It’s not even 5:00PM yet, but I feel safe to write the day’s
post because I assume nothing will really happen in the next few hours. Mostly because nothing has happened all
day. Today was the first day I had
something to do. Something jotted down
in the little brown notepad I brought with me.
It has Zola’s feeding schedule (when I remember it) so I can figure out
how many ounces she’s eating per day.
And my attorney’s cell phone number – if I had a phone to use or a
reason to call her. And other such
important things, like the two things planned for today: go to the orphanage
with another family whose son was also with Zola and Skype with Wes and the
kids in the afternoon. But as anyone who
has ever spent any time in the DR Congo – and certainly any adoptive parent
waiting at St. Anne’s to take their child home – will tell you, expect
nothing. That’s usually what happens.
Zola had a good night’s sleep last night. She went down around 7:00PM, then was up at
9:30, 1:45AM, at which point she ate very little but after a lot of squirming
took a big poop, and then maybe 6. She
slept almost the whole night in her own novelty bed until 6, at which point she
ate and fell back asleep in my bed while I got ready for the day. We went down and had breakfast where I
chatted with friends. The new family who
arrived the day after me came through, and I got to say hello. There was bacon (cooked soft) and mango
along with the daily offerings of bread, spread, coffee, and tea. After breakfast, Zola and I came back
upstairs and played. I packed up all the
toys and gifts and vitamins along with supplies for Zola to take when we went
out to the orphanage. Zola went down for
a big nap at 10:00AM and slept soundly for over two hours. The new family came by to drop off my gifts
for the orphanage. Their little boy who
is two is having a hard time warming up and getting used to his parents, and
they were reticent to take him back to the orphanage just one day after leaving
there. It’s got to be so confusing for
kids that age. I’ve commented to other
moms that Zola occasionally gives me this look, especially when waking up,
like, “Oh, you. You’re still here.” She doesn’t seem sad, but maybe a little
surprised. I imagine I’m one of few
White people she’s ever seen.
When noon passed with no one knocking at my door, I made the
safe assumption that the orphanage visit was not going to happen. Which is fine. It may or may not happen while I’m here, and
if not, the attorney will get all the gifts and donations over there. I ate a little for lunch. So did Zola.
She pooped three times. We played
a little more. We went to the common
area where a pastor and his wife and two children were sitting. The little boy was very curious about Zola
and came over to play with her, making his toys climb around her and hiding a
small one in her pocket. He found a
small wad of Play-Doh and put his hands behind me and hid it, then brought them
forward and made me guess which one it was in.
Then he would give it to me and I had to hide it for him. Zola wearied eventually, and I brought her
back to the room for a bottle, after which she fell asleep for maybe half an
hour. She woke up happy and babbling and
pooped again. It’s turn from a gray to
green and now to more of a yellow color.
About the same time as her second nap, the internet stopped
working. I can’t tell right now if it’s
my devices or the service itself. It
shows full bars on the network I’ve been using, but when I try to connect, it
says “Unable to join the network.” And
so out went my second scheduled activity of the day. I was very much looking forward to seeing
everyone and letting them see Zola. I
walked downstairs later and was able to join a different network that let me at
least download a few emails. I tried
Skype on my phone, but to no avail. I’m
really hoping this is temporary.
Our walk around the building put Zola back to sleep. I have to admit I’m a little nervous about
tonight. Hopefully she’s just overly
tired from not enough sleep the first two days together and she can now sleep
more soundly tonight. I did learn last
night that she sometimes makes a lot of noise even when she’s asleep, so I’m
trying to wait to pick her up and try to feed her until I’m convinced she’s
really awake. It interrupts my own sleep
more, but it’s better for her and me long term if she goes longer stretches at
night without a bottle.
There’s another storm rolling in that has kept the
temperature down and brought a nice breeze.
Each room on this side of the building has a screened in room separated
from the rest of the air-conditioned space.
Zola and I sat out there some this afternoon and just enjoyed the
breeze. It overlooks the river, where
there’s lots of big equipment for – so far as I can tell – logging (based on
the number of cut trees laying in a pile).
I snapped a picture to show Oliver that Lofty is right outside J
So that’s my day. A
whole of nothing, but in the company of a delightful (if sleepy and poopy)
companion.
8:54PM update: So maybe not nothing. My attorney came by a little while
later. We are going to go out to the
orphanage and foster home tomorrow. I’m
not sure if the day got switched, or Sunday came out Saturday in her original
statement. She was happy to see Zola,
and one of Zola’s foster sisters from Eva’s was there, too. We made plans to get a goat and a bag of
grain for Momma Eva as a gift.
Evidently, that runs about $230.
A little more than I expected, honestly, but not nearly enough for the
work that she does. We can afford, so
why not. I also found out that Jacky has
not received any of the money we’ve
sent for our legal fees. She didn’t
realize we’d sent Moneygrams instead of wires to her bank (I didn’t know we
were supposed to), and so she hasn’t picked up a single one. My first thought was – you did our whole
adoption without having received any money?
And my second thought was – why didn’t someone tell me this months
ago?! I gave her the receipts for all
three payments, and she’s going to try to pick them up on Monday. If she can’t, Wes will go to the place where
I ordered them and get refunded the cash.
I can then, in turn, take money out here and pay Jacky. I also found out
that our payments included eight months of foster care – which I knew, but I
thought it was just a payment towards that, not an actual monthly fee. Since Zola was in foster care for less than 4
months, we’ll get $2000 of our fees back.
That’ll buy a few goats.
Jacky was having trouble getting ahold of the other family,
so I relayed their message about their little boy being sad and reserved and
their hesitation in taking him back to foster care. Jacky said that he had been in foster care
for two months and hadn’t spoken once the entire time. Evidently, sad and reserved is just his way –
so far anyway. She said she wasn’t sure
what happened to him before he went to the orphanage, but she feared someone
had been very unkind to him, making him like he is. I asked his new parents about it, and they
said they had wondered the same thing.
He cries a lot with them, especially when he wakes up. Such little people. Such hard lives. And so many of them here.
After Zola’s 7:00PM bottle, I went downstairs to see if I
could get an internet connection to Skype with Wes and the kids. Alas, there was none, but I found many of my
friends downstairs waiting for pizza to be delivered, and they invited me to
join them. We waited a while, making
small talk in the lobby while the babies babbles and rubbed their eyes. The pizza came. It was good. It’s probably the first real food I’ve
had since I got here a few days ago.
Another mom who was hoping to leave tomorrow got a long-awaited phone
call from her attorney, who told her that she did not yet have her exit letter
– something about a piece of paper missing from a file – and she has rebooked
her flight for Wednesday, hoping it comes – as her attorney promises it will –
by Monday, but giving herself a bit of a window, too. By this time, Zola was ready for a bottle and bed, so we said goodnight. An agency coordinator walking through offered
bananas, which I accepted. We’ll have
some for breakfast tomorrow.
So our Saturday plans got moved to Sunday. I found out that over $14,000 paid has never
been received, but that will hopefully be rectified on Monday, and we’re
getting $2,000 of it back. And a goat
and some grain cost $230 in the DRC. And
I ate some pizza and got some bananas.
Compared with the rest of the day, I’d say that’s not bad for three
hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment