Guardianship

Today was an awesome day... probably the best yet.

We were kind of dreading going to the Children's Home today because yesterday it was so overwhelming.  We were planning to do some shopping this afternoon so we weren't going to stay too long.  We ended up getting a late start because traffic was so terrible.  We didn't arrive until 11 am and the first hour was spent visiting with the director of the Home.  She was wonderful.  She was one of the founders of the Home when it first started in the 80's and she has an obvious passion for children.  We planned to leave by 2.  Didn't happen.  After we left the director's office, we were snatched up by the older children who took great pride in giving us a full tour of the lesser known areas of the Home... such as the roof!  It was hilarious.  Then they took us to the guest room and told us to wait there while they served us tea.  They took Jada for lunch and we were sitting there staring at each other for about a 1/2 hour trying to figure out what to do, when several girls wandered in with Jada and nail polish. They painted Jada's and my fingernails and touched up the red dye on my feet.  Then Jeremy started showing them all the pictures of our family on his iPhone.  THEN he took pictures of them on his phone and showed them how he could distort their pictures with one of the applications.  They thought that was hilarious.  As he did this, they asked VERY nicely if they could paint his nails!  This too they thought would be hilarious!  He decided it wouldn't be the end of the world to have red-painted toe nails, so he agreed to their request.  He walked around the rest of the day trying not to let the other adult men see his nails (you walk around barefoot)!  The girls then served us lunch.  It was wonderful and Jeremy asked who made it, so they took us to the kitchen so we could meet the cook.

After lunch we signed guardianship papers and then we had a surprise for the children - we had made arrangements to have ice cream brought in for the entire Home!  150 children and the workers!  A man delivered a large cooler full of cartons of ice cream.  All of the children got large servings and the office workers and teachers even came out to participate.  It was so hot out that it melted quickly and was dripping off their plates.  Jeremy taught some of the boys how to fold their plates into a V so they could pour the melted ice cream into their mouths.  We had so much fun and it was the highlight of our day.  Jeremy went around with the camcorder and interviewed the kids so Jada would have that when she is older.  They are learning English in the Home and tried very hard to communicate with us.

There were 2 school-aged girls that we fell in love with.  They stuck near us most of our visit and were always trying to hold our hands or put an arm around us.  We talked to the social worker about these girls because only about 1/2 of the children in the home are actually available to be adopted.  We wanted to know if they were available or, if not, if it would possible for us to sponsor them to help them get an education.  We found out that they are both part of sibling groups and have families in the US who are working to adopt them.  It was a huge weight lifted when we heard this and we asked the girls about their families in America.  They beamed as they talked about this.

We were most impressed with the Home.  They are poor.  By US standards it appears run-down and nothing is up to code (I almost had a heart attack when Jada stood at an upstairs railing looking down at me and she could fit her head between the rungs!).  But the workers very obviously love children.  They teach the kids job skills and those who are not adopted will most likely stay until they are 21 at which time the Home is able to help arrange a marriage.  The Home will also pay for the marriage fees as the children have no families to provide that support.  We learned that the Home doesn't receive hardly any government money - only 300 rupees per child each month.  That is about the equivalent of 6 US dollars and does not stretch very far, particularly for those with medical needs.  They depend largely on child sponsorship programs.  Three hundred dollars a year can provide them with an education.  So I have a feeling that child sponsorship is in our future.  We knew that going to the Home would tug at our hearts to bring home "just one more" but we'd have to be crazy to take that on right now... though I do suspect that Jeremy has a soft spot for some of the older sibling groups.

We left around 4:30 to an entire entourage of kids and caregivers.  Jada waved and said "Bye!" to everyone.  She slept for most of the car ride.  When we walked into the hotel she started to whimper but she soon loosened up and ate a good dinner in the hotel.  We changed her into pjs when her eyes started rolling up into her head.  Jeremy asked her if she wanted to sleep and made a sleeping motion with his hands under his head and she nodded vigorously that she did.  She was literally asleep in less than a minute.

We didn't make it shopping but have a date with Jada's nurse to take us out tomorrow morning.  In the evening we leave to return to Delhi.  We are all EXHAUSTED and really need to catch up on sleep.  We'll try to post more tomorrow.

Good night!