It's "GOTCHA" Day!

Bracing ourselves for a difficult day...even the boy said over breakfast "I ain't ready for this." (Who's his English teacher anyway!? Oh wait, that's me...) Dad had a good reply - "we ain't ready for it either, but we weren't ready when you came along either! We'll all figure it out together, remember God's in control so we don't have to worry."   wise old man, he is.

We met the foster parents and our girl in the office, and we were taken to a room with some toys in it.

The foster mother quickly handed over a small bag of last minute belongings (we got the big suitcase yesterday), gave us all a kiss on each cheek and walked out of the room with red eyes. All I could say was "Keu-sen-em Say-pen" (thank you very much) while holding her hand. She was handing over her baby to me, never to see her again. I almost lost it AGAIN...but I held in the tears again. If she could go without crying, then so could I.

Sweet girl was just very quiet and reserved, not wanting to respond to much...sad but not crying. Of course daddy brought her out of her shell in no time, making her laugh with wooden blocks. Who can do that!? What a gift he has for connecting with people. It still amazes me.

Then we drove to another office to meet with another lady, and sign the paperwork to officially become her temporary guardians for the next 30 days. This was a longer meeting, in a room with absolutely no toys in it. Enter: Nintendo DS. This is what the original intent of the DS was, back in the day - to entertain kiddos when they are stuck in a room with nothing else to do (the only time we use it). Sweet girl was happy to draw and doodle with us on a piece of printer paper, and in honor of Grampa John I made a couple of mazes which she had no idea what to do with...until I traced the path a couple of times, and then she figured it out and started solving them! Grampa John will be proud, and now she's ready for his mazes. We listened to the Hungarian laws and the Hague treaty rules translated, and signed a bunch of stuff written in Hungarian...that Rita translated for us.

DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!............We are a family of 4! I have some really cute pictures of the four of us, but I can't post them. Imagine how cute we all look.  :)  Here we are asking for directions when we got lost after lunch. Oops. Look at big brother making sure little sis is taken care of. They are inseparable, it's almost too cute to handle.

After lunch, and another trip to Tesco to get a fleece blanket for each of the kids and a swimsuit for sweet girl, we came back to our apartment and showed her around our "temporary" home. Of course our translator Rita helped us out with this. Did I mention how great she is? We couldn't ask for a better translator/facilitator...she's becoming a good friend. Then she left us. Alone. How do you say "let's put on your pj's" and "it's time for a shower" again? Yikes....get out the book again.

Pause, and think what sweet girl must be thinking. Did these people kidnap me? Am I having a sleepover with my new friend (the boy)? When do I go back home? Why are they always smiling at me so much? I want some chocolate milk but I have no idea how to ask for it. I want "fud-jie" (ice cream). When do I go home?  I like Hello Kitty.

I wish I could read minds. That's the super-power I always wanted to have. I'd take that over being invisible or flying any day.

Turns out I don't have to. Miming actually works amazingly well. The kids played with the scooter, water guns, bubbles, and we went in the hot tub, ate dinner on the patio, played a board game, did a puzzle, colored, played with cards, read a book, and went out to eat like it was nuthin. Cute bonus: she apparently LOVES to clean and organize. I watched her take all of her stuff out, and go through all of our stuff asking "A-neem?" which I'm guessing means "mine?" to figure out what was hers. Then she organized all of 'her' stuff several different ways, consolidated containers, threw away all the trash, and organized everything into 'her' cabinet. Then she started cleaning up the boy's toys. Which - get this - inspired HIM to start organizing everything of his. I was in sorting and lining-up heaven. And more amazingly, when we got home and it was time for THE FIRST SHOWER, and going to bed. Surely we are going to have problems now....right? She's only had baths.

I did a mock demo of what to do in the shower (yes, I felt really silly), but it seems like she totally trusts me because she looked up at me with that sweet face and got right in and just stared at me smiling the ENTIRE time I was reaching in through the open shower door (I should have changed out of my jeans first, because I ended up pretty soaked) shampooing her hair and soaping her. She is so CUTE!  The whole time I'm repeating English words to help her learn, which makes me feel extra silly, but hopefully it will work. "Wash! ....Wash! ....Wash!"  ...then "Dry! ...Dry! ...Dry!" ...then for teeth "Brush! ...Brush! ...Brush!" ....and "PJ's! ...PJ's! ...PJ's!" ...you get the picture.

We're a little smitten with her, and we did a lot of extra cuddling and singing at bed time, because she just behaves so well and just sits there smiling at us so sweetly. I'd be singing and tickling her arms, and whenever I would look over to her eyes her smile would get really big and her eyes would sparkle.

Either she's the sweetest little thing ever, or she's some evil maniac who's REALLY good at fooling us, and she's plotting some elaborate scheme to take all of our ice cream. I'm pretty sure she's the sweetest thing ever. And I'll give her all of my ice cream any day.