Making Progress

Wow, this has been a FANTASTIC day! I'm so sorry for all the doom and gloom of my previous posts. I know it makes for pretty depressing blog reading. But I think it must have gotten a lot of you to pray for us - because today was a complete turnaround!

Nandini spent the morning crying, but she perked up as soon as we left the hotel. We finally had another "A-ha!" lightbulb moment when we realized why she hates the hotel so much. She loves the hustle and bustle of India. That's what she's used to - not the quiet room of of just three people. Remember, she shared her room with 22 other kids. She's used to the noise and the sound of the traffic outside.

We were gone all day today. We started off at the doctor's office. We went yesterday at 4:00 because it says he's open from 4-6 pm. But he wasn't in and we were told to come back today. So we got there at 9:00 and waited for an hour and 40 minutes. At 10:40 his Mercedes pulled up and he came in. The whole examination lasted less than 3 minutes. Then, we were off to the Embassy, where we whizzed through in record time. We waited about 30 minutes, our interview was about 2 minutes and our visa was granted in 15 more minutes! We then headed off to Pizza Hut. It's funny because my favorite food in the world is Indian food, but I'm not used to eating it 3 meals a day. That Pizza Hut menu was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. After that, we headed off to the Central Cottage Industries Emporium on Janpath Rd (you have to specify which one or the drivers will take you to the State Emporiums) and I bought a book on Indian Folk Tales for Nandini when she gets older. After that, we headed back into rush hour and made it to the hotel.

Nandini was a real trooper. She has taken to Mom like you wouldn't believe. She's been climbing all over her like a little monkey. She's been saying, Mommy, Daddy, Nonna, Papa, Eli, Noah, Bye, Up, and No-No-No-No while shaking her finger at us. This is the first time she's talked to us. She finally started playing with Ruchi, the 5 year old whose family is here from CT and she's been giving smiles out like crazy. She still doesn't like for me to hold her - she cries and reaches for Mom, but she is coming around. We also bought her a toy with 5 wooden pegs that has different shapes to slide on the pegs and she arranged them all by shape on the first try. She's really smart. We were really impressed.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know how fantastic today went. Who knows what it'll be like tomorrow - but today was an answered prayer.

Tomorrow is our last day here (!!!) and we're meeting one of the international students I worked with at UNT. He was at UNT when we came here 5 years ago to adopt Noah and his wife showed us around. Now, he's back in India and we'll meet up with him and his wife at 10:00 in the morning. Then, we leave for the airport around 10:00 at night. Our flight is at 1:20am and we go straight to Paris. I think it's a 9 hour flight. Then, we have a 6 hour layover and fly straight to DFW. That takes 11 hours. Whew. Just look for the three tired and cranky chicas and that'll be us. :-)

Thanks for all your prayers! We appreciate them.

Leslie