Ecuador Day 3

Disclaimer: This post is going to be full of a lot of details, so should you not want said details, skip it!

Today started out bright and early. We were up by 6 am in order to catch our taxi at 7:10 am to get to Flor's orphanage by 7:30. The orphanage is actually just off the same main road that we are on, but about 20 minutes north. It costs $5 to get there by taxi, which isn't bad. Upon arrival at the orphanage, we were sent into the Guest House that FHC has to wait for Flor. The guest house is very large and modern with nice furniture, etc. Actually, all of FHC is very nice in comparison to the orphanages I am used to here. They have little cottage houses where the children stay, a couple of play ground areas, a trampoline, a llama (yes, a llama- it's their pet!), a school on site, and even a therapy pool for the kids with special needs. It is equipped with the best to give the children what they need. I am very impressed with FHC so far.

Flor came in to the guest house to be with us for the day. The psychologist explained that during the "bonding" period, they have found that it is best for the other children if we observe Flor's daily schedule and get to know her away from the other children. It makes sense. So to this point, we have not really had any interaction with any of the other kids at FHC, except to see a few in passing.

First, we fed Flor breakfast with one of the tias (the workers who help with the children day and night in the casas). She ate two pieces of bread, a big hunk of cheese, and a drink called "colada", which is something I am all too familiar with as the kids in SVP (the orphanage where I spent the bulk of my time during my OSSO days) drink colada all the time. Flor gulped down all her food. I think the poor thing is starving! She is skin and bones, really. Devin and I think she weighs less than Hallie does, but we will have to see. The good thing that we learned is that she is fully capable of feeding herself. She uses a spoon and fork just fine and even uses both hands equally well!

After breakfast was time for her bath, but the guest house only has a shower, so into the shower she went. The water was rather cold, but it got the job done. One thing that we discovered is that the tias dress the kids in so many layers. They think Hallie must be freezing all the time because she was wearing a skirt (no tights), a tshirt, and she refused to wear her jacket today. Flor wore to bed her outfit from yesterday, which includes a onesie, plus flannel pajamas on top of it. It's quite the thing. After her bath, we got her dressed in again multiple layers and she was ready for the day.

Flor is not potty-trained, but that is one thing that is on the top of our list of things to work on with her. The psychologist, Pamela, talked to me about it and said that they were going to work on that next with her and that they believe she is ready. A side note on Pamela: she is really great and speaks english very well. She has been with us most of the time to observe our bonding with Flor. She also frequently asks us how we are feeling, what we thought about what just happened, how Hallie is adjusting, if we can explain certain concepts to Hals, etc. She is very good at her job and is very well trained. I told her that I graduated in social work so we have some of the same background, so then she explained to me some of the things she was looking for in bonding and said that so far she has not had to have any "psychological interventions" with us and Flor because we are doing so well. :) So that's great.

Anyway, the rest of the morning was spent in the guest house and outside on FHC's property playing with Flor and getting to know her. We brought Jace's pack and play with us and set it up inside the house, which worked out great. We just made ourselves at home there! We played outside quite a bit and got to see a few of the babies and toddlers while out. A volunteer who was working with them talked to us for a bit and we found out that she goes to BYU...so small world there.

The morning sort of dragged by, I am not going to lie. As much as we loved being with Flor, it was hard because there were limited things to do and we were on someone else's schedule. It will be better when we are on our own turf and can take care of her according to her needs, versus a schedule. For example, she was so tired around 11 am, but her nap time wasn't until 12:30, so she needed to stay up, though it was clearly better for her to lay down and take a nap. She was also hungry much earlier than lunch time. We had some snacks in our bag and she ended up wolfing down a package of cheese and peanut butter crackers. She loved them.

We learned more about Flor's diet restrictions. We were given a list of foods that she can have and foods that she cannot have. We knew prior to coming that she had something called Fructasoria, which basically means that her body does not metabolize fructose. So, in essence, she can't have sugar. So no cakes, cookies, pies, some fruits even she can't have, etc. She can have sugar substitute, though. She seems fine with not having any of those things, but granted, she probably doesn't know any different. We are going to have everything checked out again with a doctor once we get home and hopefully we will get a more complete list of things she can have. What we were given has about 10 items on it and the list that she cannot have had about 10 items on it-- with no seeming correlation between some. For instance, none of the obvious sugar loaded items, but also no hot dogs? Random.

