She’s a Keeper! |
Then, it was
back to annabelly’s room. We took the obligatory picture with the
MOE rep and then everyone left. Just left. And
here I am in this room with this little baby. What do I do with
her? Does she come with
instructions? Where’s the
booklet with bad pictorial representations of what to do (ala IKEA
furniture)? Hello??? Did I mention I often unintentionally
kill house plants? Anyone? Anyone?
No one ever
talks about how exhausting that first visit is. I hope it’s not only just me. For me, there was a lot of
pressure on the first visit. I was so convinced that I would feel Margaret with
me that I confess I was almost anticipating that as much as meeting Annabelle.
I was so sure I would feel Margaret’s presence. But I didn’t. And so the first hour of the visit I was
fighting a huge sadness on one level. And then on the other side, there is this
amazing kid, just adorable, who seemed to find me very amusing and I was blown
away by how sweet she is. So I had
a lot of conflicting emotions going on.
The second hour
I got to give her a bottle and that was a blast. She just kept staring into my
eyes as if to say, “well you’re a funny
lady and you do things differently, but that’s okay.”
After her warm
bottle, she had beads of sweat on her forehead from the warm bottle and being
wrapped up in a footed sleeper so I stripped her down and she seemed much more
comfortable. Of course, when the nurse popped in I pretended to be changing her
diaper since Kazakhs are militant about keeping babies extremely warm and
covered up, even In warm weather.
I started
swinging her up in the air and she laughed out loud. I think this girl has a
bit of daredevil in her. She seems
to like it when I sing to her (she must be tone deaf). But the problem was I couldn’t
actually remember the words to any of the kids songs I
remember my mother singing to me.
I’d hum a bar or two but then Have no
idea. So I started making up words
to “I’ve been working on the railroad” and “She’s
coming round the mountain.”
Then I gave up and started singing her “Red Dirt Girl” by
Emmylou Harris. I felt a bit
conflicted when I got to the line “no one knows when she started to
slide, could’ve been the whiskey, could’ve been the pills”
but comforted myself with the knowledge that I will learn the lyrics to more
appropriate songs by the time she actually understands (unless the
scientologists are right with their whole silent birth/babies absorb everything
theory and then she’s totally screwed)!!
After two hours
she was ready for a nap and I was ready to soak my arms in Epsom salts for they
ached!
After the visit,
I swung by the bazaar to buy some food and then stopped by the
“cottage” to meet the Kaplans and Julie
Van Boeing in person after just knowing them cyber-ly. Cindy, Tony and I went on an awesome two
hour walk which was refreshing and kept me awake. It was also just great to talk to Cindy
for a long time after emailing so much.
I’m now
fighting the urge to sleep and trying to force myself to hold out until a more
reasonable hour so I’m kind of dragging but I look forward to tomorrow
and seeing that little sweet smile.
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