Mati Orphanage

Wow, it was so great to hear all about the day Aaron and Dad had, but hard at the same time since I am not able to be there. I have seen 1 picture of Aaron and Sophie Ayantu! She is an adorbale little peanut!!!! Again, unfortunately we can't post pictures online for a few more months until we are cleared to travel back to the states. So we will obey the rules even though it is very difficult not to share this precious child with you all! Here's what Aaron said in his email about today...

She is so amazing! Didn't cry once on the trip. She fell asleep twice on my chest. She is so sweet! I wish you could be here.

I was able to talk on the phone to him and my dad for over 20 minutes today. They said the trip was long (3 hours one way) and hot since there wasn't air in the car and it was over 80 degrees there today. The countryside was 'eye-opening' as far as the poverty level. When they got to the orphanage Sophie Ayantu was asleep, Aaron walked over to where she was sleeping and she turned and opened her eyes and looked right at him :) The picture that I have seen is of him holding her and she is smiling up at him with this huge smile! She loves her daddy already!! They spent some time with the staff at the ophanage, they are wonderful! They held a coffee ceremony for the departure of little Sophie Ayantu. Aaron said he's had 6 cups of coffee since he's been there, and this is someone who NEVER drinks coffee :)

They took the staff out for lunch at a hotel in town, the food was good. Sophie Ayantu is a very easy going/content baby, she did well at lunch and on the road. Aaron changed his first diaper today... a poopy one at that! And little Sophie Ayantu peed while he was changing her, and smiled a huge smile about it! That should get Aaron ready for diaper duty!!! She did so well on the 3 hour trip back. Slept a lot on Aaron's chest and played some with daddy and grandpa! They dropped her off at the foster home, but couldn't stay long with her there as their driver needed to get back. They will visit her in the morning. Aaron and dad both sound VERY tired, but are happy with how the day went. I am sure it is all sort of a blur... Aaron is looking forward to the next few days and just spending time with his daughter!

Dad filled us in on how she is developmentally. At just shy of 6 months she only weighs around or just over 10 pounds! He said she doesn't seem malnurished, just tiny. She can roll over and scoot around a bit, but she is not sitting up yet. She's very reponsive to people, and has great eye-contact and is very happy. Sort of like a 6 month old personality in a 2 month old's body! She's healthy though, so we are thankful!

Thanks for all your continued prayers as they continue this adventure... Court is Wednesday morning, our lawyer has assured Aaron many times that things should go very smoothly! Sorry for typos and spelling errors... for some reason the computer I am doing this on doesn't have my normal tool bar on the blog site... no spell check :)