Mall Day/Foster Family Visit

What a great smile!

What an amazing and emotionally draining day!

Today was Mall Day/Foster Family Visit

The short of it - Nice mall, great lunch, 2nd visit in our hotel room, long ride to the foster home, very emotional time and long ride back. Headache and tired.

The Details -

We met Mia in the lobby this morning and both families and social workers rode in a van to a mall. This is a different mall than the other ones we have talked about. It is very nice - still have only found one Thai doll which is very big and way too old for her - bought a sweater and bubbles. It was interesting to see Mia’s reaction to the store. She was very calm, did not want to touch anything and we couldn’t get a reaction from any toy we showed her. It’s the same reaction she had with the toys we brought. She could care less. She did like the lights and decorations. But she has never been to a store like this so it was very overwhelming. For those of you in the process, we only shopped for an hour. I always thought it was about 4 hours of shopping so I was relieved.

Lunch was nice. Mia ate some rice with broth, pork and carrots. She also had her first french fry ever (Pat from Holt gave it to her not me) and that one fry was obviously something she really liked!!!

Mia was really good in our room. She cried a couple times but only for a minute. The key is we can’t put her down...at all...until she’s sleeping. We have a huge window and when she cried we would tap on it and say whew look at the cars, etc. and that seemed to work for now. She loves TV. She followed the TVs at the mall and then seemed relieved that we had one too. She sighed like oh thank goodness! Guess it will be another 18 years before I get to pick my channel. LOL

We got several smiles out of her today and Chris managed to score the first giggle - it was ever so slight but it happened. Matt and Mark have been SO good with her. They have been patient and loving so hopefully, that will continue. They also have been great with the long days and transitions. Thank Goodness!

We drove to the foster home which is very nice. They have a lot of green fruit trees which were so beautiful and tranquil especially in the craziness that is Bangkok. We were encouraged to ask questions, take pictures and visit. It was very emotional - watching a mom who has raised and loved this girl 24/7 for 11 months grieve because it is her last day with Mia, she is unsure of when or if she will ever see her again in person - that is one of the saddest things I’ve witnessed. It’s just a reminder of all the loss that adoption encompasses. We are so blessed in this process but we are sensitive to the fact that while we are blessed, there are so many people around us who have loved and supported this little girl for us and they will miss this little girl so much and she will miss them. It will be ok but it’s a process that will take some time.

So - tomorrow is custody day, gotcha day, placement day. She will arrive at the hotel at 11:00 AM. We plan to spend the day at the zoo.

Some More Pics - That's what you want anyway! ;)

Girl loves her bottle!

It was my fault - I let her feet touch the ground for a second!

Sound asleep - a princess on all her pillows! Yes - we will take her shoes off when she's sleeping but we were getting ready to leave so we left them on.