Day 31-Last Vist before Court

Maria's View-

We woke up to a rainy, dreary day and I'm so thankful that we haven't had to deal with many of these days.  Griffin is definitely an outside kind of guy.  We had to go upstairs to the indoor play area.  However, there were a few groupas practicing a performance on the carpet.  So we pulled up some chairs and watched them perform.  It was so adorable!  The different groupas had their own singing and dancing parts...some had speaking parts.  Even the nannies were involved in some way or form.  One of the songs appeared to have a gorilla (a nanny) and a baby gorilla (one of the cutest girls I have ever seen) and they stomped around and sang.  We really enjoyed it but Griffin was kind of out of it today.  He was pleasant, just not active.  We gave him Giraffe Meat and he sat in our laps content on just chewing on it.  After the groupas were finished with rehearsal, we were able to put him on the carpet and let him play.  All he really wanted to do was chew on G.M.  So we just had a relaxed visit with him.

The nanny surprised us with a glass of juice.  She tried to get him to drink it and he did drink a bit but then started chewing on the glass.  It is so obvious that he does not drink like this and that he uses a bottle.  I am so thankful that he takes our sippy cup without a problem!  She didn't force him to drink, she just kind of gave up, so I was actually thankful for that. 

Afterwards, we decided to go to the grocery store and bought his groupa some animal crackers and bananas for a whopping $4.00.  Hopefully, the children will actually get to enjoy these items. :-)  We also bought another pack of Pampers, just in case.  We are going to attempt to leave G.M. with him, along with a picture of us so that he can hopefully remember who we are and not quickly forget!

For the evening visit, we translated that "today is our last day to visit and that we have court tomorrow.  We have to go back home but will return after the 10 day waiting period.  May we please leave this photograph and toy for him to play with?"  She nodded yes and took all of the items from us and that was that.  I REALLY hope they will let the children have their treats!  And I really hope they will show our picture to Griffin every day.

It had stopped raining outside so we were able to play outdoors this evening.  Griffin was not his normal self and was a bit sluggish.  Right at the very end, his nose started running, so I'm assuming he isn't feeling well.  We tried to get him to walk and slide at the train and he just didn't feel up to it.  So we headed to an empty play shed.  The nanny walked by right as I stood Griffin up against the railing of the play shed and motioned that they had been painting.  OOPS.  I looked at our hands and we both had yellow paint on our palms.  The nanny laughed, got a cloth and paint thinner,  yes, paint thinner, and cleaned our hands off.  Griffin giggled as she was wiping his hands, I guess it was tickling him.  Too cute!  The nanny got tickled too as he kept laughing.  You can't help but laugh when Griffin laughs.  It's contagious!

So once our visit was through, it pained me to have to take him back to the room for the last time.  I really wish we didn't have to leave him but there's nothing we can do about that.  We left Giraffe Meat with him and hopefully the nanny will let him have it to sleep with at night. 

Please pray that Griffin remembers us and that the wait will go by so quickly!  Also, please pray that we do well in court and that we say exactly what they want to hear!  I'll let you know how it goes!  Court is at 4:00pm our time and we are about 8 hours ahead of central time.   Thank you!




Chris's View:

Today's blog is about a practice here in the adoption process that I don't fully agree with, but I feel we need to comply and just shut up & go with the flow.  It's the process of gifting.  The gifts go a long way in 1, thanking people, and 2, getting things done.  THEY ARE NOT BRIBES, and they are totally optional to give.  Everyone gives the gifts though.

There are several people involved in the process outside of our facilitation team.  There is the orphanage director, the head doctor, head nurse, judge, social worker, secretary & 4 nannies.  Each of these people are expecting a gift since they "invested" time into our little dude or the adoption process.  The kicker is that the whole time we were here, they said not to worry about the gifts and that our facilitator would help us out, and kind of show us what to get... yeah, then our facilitator leaves the region for an extended period of time and now we have court tomorrow... oh, she gets back in the morning, so no time to shop.  It's all on us.  I talked with her and we got the nannies worked out.  The only advice she offered for the "executives" is that the item CANNOT look cheap.  Um... that's a little subjective, huh?  I mean, to me, cargo shorts & a Southern Miss t-shirt with leather sandals is actually acceptable for church, so my interpretation of cheap, I feel, is a little different than what theirs might me... in fact, my wife surely thinks I should not wear that outfit to church!  LOL!

The nannies were easy, since the facilitator actually told us what to get for them.  They prefer chocolate and champagne... which makes me wonder... are they drinking the champagne on the job?  I could see them getting sloshed and having to take care of a room full of children!  Ugh!  Actually, if you remember from an earlier blog of mine, adults here take drinking to a whole new level, and it is not uncommon for them to drink 5-6 bottles of Vodka in a sitting.  A glass or two of champagne will do nothing to a constitution like that.  The chocolates are Esfero.  I have never heard of them, but they kind of look like Ferrero Rocher, which I have seen.  I think Maria actually has had the Ferrero Rocher and liked them.  The chocolates run about $6.25 per box.  Not too bad.  I think champagne runs about half that.  Look, I ain't buying Dom Perignon... it took me 15 years of military service & getting a line to Master Sergent before I was gifted a bottle of Dom!  They'll have to settle for the cheap stuff!  LOL!

We think we figured out what to get the "executives" involved though... hopefully it will be acceptable.  They have these nice writing pens at a center kiosk at the Karavan mall.  They say they are Mont Blanc, which are pretty nice pens from what I gather.  I cannot say if they are real or fake though.  That kind of concerns me.  I mean, I have to come back and get paperwork that is prepared by the judge, social worker & secretary, so I definitely DO NOT want that stuff delayed.  I need them to be happy and satisfied with the item we give them.  IT IS NOT A BRIBE!  It is a gift... but I am sure they work harder for those that give nice gifts than those who opt not to give a gift at all.  Slightly different from America where "It's the thought that counts."  One more thing for me to stress out about I guess... I'll just have to heap that one on to the pile of stress we are already carrying!  LOL!

See ya'll tomorrow!