Spending the day with Sweeti!

Ashraya--the item at the left of the picture is a bassinet for leaving your baby in. There is a bell to ring. On the right is Sweeti's baby home.

On Thursday, our day began quite early, around 3 a.m. I was up again today around the same time. Perhaps it's best, to have our bodies on Amsterdam time, half way between home and India.

After breakfast, we went down to the front desk and had them arrange a driver to take us to Ashraya. He arrived around 10 a.m. While it was not far to Ashraya one intersection was particularly treacherous. The directions were not all that difficult, up one block, over several blocks, and then up about a half block, but driving again was crazy, which is why we later walked home.

The driver thought he was to wait for us outside Ashraya and that he was our driver pretty much for the day. However, we were going to be staying there all day. The language/culture barrier made sending him away difficult. Eventually, the Ashraya people explained to him that we did not want him and to stay and that we would rather pay him and dismiss him.

We were greeted warmly by those in charge of Ashraya. After having us remove our shoes, they brought us to where Sweeti was almost immediately. In a room full of cribs, with a large rug in the center of the floor, she was inside a play tent with a few of her favorite toys, squeaky bugs. She looked nervous and curious. When we would try to get her to come out of the tent, she would shake her head. Amy and I would try playing with her toys in front of her, reaching in to the tent, but she would look uninterested. She stayed in there for some time until one of the Aunties brought her out. Other kids came around us, some wanting to sit on my lap. Eventually Sweeti sat with Amy. (Amy probably will tell her part later.)

When it was playtime,we went into a porch-like room with lots of toys. We played with the children for some time. On another side of the room, Shawn could hear children practicing writing their letters. He went over to them and asked them their names and ages, which were around 5 to 7. About the same age as our kindergartner at home who is learning the same thing. A boy called Shawn "Uncle," when he wanted to show him stuff. Another adoptive parent from America was visiting her child which she later got to take home to the motel for the evening, but she will not be taking him home to California since her court procedures have not been completed. She was an Indian-American. There was another white person there, a French woman who comes to help with therapy.

From the playroom, we put our shoes back on and played outside with Sweeti and the other children. She pushed a wheeled walker toy we had seen her with in pictures. She was allowing Amy to hold her and even Shawn by now.

When it was lunch time, we came inside and removed our shoes. While some kids a little older were gathered around the table in the same room they played in before, Sweeti and some other toddlers and babies ate in a room with cribs. An older Auntie was the one Sweeti was accustomed to feeding her, so she would take food from her and not from us so readily. The Auntie was much faster than Shawn putting the spoon of food in her mouth before she got a chance to turn her head. Eventually she finished her lunch and washed it down with a few sips of milk from a sippy cup.

After lunch, the kids had naptime from 1 to 3 p.m. Shawn put Sweeti in the crib. She was reluctant to sleep at first, but an Auntie told her lay down and she did. The kids here are very obedient to the Aunties. Even the little ones and developmentally delayed listen to directions and line up when told.

Surprisingly, we were told that since the orphanage was getting ready for a big gathering on Saturday, a reunion of in country adoptees and their children, that we would be receiving our paperwork after lunch. Lunch was ordered for us, vegetarian Indian food that was very good and a bottled water. There was so much that we could not finish it all. We wanted to save some for supper, but when we told this to one of the workers she gave us a funny look and someone else took our to-go bag away when he had eaten what we could. We had taken less time for lunch than the staff, so we went outside to sit out in the breezy warm air.

A while later, the woman in charge came by and wondered why were sitting in the sun and that we could sit in the office until she called us in for paperwork. She told us it would be 10 minutes, which in reality was closer to a half an hour. The meeting with those in charge went very well. They gave us complete medical paperwork on Sweeti as well as the documentation regarding her arrival at Ashraya from the Sisters of Mercy convent. We were asked regarding our reasons for adopting. The lady in charge commented on how good it will be for Sweeti to come into a home with other children and how she will learn things from them, such as picking up language. We signed a book where they log children's parents, and were given a book of Indian folktales to read to Sweeti. It had great illustrations and was signed by the members of the Ashraya board.

I asked about whether she knew if the Sisters of Mercy had baptized Sweeti, and it sounded as though they most likely did not, since the Sisters place children in homes from various religions- Islam, Christian, Hindu etc. She also explained that Ashraya does not have the children there follow any certain religion, and that the children would take on the religion of their parents.

This lady also wanted to discuss the U.S. election. She was an ardent supporter of a government run medical program. We told her the majority in our village had voted for McCain, and she asked if we were disappointed in the outcome. We explained how McCain had never been our first choice from his party and also that we had hoped Hillary would have been the Democratic candidate. We did not express our political philosophy with her but stayed more general with our comments on the various personalities in the election, the media, and the election process, i.e., the very lengthy primary season for both parties.

We were told that we could take Sweeti with us to the hotel on Friday! Wow! We will order supper in the hotel then and have them cook up some rice and kid food for Sweeti. This is a day sooner than expected and will help us bond with her before the many hours on the plane. I told those in charge about the aid we had brought, and we in turn were given mail from Ashraya to WACAP and AIAA to send when we get home.

When this pleasant meeting was over, we went back to the building where the children were. Many kids were now calling Shawn "Uncle" and sitting on his lap or wanting him to hold them. It was very fun to play with them.

The therapist who works with Sweeti, a Christian woman named Jennifer came and wanted to show us how she encourages Sweeti to walk. Sweeti walks well when holding on to a grown-ups hand but will loose confidence when the hand is taken away. Jennifer said she tells the kids to stand up, saying, "Stand up, stand up for Jesus!" She belongs to the Church of South India. We had heard of that before since a couple from Hillsboro OR that would visit our vicarage congregation belonged to that body. Sweeti was given a biscuit (a sweet cracker), and we were given black tea with sugar and a light salty, cookie like snack.

The rest of kids went out to play. Jennifer told Shawn to pick up Sweeti and that they could go sit on the couch in the office, which they did. Sweeti clung to Shawn and lay her head on his chest, much like her brother and sister in the States did as babies. She did that for quite a while. It was great bonding. A woman at the desk entering data on a computer said that I was Sweeti's sofa. Amy commented that she was going to be a "daddy's girl." I hope so!

At 5 p.m., the office was clearing out. We took our now empty suitcase and decided to walk back, thinking it would be much less crazy than being in a vehicle. It was. As long as we walked confidently, people pretty much ignored us, except for a couple auto rickshaw drivers who would have driven us back. We passed many fruit venders, shops, Chinese restaurants, and even a cow. There were many pedestrians but not to the point of being crowded. Everyone was doing their own thing. We were able to find our way back to the hotel. It was a good confidence builder and helped us feel less disoriented.

When we got back to the motel, we were tired, since we played all day, had finally gotten to see Sweeti, and had been up since 3 a.m. After some reading and TV, we fell asleep around 6:30 p.m. and now have woken again at about 2:30 a.m. We are planning on going to Ashraya today in the afternoon, since we won't have paperwork to do today and wouldn't know what to do when all the kids take their afternoon naps.