June 15, 2010: Embassy Appointment

Around 12:30am on Tuesday, Ana Luisa decided that she no longer wanted anything do to with Jeff. Up until this point, it didn't matter which one of us was holding her or feeding her. But starting early Tuesday morning, unless she was with me, she was screaming. Because all the nannies at the orphanage are women, until they meet their adoptive fathers, the babies typically do not have much experience with men. Especially white men. Women are more familiar, and so often babies will cling to their adoptive mothers at first. This created some complications for us. First of all, Juan Pablo still prefers mom in some situations, especially when he first wakes up, and when he needs comfort. Having me close by was not good enough. He wanted to be in my arms. But so did Ana Luisa. There is also the fact that I enjoy taking the occasional shower. This is not something I could do with Ana Luisa in my arms. For the next several days, this was the hardest thing for us. Juan Pablo was often frustrated and would end up in tears because he wanted me, but I was holding Ana Luisa, who would scream if I put her down or handed her to Jeff. I was overwhelmed trying to give both of the children enough of my attention to keep the happy, and Jeff just felt helpless.

Ana Luisa was still not doing very well, even after a couple doses of the antibiotic that the doctor had given us the day before. She was still barely eating, and still dehydrated. Our embassy appointment was that afternoon, which brought us one step closer to being able to bring her home, but we were worried that if she continued the way she was, she wouldn't make it home at all.
A driver from our adoption agency picked us up Thursday afternoon to go to the Embassy. True to form, both kids fell asleep on the way there. So much for sleeping while they sleep...again. We had been warned that we may be at the Embassy for several hours, and so we had packed our backpack full of diapers, bottles, formula, and lots of things for Juan Pablo to do. The appointment ended up being very fast. Juan Pablo slept the whole time, and actually didn't wake up until we got back to the guest house. Ana Luisa woke up just in time for her visa interview...and screamed the whole time so that I had to keep asking the official conducting the interview to repeat herself because I couldn't hear. Apparently we managed to answer all the questions correctly though, because we were assured that Ana Luisa's visa would be ready Thursday morning.

When we returned to the guest house after the visa interview, I decided to try giving Ana Luisa a different antibiotic, one that I had asked our pediatrician at home to give us just in case. I gave her the first dose on Tuesday afternoon. In the meantime, Jeff went out to buy more oral rehydration salts (ORS) so that we could give those another try. When I mixed up the packet of ORS with water, I realized that there was something different about these from the first packet that we had tried. These smelled like lemon...and instead of tasting like disgusting salt water, they also tasted like lemon. When I tried giving them to Ana Luisa, she actually drank them! A few hours later, she had a wet diaper. I don't think I've ever been so happy to change a diaper in my life. She continued to drink throughout the night, and her appetite returned as well. We had definitely reached a turning point. Whether it was the new antibiotic, the lemon-flavored ORS, or a combination, we don't know, but whatever it was, our constant, frantic prayers were heard, and we knew our little girl was going to be ok.

In the meantime, Juan Pablo was still on Eastern time. He would nap from about 8pm-10pm, then just be up until about 3am, when he would finally fall asleep for the night. He and Jeff developed a routine for the next couple nights, where after he woke up from his "nap" at 10pm, they would go down to the common room of our guest house and watch whatever World Cup match was on with the rest of the guys staying in the house.

And after the match ended and the others went back to their rooms for the night, there was a World Cup of a different kind taking place.

Looks like the cockroach has the ball and is headed towards the goal. But despite the obvious advantage of having six legs, I'm willing to bet he didn't get any shots past the gorilla.

To be continued...