Oct 7 am...Waiting

From Andrea....

We are waiting for our ride to come to take us for a day of shopping, lunch and then back to the orphanage briefly for an hour.  We will leave then to head to a traditional Mongolian concert where they will sign and dance.  We will have more details of the day by tonight.

Now for just random stuff...

Melina is doing very well.  Until this whole thing is over with though and we have Bea home I don't think she will truly relax.  She is not stressed/worried but just continually "thinking" of what is next.  There is still a lot of paperwork that has to be submitted and "administrative stuff" to be done.  It does not help that she wasn't given all the info needed before she left the U.S. on what was wanted.  Now they are coming up with certain paperwork that they will need but she didn't bring.

We are going to try and buy the same types of food that Bea already eats in order to help her transition once we get her permanently (which looks like next thurs after 4:00pm).  It will be interesting to see us cooking Mongolian food :)  We know once we get Bea, the transition will be tough.  We are expecting the worse and hoping for the best.  The more we can do to keep as many things the same (food, sleep/nap schedule, etc) the better we hope it will be for her.

There is a lot of "waiting around" here.  We usually don't start our day until late morning (11:00 or noon).  So we blog, eat breakfast, look around, etc.  Not too much to do until they show up to pick us up.  The traffic could contribute to why we have the late start, or, maybe because we visit the orphanage every day late afternoon and we don't get back to the hotel sometimes until after 7.  It is what it is.  The schedule works well for me because I sleep in (I know, you are surprised), but for Melina who wakes up at 5:30 every morning it is a long day.

Once we have Bea, we will be in the hotel more.  Initially because we want to keep Bea as close to her normal routine schedule as possible.  Also - the Mongolian people frown at having the children/babies out in the cold (which it is now) and especially after dark (which is about 6:00 pm here).  It is also not popular to have babies out in busy places.

Bea is soooo stinking cute!  She already has a special place in my heart!  I feel sad for what she will have to go through once we take her from the orphanage.  She already talks so having the language barrier will be difficult.  We do already recognize a few Mongolian words but it will be tough.  Right now, we do a lot of hand motions to indicate what we want and she seems to follow along ok.  Keep her in your prayers for an easy and fast transition.

Love you and miss you - Andrea