A Dream Comes True!

When arriving at Horizon House this morning we were driven down this long thin muddy road that was right in the middle of the city. The driver beeped his horn at a big metal gate that we couldn't see through. A guard peeked out through the door, shut it quickly and opened the gate. As we drove in, their were children and nannies everywhere. It was a tarred area with tall bricked walls and the house. We got out of the car and a nanny walked up with Kasech immediately. She gave me a big hug and had a huge smile! I picked her up and gave her a hug and she smiled and laughed. I gave her to Jeff and they hugged and Jeff not surprisingly started jumping around with her in his arms and she laughed so hard. They kept doing that for about 5 or 10 minutes. She kept looking over at me and smiling. Jeff handed her back to me and she started touching my face all over. Almost like it was her way of getting to know me. She touched my cheeks, forehead, eyes and lips. Then she grabbed my nose and pinched it tight and started shaking it. She started laughing so hard with a sparkle in her eye. It was such a perfect meeting after all the warning we received that it could be hard and frustrating. We played with her for a few more minutes and then it was potty time. The kids all sat in their potty chairs lined up in a row. Kassie actually went into the "Big Girl" bathroom and I followed her to help. She did great so maybe she is ready for the big potties. We were told she was not potty trained on her paperwork that we got with her referral. So we were happy later in the day when she rubbed her belly and we asked her if she had to go potty and she nodded yes and Jeff took her and she did great. That is good news! After potty time we went in and all the kids ate lunch. After her lunch we brought her to the guest house with us while we ate lunch. We ate with a few other families. Jeff and I took turns eating and playing with Kassie on the floor. We discovered that she really likes playing catch and kicking balls. We played with her for a few more hours indoors. There was a huge thunderstorm all afternoon. In fact it has been raining since we got here. And its supposed to rain until we leave. Kassie is very curious and looked through our bag and my pocket book. She found my sunglasses, put them on her eyes and then slid them up on top of her head just like I had my regular glasses on. She was mimicking our actions all afternoon. When we finally brought her back to the bigger kids home and said goodbye she got sad and upset! She didn't want us to leave. She kept grabbing our hands and clinging to us. So, we had a difficult time leaving. We eventually did after saying goodbye to her 3 or 4 times. We went back to the hotel to take a nap. We were out within 10 minutes of getting back since we still only got about 4 hours of sleep last night.

We went back to visit Kassie at 6:30PM. We caught the tale end of their dinner. The kids were eating the exact same meal they had for lunch. We are wondering if that happens everyday? We'll see tomorrow. Anyway, after dinner we played in a private living room just the 3 of us for quite awhile. We played catch with her "Angelina Ballerina" that we brought for her. She kept begging Jeff to lift her up, dance with her and jump around. Of course he happily obliged. Another little boy came in the room and kept asking Jeff and I to tickle him. So we did. Then Kassie layed on her back while pushing the child out of the way so we would only tickle her. She was already possessive but we did end up playing with both of them for awhile. Before we knew it all of the kids were in bed and we had kept Kassie up but the nanny's said not a problem. She knew it was bedtime and started getting sad. So we brought her into her room and she climbed in bed. The room is for the older kids. There were 3 sets of bunk beds and one crib. There were 2 kids in each twin bed. Although, Kassie did have her own bed. We both layed with her for awhile. I think she is going to be a snuggler! Hooray! When she finally started getting sleepy and rolled over, we knew she was ready to sleep. This was a really nice moment for us. We got to put her to bed and snuggle in bed. We left and said "Chow" to each of the kids in the room. It was a lot of fun! What a beautiful day!