We helped Flor eat lunch, which was spinach and potato soup as well as white rice with some shredded pork and some milk. She then went to lay down for nap time and we left until 4 pm, which is when she woke up. Hallelujah for a great napper!!

We came home to our apartment for lunch and Hallie and I laid down while Devin and Jace walked to the Mega Maxi (he said it took five minutes, which is great!) to get some pans and some shoes for Flor. He also successfully got a camera charger, so YAY for that!

We left about 3:20 to get back to the orphanage, but one problem we are having is that we can't get taxis all that easily. I don't remember it being much of a problem when I was here before, but when we were to be back to see Flor this afternoon, we could not get a taxi for 20 minutes or so. Tons and tons passed by, but they were all occupied. We ended up being 15 minutes late. No one cared, but it's still hard to stand on the corner for that long with the kids and all our bags!

When we got back, we had more play time inside and out. Flor does have some distinguishable words, which include "mas" (more), "hola", and "mama." I think she will do great with sign language because it is pretty clear that she understands quite a bit. We taught her "por favor" (please), "mas", and "gracias" today in sign language and she picked up all three really easily. We would say the word in both english and spanish and then do the sign. Poor thing, she is going to have to learn a whole new language! We taught her the signs before lunch and then when we arrived back, Flor wanted something and signed "please." I thought that was really great!

Flor is a happy, smiley girl and she loves to laugh! She cracks herself up a lot. She is very ticklish. She is so sweet and is soft with Jace already, stroking his head, etc.  She also knows how to test the limits though! For example, when she would take a drink of something, she would drink what she wanted and then would continue to hold the cup to her mouth so that she could either blow bubbles into the liquid, or get a mouthful to spit out. Even with repeatedly telling her no, she would still do it and laugh and laugh. We'll have to work on a few things in that regard!

Sorry this is so disjointed...I am just telling things as I recall them! After more play time, we had dinner, which consisted of the exact same thing as lunch. Hmmmm...I am not sure if that is the case usually, but Flor loves the food and wolfs it down as if she has never seen food before. I wonder how she will do when we throw some variety into her diet...

After dinner, we walked her back to her casa for her to get ready for bed. When we came, we brought her a bear and she has had it with her during all of our visits. When we walked into her casa, all the kids were grabbing the bear and wanting to play with it. The tias kept telling them that it is Flor's bear from her mom and dad. It was so sad to see the reaction on some of the kids' faces. Exactly why we spend the day away from them all, I am sure. One of the tias took Flor to get her ready for bed, but not before she said goodbye to us. She was clinging to Devin and wanting us to stay. It broke my heart. She was so sad to see us go and honestly leaving her there is probably one of the hardest things I have ever done...even though I know we will go back tomorrow and she will still be there. I just felt like she should be coming home with us, not staying in an orphanage anymore. I cried and cried leaving her. One more night and then she will be with us permanently on Friday. Hallie also kept saying, "I want Flor to come home with us! I want her to come sleep with us!" That was heartbreaking, too.

I feel like things are going extremely well. Flor is clearly bonding with both Devin and I. She is very loving and likes to give hugs and kisses. She seeks after us to hold her hand, to take her places, etc. Yesterday she would often look at the psychologist and go over to her for reassurance or to play with toys, or whatever, but today she barely looked at her. She wanted Devin or me to help her or to be with her. I love it. She also is very cute with Hallie. During breakfast, Hallie was sitting at the table with her, and Flor kept reaching her hand out for Hallie to hold it. So cute.

While I know that there will of course be rough patches ahead, I am so happy right now. I know that the choice that we have made to pursue this adoption is right and my heart has grown a few sizes just in the past few days while being with Flor. She is ours and we are so excited to move forward as a family of five.

We only have a few pictures from today (though Pamela it seems took 3000, so hopefully we will get hers sometime.) The camera wasn't fully charged (new charger at lunch remember?) when we had to leave, so we got what we got. First is a video of Devin, Hallie, and Flor jumping on the trampoline and next are a few pictures...one with the girls and I and the llama and the other with everyone on the tramp.

Sorry again for the beast of a post! Things will surely get shorter as we progress. I just want to keep an accurate record of things and I also know that there are a lot of you who want to know what's going on! Feel free to ask questions, by the way, if you have any. It's hard to know what we have told who and what we have already answered, etc.