Sunday, we hung around here at the hotel. when we were at the center, i noticed Emma had a cut on her belly. it was probably a few days old. it took every once of self-control i had to avoid whisking her up, rushing her to the bathroom, scrubbing it with the Dial antibacterial soap, smothering it in neosporin and then swaddling her in gauze. after i noticed it and lifted her top to see it better, i saw her lifting her top and checking it out too. don't worry sweet baby, "Me" will take care of it for you.
So about the kids there. we did see many older tribal kids. they were a good size and dark skinned. all were very friendly but the older children just laid back and watched us. the younger kids were circling us. you just know this is all atypical behavior. there is no way one kid could have a stash of fruit or toys and not have it taken away in minutes. but the nannies have strict control of the kids -- which is really a good thing as the little ones would get trampled in a moment. we each came away with a favorite child or two. there was a tiny little boy that hurt his finger, and started bawling. no one comforted him, so i picked him up and poured bottled water over his boo-boo and made a big show of blowing on it and wiping it with some TP i stole from the hotel. it wasn't cut just hurt some how. oh how he ate it up. i couldn't put him down. of course all the kids, but our own, had no problem accepting love and affection... but that is the way it is. I'm sure any visitors that go there today will have our Chieu and Kieu hanging from their earlobes!!!
Jeff was a huge hit at the center! they kept lifting his t-shirt and peeking inside. we think it's because all the folks here are so rail thin and Jeff has a little bit of a pot belly. so they must have been amazed to see one. then they'd sit on his feet and pluck the hair on his legs. really he couldn't walk two feet without a tiny contingent of moppets hanging off him. and you just know he loved it!!!
the center was smaller then i thought. i had originally pictured it as being huge, but that is the mystery of photography, things don't always seem as they appear. off the playarea is the infant girls room. there was a one day old girl, a one moment old, and then 4 or 5 infant girls. they told us two were being adopted. the infant boys room is in another part of the building. there we saw two tiny CL/CP infants, the famous Fat Baby --- the 18 mo old with Hep B. there were two boys in one crib, which i took to be the twins that came in last month. and one or two other boys. the day was such a blur, and we were walking around during nap time so we had to be quiet and did not take many photos. but i PROMISE i will take many more on Tuesday. the heat rash (if that's what it was) seems to be clearing up. i did not see too much scratching going on. so we decided to donate the scabies medicine. I'm just waiting for someone back in the states to translate it for us. we did see some alarming boils on a few of the kids. one infant girl in particular had 4 or 5 on the back of her skull. we're wondering if it's from laying in one's own sweat ? but honestly we have no idea. we do know from posts of some of the volunteers that a few of the kids were taken to hospital to have them looked at. none seemed to be having a problem with it. they all seemed to play and run just fine. so let's all hope and pray it is only a heat rash flare up.
On Sunday we met one of the families. they are adopting the other sibs in our group. they have two boys with them now. so we all headed over to nearby Hoi An for some shopping and dinner. Hoi An is a great little town, very picturesque. we bought 3 rice paper prints for the kids room. Jeff ordered two shirts from one tailor. we also bought two ao dais for the kids. it was hard trying to explain what size they were. but i picked this gorgeous fabric and kept pointing to her measuring tape and saying this size but need big more more?. tet? many months from now? need long for tet? yes yes??? she kept nodding yes yes so we'll see. we pick them up today so with any luck we'll have two beautiful ceremonial dresses for them for the Tet Festival this year. we went to a really great restaurant, sorry can't remember name : ( and had dinner with, as we affectionately keep referring to them: the NY family. At one point i was extremely happy and surprised to see a little girl we had met at the Sandy Beach Hotel several days ago. They came over to say hello and the dad explained she had remembered me from lunch. she was so beautiful this girl! i wanted to scoop her up and steal her away. i couldn't believe she remembered me and made a very big show of saying her name and what she was wearing that first day. she seemed to revel in all the attention, but would sweetly and shyly just sway back and forth, resting on her dad's legs for support and comfort.
This morning, Monday, we met Tom, also adopting with us. He's adopting an infant boy from Da Nang. the latest news he got was that one group would adopt on tues and another on Wednesday! i was NOT happy to hear this! he said that was why Ninh had arranged the return flights so late on wed night.
for now we're enjoying the last of the quiet. Jeff just went down to the good pool. and I'm off to join him. i feel slightly compelled to stay in the room just in case we get a message from Ninh. but, you know,.. you can't live like that. later we're off to Hoi An to pick up our tailored goods. I'll update when i hear about our G&R.
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