Upon our arrival, we were greeted with the news that our daughter began looking for us outside the windows this morning and began pitching a fit when she thought we were not coming. That is good news, friends! That means she is looking forward to our time together and that she remembers us.

The bad news is that we only have one more day of visiting her until we go home for a few weeks. Knowing she anticipates our coming, it breaks my heart that we have to leave her here a bit longer. To be honest, when we adopted DOP and had to leave her between trips, it didn’t really bother me. She was in a good orphanage and was in good hands I felt peace about it. Maybe some of it had to do with her personality too. She walked into the room and commanded our attention. She still is like that today. I attribute her feisty personality to her survival. Anika, on the other hand, has a very passive personality and some of her reactions exhibit a bit of fear when she does something wrong. Her mannerisms cower a bit, like she’s anticipating something negative for her actions. My assessment is that she is probably a generally quiet child by nature, but some of it has been amplified as her way of survivial.

I can see by the physical surroundings, the buildings, the playground, the flowers everywhere, the toys, the orphanage dogs, cats and rabbits that her facility is well taken care of. However, the more time I spend there it becomes more and more clear as to who loves their job and genuinely loves the children and who is just doing a job. Often times the children in her groupa, who are playing a small distance away are crying and fighting while the caregivers sit at the table and talk, oblivious to what is going on with the children. You will see this scene at orphanage after orphanage,so please don’t think I am picking on her orphanage.

I have seen previous pictures of my daughter with bite marks all over her arm and noticed some during our times visiting on this trip. Yes, biting is age-appropriate and yes, she is technically in good hands because her orphanage is in good shape, but you know what? Good facilities and a few genuinely caring people will never replace a family. To be blunt, it’s those few people in just the right places that have a special place for her in their heart that are doing the most loving act for her. They are not keeping her to themselves. They are doing the hard work of doing what it takes to make her adoptable so that she can experience true love.

Not only for my daughter but for every caregiver out there who puts their own self-interests aside for the greater benefit of that child.

I did not cry when we left DOP, but tomorrow (and every day after that) will be difficult until we can bring her home.  My daughter needs to get out of the group care setting and be in a loving family that will dote on her, look her in the face, hold her and do whatever it takes to see her bloom.

We anticipate that we will return to her country within the next 6-8 weeks to go to court to finalize her adoption. We will then return home for 9-10 days. Her country has a standard 10-day waiting period. During our previous adoption we stayed in-country during that time, bringing our total time there to one month. We found that it was just as expensive, if not more, to stay and pay for hotel/food rather than purchase an additional set of airline tickets. It was also extremely hard on our kids at home for us to be gone that long. So this time around, we will come home during that waiting period. After those days are over, we will be able to return to pick her up. We hope that we will finally get to bring her home before the end of summer. What a joyous time of celebration that will be!

You can pray for us about this time apart, but more than anything, I ask you to pray for dear, sweet Anika in the wait time. Pray that somehow she understands that we will be back for her. We have left a “family book” for her full of our pictures, but it’s a far cry from her real family!