WOW as I write this I am still filled with so many emotions...excited, nervous, anxious, happy, and sad. Sad because Daria is leaving the only family she has ever known and loved...and let me tell you that baby girl was so VERY LOVED and taken care of. I will get into that more later but first I'll tell you how are day started.
Of course none of us could sleep and were up by 2. We set around on the couch and talked...finally decided to start getting showers and get ready. We were ready and out the door for breakfast at 6:40 and they don't start serving until 7:00. We ate breakfast and our friends the Weigners came in and we talked to them for awhile. I want to share with you a little about this family. Mark, Karen, Narae and Adah have truly been a gift from God for us on this journey in our life. Words cannot express how grateful this family has been to us. They offered to video and take pictures of our gotcha day so we could just enjoy the moment of this miracle unfold. Bless their hearts Mark had the video camera, Karen had the camera and Narae even got in on the action of taking pictures with my phone so I could upload those to facebook. Such a precious family!! I kind of got ahead of my myself so I will pick back up here. We left the hotel with our rice cereal and gifts and walked outside to where there is normally 4 or 5 cabs waiting but this morning we weren't having the best of luck. We started walking to the main road and finally flagged down a cab but he said he didn't know where Holt was. So Karen flagged down another cab who understood the directions on the card in the meantime Mark is on the phone with someone trying to get the other cabbie directions. By this time Karen had another cab pulled over but Mark had finally got the direction for the first cab. Somehow cab number 4 had pulled up beside us. Yes 4 cabs all out in the street trying to help these 2 American families. I know this was quite confusing but it made for a very funny moment that gave us all a laugh and eased the anxiety I was having. We finally got everything loaded and was off to Holt. We pulled up to the Holt building and got our stuff out. We were just in front of the building when here came DJ walking down the street. I heard her say Bice family and I got a lump in my throat. I said yes, we are the Bice family. She was such a warm person and gave us all a big hug. She told me that Daria's foster mom had come by yesterday and that she was having a really hard time. She had been crying and very emotional about this day. Daria was her 11th foster child but she had been with her the longest and had been through all of her surgeries with her. After she told me this I knew that it was going to be total cry fest and yes it was.
When I saw Daria come through that door smiling and walking with her foster mom I though my heart would burst. She came right to me and let me hold her. We sat on the couch and she just held me so tight. Her foster mother said she is a hugger....I love it. She stayed in my arms the whole time and fell asleep there for the meeting. She slept through her final exam at Holt. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. I was so happy to be able to share this moment with the Weigners and especially Narae and Adah. They were able to see how much the foster parents loved them and took care of them. It was a wonderful moment. We walked over to the reception center with Mark, Karen and the girls. Adah was going to see her foster mother. We also had the pleasure of seeing some of the babies at the reception center. I fed Daira a bottle here and we got a little smirk but that was about it. She was still not sure about us yet.
We grabbed a cab from there and made it back to the hotel. When we got back we skyped with our families to share with them our little princess. During this time we got to see a glimpse of Daria's personality. She was playing and smiling. She started pushing the stroller around and this is where it went downhill. The stroller went to fast one time and she fell. She fell forward and caught herself with her hands but when I want to console her she realized right then that her Omma was gone. She grieved pretty hard after this. We went up to the Weigner's room and had a 7 eleven dinner. LOL During that time Mason said he didn't feel good and wanted to go back to the room. I gave him some pepto for his stomach and he went to bed. Please pray that he feels better in the morning. I decided to give Daria her bath, her foster mother said she loved a bath. Well she was not feeling the love for this bath. I quickly bathed her and got on her PJ's. I have to write about the PJ's. For any of you that does not know I lost my mother to ovarian cancer a year ago. Everytime I was pregnant she would almost always buy something for a little girl. Well, last night those PJ's finally went on my little girl. Talk about an over emotional day. She still was grieving hard. I just help her close and loved her. She finally let me give her a bottle and fell asleep around 10:00. Praise the Lord she is still asleep. During the night she would cry out for her Omma but never really wake up. She is sleeping in her crib and it seems to work for her. It will be try and error from here on out. Please continue to pray for us. Also, please pray for Mark, Karen, Narae, and Adah as they go today to pick up their baby girl Hanna. Well until next time!! Love you all Sonia
