Ecuador Day 19- Happy Birthday Flor!

 Warning: Long post filled with (some) negative commentary, potty talk, and lots of pictures. Read on at your own risk!

Today is Flor's seventh birthday, which was definitely the most exciting part of the day. I have missed 5 birthdays in between her first birthday and now and felt extremely grateful that we were able to be here in time for her 7th.

The morning did not start out well, however. In fact, this was probably our roughest morning yet. It didn't have anything to do with Flor, Hallie, or Jace, but the process. I think I posted earlier in the week saying that I had finally spoken to our in country rep about the details and processes for our case. She was supposed to arrive at our house this morning for us to sign some documents to begin the court process. Well, at the time we last spoke, she said that she would call us Thursday night to confirm her coming over this morning. We never heard from her last night, despite my attempts to reach her as well.

This morning, I waited nervously until 9 am and then decided that we had waited long enough and called her again. She finally answered the phone. I asked when she was coming over, and she said that she wouldn't in fact be coming over because of problems with our case. She further explained that the report for court on bonding from the orphanage was incomplete and needed to include a part about Flor's going away party. We just so happened to have canceled the party for today because she requested we keep the whole morning open for her, remember? I was sooooo frustrated, I can't even describe it. I shed a few tears, got pretty angry, and then started making calls.

I talked to Pamela at the orphanage (and a few other people) and Pamela was willing to bend over backwards for us and have the party today still (even though she had since rearranged her schedule to have clients all day since we were not going to be coming) and add that portion to her report. In talking to her, the social worker, and another woman from the orphanage, all reported that they had never heard of the court requiring the going away party to be included in the bonding report...if they had, they would have encouraged us to have the party earlier. Our US rep also told me that she had never heard of this requirement either. So what is really going on...we have no idea. Either the in country rep just hadn't done her portion of the work and was looking for an excuse to delay things...or, it is a new requirement that we are being subjected to. Either way, my main frustration is that MJ has not communicated with us. Why did I have to call her this morning to ask when she was showing up when she had no intention of doing so? When I talked to the social worker at the orphanage, she knew of the new problem as MJ had called her yesterday to tell her. So she told them, but not us? Doesn't something seem to be missing here? And had she notified us early enough yesterday, we could have gone ahead with the 10 am party this morning for Flor as originally planned. We will still have the party Monday, despite Pamela being ready to help us, because the orphanage had made alternate arrangements for the kids today since we canceled the party. Makes sense. Anyway, this whole ordeal is going to cost us at least 3-4 days getting to court. We have all weekend now to wait. Then the party has to be added to the bonding report, INFA has to finish their report, and then whenever MJ decides to move forward with things...I guess then we will have court.

Can you tell I am upset? Not a good start to a day that we meant to be a good day in celebration of Flor. I was pretty mad all morning but then we decided to make the most of the rest of the day anyway.

We left the house after lunch and naps and headed to the Mariscal Artesian Market, an outdoor market where tons of booths are set up with all sorts of unique and hand-made Ecuadorian items. I loved this market when I was here before, as we volunteers would walk down there (it is close to the house where I stayed) as often as we had free time.

Here is Hallie at the entrance to one of the stalls. A lot of the sellers have similar items, but that's part of the fun of it, to find who will give you the cheapest price for the same thing.

Hmmm, no one looks very pleased here, huh? Well don't worry, they all enjoyed it!

There is a large mural on the outside of the market, which has been totally re-done since my time here before! It looks pretty good.

We were able to get a few little things for the kids and some pajama pants for me, which I love. I still have a pair from six years ago at home, which is now threadbare and worn to the bone since I have worn them so many times since. After I bought new ones today, Hallie even said, "Mom, you have some of those at home." Yes, I do.

After our trip to the market, we walked back down 6 De Diciembre (yes a lot of the roads here are named after dates) to the Hospital Baca Ortiz. This is where I first met Flor as she was a patient here much of the time I was here. My friend Maria Dolores still works here (remember I met her while caring for Flor in the hospital-- she took the OSSO volunteers under her wing). We made arrangements to meet Maria Dolores at four. She took us all around the hospital, first starting on the 4th floor, where there is a large play area for the kids in the hospital. We happened to be there for a magic show that was going on . The magician was actually really good, so that was kind of fun to watch!

The outside of the hospital has been re-painted. It used to be all brown, but now it is red and white. Interesting.

Inside the waiting room. This hospital is really rather dirty and run-down, but there have been large renovations since I was there. Devin didn't think it looked too impressive still, but I was rather impressed as it has greatly improved in my view!

