Life With Janaa

Today we visited the orphanage.  It was an experience.  We were given a book with her tiny footprint at 20 days old.  She was so tiny.  We even have a photo at 20 days when she was brought to the orphanage.  They had a huge file of papers that were not offered to us so I asked them if we could have copies of them.  At first she was reluctant.  She wanted to know why we would want them especially if they were in Thai.  I had asked her if she had any photos of her mom and was told that they did not. However, in the 3 papers she did copy for me was a copy of her birth mom's government ID card.  The copy we have is hard to make out, but Rachel thought quickly and asked to see their copy so we have a vague image in our minds.  She doesn't look a lot like her mom expect for in her passport photo there is a little resemblance.  That was a HUGE blessing.  We still don't know what her twin was. She is the younger by 10 minutes. 

We were not asked many questions and they were so kind.  The director of the orphanage is new and seems to be doing an incredible job.  It was good to meet her also.

From there we went to the mall where daddy and Janaa played in the playplace for a bit while the Rachels went shopping.  Tonight Lydia and Mint came over to watch the kids while the adults when out for the evening.  We were able to get most of our souvenir shopping complete.  I'm sorry to make this short.  The next few days are extremely busy.  There is so much to do in 2 and a half days.  I'm sure there's no way it is approaching so quickly.  Brent is struggling to stay awake and aware.  I'm afraid he's not going to remember too much.  Janaa is still do so well, but she's really struggling in her own way.  She knows things are getting close.  Anyway, pray for her little heart. 

Tomorrow morning is the Elephant Camp and tomorrow evening is the Night Safari.

Brent arrived this morning in Chiang Mai.  How sweet it was to see Janaa and her daddy together.  She's still working on calling him daddy.  He was Brent for her whole life.  Please, don't be shocked if our child calls us by our first names for awhile.  We had to buy him flowers, Janaa insisted.  She was so excited to give him a big hug.  They had a few quality hours together this morning reading and taking some video. 

After everyone was out of church Rachel had an open house for her family and friends here to say goodbye.  Many of the people she is closest to have to leave for a conference down south.  It was really great that Brent was able to meet everyone.  I am confident that we made the right choice for him to leave earlier than planned.  It's easier to understand your child when you understand their world. While it was exciting because Brent had just arrived and we had lots of people to meet it was also very difficult.  I have a huge appreciation for her life here.  My time here has been short, but I feel as if I have known most of her friends forever.  I understand even more how much she will miss everyone.  I will miss them and I've only known them for 2 weeks.  It is also very difficult knowing that she may not see some of them again.  I pray that she will, but there's no way of knowing for sure. 

She handled it all so well.  I know she's only 3, but it boggles my mind to see what she understands.  She knew full well that this was goodbye to Emma.  I'm going to miss Emma.  How much more will she miss Emma?  They are so close and love each other so much. That's a lot for a little girl who's friends have been her family.  The child is so loved it's phenominal. 

This has been a unique adoption in that normally the family goes and picks up their child at the orphanage.  They do the necessary things to complete the adoption then they are home filled with joy. Okay, so there are more emotions than that.  I don't think most adoptive families deal with the grief in the way that we are.  Yes, I am overjoyed to bring her home to our family, but there are a lot of hard goodbyes before we get there.   On the flip side, I doubt there have been many transitions this flawless (so far).  Sure she's had moments where she's struggled, but it has been near perfect.  Do I expect that it will stay this simple?  No, but our past 2 weeks have been atypical for an adoption.  I really think having so much time with her online, having a mommy who really talked and explained things to her and the amazing grace of God have made all the difference in the world. 

Though the goodbyes were and still are hard, the "Hello" is one of those moments that will separate itself from all others in life.  Tomorrow at 9:00 we have a meeting at the orphanage.  Things seem to be okay now.  They don't seem to have a real issue with us being here with her already, but please continue that we will have the right words to say and that it could in some way be a testimony to those Rachel works with often.

I'm very sorry there's no photo.  I just spent an hour trying to make it work but I must go to bed.  It's 1:00 a.m. here and tomorrow is a very important day.  I'll try to load more in facebook tomorrow.

We visited the doctor's office today to make sure we had all of Janaa's medical information and shots up todate.  I got to meet her physician that has taken care of her since she was only a few weeks old.  He really cares about her personally.  She's even mentioned multiple times that he's her friend and she's going to miss him.  It's not often that you find physicians who care as much as he does.

Janaa did not want her shots, but I couldn't really blame her.  However, Mommy Rachel is great at planning ahead for these things so there were mini m&ms to take the pain away after the shots.

We visited a great pottery outlet and spent the majority of the day with Kosharah and Emma.  What fun the girls have together.

This week has flown by and crept by all at the same time...if that's possible. Tomorrow will be our last day without Brent being here. Janaa is so excited to see her daddy.  She said she's going to give him the biggest hug.  She "misses him a lot".   She's also counting on hiding her head in his shoulder at the Night Safari's light show.  It scares her.  I am sure that the next week will be so busy we won't realize it is passing us by. 

She wasn't too sleepy tonight at bedtime so we laid and bed chatting for a bit.  She's really going to miss her friends here.  She has some great ideas to send packages, letters and drawings to keep intouch with her friends and "family" here.  However, she is also very excited to meet her new friends in America.  It amazes me how much she understands and that she talks about it so well.  It's hard to remember she's only 3.  I had prayed that God would give her understanding beyond her short years, and I believe He has. I think it makes it so much easier.  She's amazing!  She's knows who many family members are already.  She talks about how much she misses them and they miss her.  It's really precious.

For my students...Give it all you have this weekend.  Nothing is better than winning States at home!  Sydney, J and I were chatting about her new name tonight.  Janaa said, "Hey, you have a Sydney at home. We talked to her."   It was really cute!

By they way, those of you who were communicating with me through MSN Messenger will need Skype if you need us.  MSN crashes my computer everytime I login. Hopefully, Brent can fix it when he gets here, but you never know.

I contacted the orphanage today as I was instructed to do.  However, they didn't even know that Janaa had been given a meeting date.  They asked where I was staying and I had to tell them I was staying with Rachel.  They called Rachel within 10 minutes of talking to me. They were kind of upset that they didn't know I was in the country or staying with Rachel.  Please pray that they will not be too upset over this.  It shouldn't hurt our adoption, but it could hurt Rachel's relationship with the orphanage.  Pray also that we will know exactly how to answer their questions. We have nothing to hide or to be dishonest about, but too much information may not be a good thing either.  We will have questions at the orphanage and in Bangkok.

Brent leaves in about 24 hours.  It will be good to have him here.