa.

 Here you can see how awesome she holds the pencil of the little magna-doodle we brought! 

 Silly silly girl!  We saw more of her silliness come out today - I love it!!

Yesterday we showed her how to give us "high-fives" - which she was proudly giving us often today! :)

Gonna be a musician, just like mama!! :)  We might need to work a bit on that embouchure though! :)

She is SO incredibly smart.  SO bright.  Today, we were playing with the beach ball, and she was having a blast kicking it.  So, I showed her the sign (American Sign Language) for "again" - smart girl learned it SO fast!  She was using the sign to show us she wanted us to kick the ball to her again, and not only was she using it correctly, but even un-prompted!  It was so great to see the orphanage social worker's reaction to her learning this sign, and using it!!  I was SO proud of her!! 

We tried to get a shot of the three of us together. We got one really great one, then wild girl came out and she decided to be silly. :)  I have a feeling this was a glimpse into our future! Ha ha!

 She is definitely more of a mama's girl.  I got some really great cuddles, hugs and kisses from her today.  She wasn't so sure about Brandon giving her a kiss yet. :)  It's really a good thing though, that she has those boundaries, that she has to build her trust with us - it means she can differentiate between those who are familiar and those who are not.  Most of the orphanage staff are women, so she has not been around men much in her 6 years.  She LOVES to play with Brandon, but it is taking her a little longer to be affectionate with him. 

 Just a couple more, then I'll move on to our visit with Emily. :)  Hope you all don't mind the zillions of pictures!!  (Sorry mom if it takes these FOREVER to load on your internet!!)  I measured her today, to see how big she is so we can start planning accordingly for clothes.  I traced around her hands and her feet - and she thought that was pretty fun.  She found the bigger magna-doodle in the room, and started tracing her feet.  Then decided she needed to trace OUR feet.  Such a clever girl! :)  We had such a fun morning with her - our hearts were overflowing after such a wonderful visit!!

After we left her orphanage, we headed back into the city - where we had a great lunch and got to see some of the city.  I have some pictures of that, but I will put those in another post, on another day! :)  After lunch and a short break, we headed to the headquarters for Emily's baby house, to sign our intent to adopt her.  (We signed this in the morning at Abigail's too)  We have to go to the notary tomorrow to sign it again as well.  Then we headed over to Emily's baby house.  We were asked if we wanted to have her visit outside today, which of course we said yes to. :)  It was a little more difficult to be with her outside for an hour, because she's just crawling, and into everything.  So we really had to hold her the entire time.  They have these little play sheds - but they didn't want her crawling off the blanket, so we were holding her a lot.  A caregiver did bring out a walker which she LOVED!!  We got some great snuggles and laughs today.  At one point, she was SO relaxed she was falling asleep in Brandon's arms.  Such a sweet sweet baby girl.  :)

I know this was a long update - thanks for hanging in there!!  If these girls weren't so darn cute, I wouldn't take so many pictures! :)  Tomorrow we visit Emily in the morning and Abigail in the afternoon.  Until then... paka!!