Our Lilly: Adoption Day Part IV

We returned to the orphanage and were set loose to get the answers to all of our questions. One translator, six families, and most of the caregivers did not speak English. I was off on my mission (now imagine the sound of the movie Mission Impossible).

The translator was busy, and the caregiver that spoke English was no where in sight. Adam was figuring out his cameras, and I was searching the orphanage for a way to get answers to my many questions. I wandered into a room with a large bed, a few rocking cradles, and a few baby seats. Two caregivers were feeding the babies (two of which had cleft palettes). All the babies seemed really sweet, and the caregivers genuinely seemed to love the babies. When they saw me standing there observing with Lilly Tai, they put the baby they were feeding in a swing. Although we had no translator, we spoke the universal language of baby love. They took Lilly from my arms, and brought her to the bed. They showed me her baby cereal and baby formula, and on a bottle they signed to me the measurements. All the while they were smiling at me and making gestures to show me how much they love and would miss my Lilly Tai. My heart was warmed. I was wishing Adam was in the room to video tape this, but I was not going to leave at such a golden moment. I summoned Adam to come video tape the lovely event. Adam came in and got most of the feeding on video tape. The two lovely caregivers prepared and fed Lilly Tai a Vietnamese version of Rice Cereal (Ridielac Cereal with Dielac Formula). Lilly seemed to thoroughly enjoy the meal. I asked the care taker as best I could with sign language how often she drinks formula, and they told me 7 oz, five times per day and cereal 2X per day, at least that is what I thought they said and later it was confirmed. Two questions to cross off my list and my mission continued.

I went back to to the main part of the orphanage with Adam following me with his camera. I found Pho, and she was alone, it was a golden moment. I grabbed Pho and found a caregiver. I knew I would not have both of there attention for long so I quickly asked, has she ever been sick. The caregiver quickly said no, never (as translated). Next question, does she sleep through the night, the translator asked the question and reported, she sleeps four hours, wakes once for an ounce of formula and some love and goes back to sleep. My next question was how many babies were in her room, and this question was not answered. Both the translator and the caregiver seemed confused by the question. I moved on to the next question, where was Lilly Tai found (although I knew the answer to this question, I wanted it confirmed if possible). The caregiver told the translator she was found at the gate by the orphanage and said this was very common due to different circumstances. She confirmed that no note was left with the Lilly Tai. I was starting to ask for the name and address of the orphanage director when we got interrupted and I lost the attention of the translator (it was a bit of a disorganized free for all in terms of who got to ask questions and in what order). I did get that information anyway. Adam videotaped a number of the rooms in the orphanage, and I walked around and observed and tried to imagine what life was like there for Lilly Tai. As I wondered around for our last ten minutes at the orphanage, a caretaker stopped me, and she was trying to sign information to me, and I could not understand her. I was frustrated and felt I needed to know what she was trying to tell me. I was able to catch up with the translator and found out that this caretaker was Lilly's caretaker when she first arrived in the orphanage. She told me Lilly likes her head to be stroked from front to back and that Lilly is a lovely angel baby. She showed me the room where she took care of Lilly, and we sat together for the last ten minutes. It felt so great to be with someone who loved and cared for my baby. I was able to get the name and address of one of the caretakers from her 4 months to 6months room (one of the two that showed me how to feed Lilly).

I felt pleased that I got all the information I possibly could get within one hour with such limited resources. I was also thrilled that I got that letter from Danielle, the business card of the director, and a name and address of a caretaker. I plan to follow up with all of the above to see how much information I can get for my Lilly Tai. Finally it was time to leave. It was now 6pm, and we had been going for fourteen hours with an hour and a half to go. Lilly fell asleep comfortably in my arms on the ride home from Tam Ky and slept in bed with us that night. I thought to myself my daughter is precious and perfect, and I am in love and a mother times two. I was also missing Eli and thinking of him. We had checked my Blackberry throughout the day, and Chloe was sending good reports that Eli was being an angel. This concluded the day of Lilly's adoption, one of the two best days of Adam and my lives (the day we had to Eli, and the day we adopted Lilly Tai).