Maria Dolores loves Jace. When we first arrived, she promptly took him from me and disappeared for a time, leaving us in the waiting room. We presume she took him downstairs to her office to show him off to her friends. Everyone really does ogle over him as such blond haired, blue eyed babies are few and far between here.

Here are Hallie and Flor with daddy watching the magic show.

Maria Dolores helped Hallie move a little closer for a minute, but then she got scared and came back to where we were in the back. A lot of people kept trying to usher us forward and encouraged us to go up front, but we thought that was not the best idea as we are clearly heads taller than all of them and could see just fine from the back.

Maria Dolores again took Jace and put him into this swimming pool (?) filled with balls to let him play during the show. He really enjoys balls so this was right up his alley.

After the show, we made our way up to the 5th Floor, where Flor had spent her time during her stays in the hospital. This is the area where she was. It was so weird walking around there again. I pointed out to everyone the first room she was in when I met her, and then the second room when she was re-admitted. It was kind of surreal to see those places again. Like I said, everything has been re-done though, and the hospital does look a lot nicer. From my recollection, this hospital is a free hospital in Quito for children with all sorts of health problems. So you can imagine that the upkeep for a hospital making no money falls to the wayside. Not sure how the employees are paid-- Government?

Maria Dolores with the girls outside as we were getting ready to leave. She invited us to dinner next Sunday after Church, so that will be fun. I told Devin to get prepared because it will likely be chicken feet...which is what she fed Kylee and I when we were here on my second trip. It's a staple here, so he at least ought to try it, right?

After our trip to the hospital, we walked across the street to the famous KFC. This we also frequented as volunteers for the delicious 50 cent ice cream cones. Let me tell you, Ecuadorians love their KFC. We were not as big of fans, but Flor loved it and that is what matters since it is her birthday afterall. We felt bad for the woman who had to clean up our area when we were done...

That is one large plate for one little girl.

I tried to get some ice cream cones for us too, but we ended up with these huge cups of ice cream. While we were eating them, we looked at the sign to notice that they are called "American Ice Cream", so that must be why the cashier decided that that must be what we want versus a simple cone.

After the fight that is hailing a taxi, we made our way home. We had a funny experience in the taxi as the roads were really crowded and it took a while to get home. Hallie decided mid-way through that she needed to go the bathroom and that she needed to go bad. I was trying really hard to distract her by asking about her favorite shows, her friends, foods, etc. She would answer my questions, then start chanting again, "I have to go potty, I have to go potty." It got really funny when she would start rocking and hitting her leg while shouting, "I have to go potty!" I know our cab driver was alarmed...I am sure he was imagining a pee soaked seat and attempted to drive faster, though traffic didn't really allow that. I finally put a diaper under Hallie's pants, not knowing what else to do as she insisted that she was going to pee any second. Devin offered her a piece of candy if she could hold it till we got home, and that was motivation enough, though she did have a few more rocking/hitting the knee episodes before we arrived. Once we got here, Devin jumped out, sat Flor on the sidewalk (he had been holding her) and ran up the stairs as fast as possible with Hallie. It was only then that the cab driver started cracking up. It was funny as long as his seats weren't wet.

Once safely inside, we had Flor open her birthday presents. She got four books and four pairs of underwear. She liked opening the presents and wanted to read her books right away. I forgot to mention earlier that while at the hospital, a few volunteers were there giving away presents to the sick children. Well, they liked Flor and Hallie enough that they got presents too- Flor a huge sweat suit that will probably fit her in five years, and Hallie a Barbie. We felt sort of guilty taking the gifts as we know that there are many, many other people around here who could use them more than us. However, they insisted, so we are now the proud owners of a sweat suit and a Barbie. Hallie was ecstatic about her Barbie as we left all hers at home. Now she will have something to occupy her time! YAY!

Flor and her new books

And her underwear. Surely you all want to see that!

Hallie wanted to show off her Barbie too. She was dying to open it, but we made her leave it for tomorrow as it was getting close to bed time.

We had time for one book before bed. More to come later, I am sure.

The girls got these cute hats and pj pants (to match mine) at the market today. I would have had Flor pose with Hallie, but she was busy going to the bathroom (which takes up a large chunk of her time nowadays. She is doing really well with the potty training idea-- we just need to get her to tell us when she needs to go now...that would be great! More work to do, I guess!)

Alright, that's it for the long novel today. We were happy that the day was salvaged and we enjoyed celebrating Flor and her life today. We are so grateful for her birth seven years ago and to the people that brought her into this world, though we don't know them and likely never will. I thought about them often today as it is with them that her story really starts.

Happy 7th Birthday Flor! We love you and are so glad that you are (unofficially) officially part of our family now!