After lunch, he was Daddy's. And Daddy was his. Period. Daddy got himself a little Shadow, and he never let go--for most of the rest of our time in India. :) My husband was a rock star, holding Tom, comforting him, entertaining him, and in every other way taking care of him. The fact that Tom had chosen Daddy as his comfort person was such a blessing, as I had so many details--paperwork, communication, and the ever-elusive passport--to take care of. But it is worth saying that Hoffbeast was sooooo patient. Sooooo patient!!!! I feel like it would have been exhausting to have Tom attached to me constantly, but Daddy never seemed to mind, and if he did mind, he didn't let it show. This was his son, after all! :) He would do anything to keep him safe and help make him feel all the love that his new family had for him!
While walking back to the "family room", we saw an SUV parked in the courtyard downstairs and were told that an Indian family had come to adopt one of the babies. Basundhara has an active campaign of trying to educate families in India about adoption, and only the children who find no family there will be allowed to be adopted internationally.
The separation from Soudemani had exhausted Tom, and he quickly went to his go-to how-to-deal-with-stress M.O.--sleep!
So Hoffbeast napped, too! :)
After naps, it was lunchtime for us, Swati and her helper brought in delicious food as well as the thing we were craving most--water! (I'm not really mentioning the heat much because it's not what stands out in my memory about our time there......but it was HOT! Totally worth it, but HOT nonetheless!)
One of the beautiful teenage girls at Basundhara...if she isn't adopted, she will go to the older girls' home soon to either learn a trade or perhaps, to come back and nanny at Basundhara. She was embarrassed and didn't want me taking her picture, but I'm so glad that I insisted! What a gorgeous smile! :)
Next, it was time for a tour of Basundhara....this is the medical intake room where kids are first examined by a doctor when they arrive at the orphanage. The wall decorations were...interesting...and kinda funny. It was strange and wonderful to stand in that room, knowing that our little guy had been examined there as a baby and that all the information we had of his medical history had started there. Like much at the orphanage, it was sparse....sparse, but adequate. Again, I'm so thankful for this place!
One of my "assignments" for my time at Basundhara was to find Celina, this sweet little girl who was being adopted by my internet friend, Molly. Celina was preparing to meet her 4 new siblings, 3 of whom had also been adopted from Basundhara. I had been asked to take pictures and to measure her so that Molly could get/make clothes for her. Celina, who is mostly deaf, joined her new family a few months after we met Tom. Again, Rex loved her, and she seemed to enjoy him, too--he was so good with all the kids!
We had brought stickers and silly bands, and BOTH were big hits--even with the caregivers! (Notice that L had changed into a different outfit while waiting for her parents to arrive.)
Next on the schedule....snack time!! We went back to Tom's room to watch the action and found a sleeping baby Sanatana, another one of the kids I was supposed to be checking on. He came home in October and is doing great! What a sweetie! To this day, Tom is really good with babies...I think he got lots of practice with Sanatana!
Two videos follow. In the first, Tom says "mama" clearly. It is PRECIOUS! In the second, Soudemani has him on her lap for porridge feeding...it's a short version of the longer video we have that was taken when he was just seven months old. It's how he had always been fed, and it worked for him, although it looks SO strange to us!
The last stop on our walk around Basundhara for that afternoon was a visit to Laxmi. Before leaving for India, Laxmi's family had recorded themselves reading a story to Laxmi and had sent us the book to deliver in person. Laxmi's parents traveled to India just about a month after we did, so it was important that Laxmi, who is blind, be able to HEAR her family's voices. Rex took video while I held the book and turned the pages, and the smile never left her face!
This is the last picture of L that I took before she met her parents and life changed. Here she is, pictured with R and one of the caregivers, who isn't much more than a child herself. I don't know this, but I assume that this caregiver grew up at Basundhara. I love this picture of R and L...and I sure would love to see one of them together now!
1 comment:
Love the story about Laxmi!
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