Radha in Nepal

Last trip to Children's Home

2007-01-30T20:59:00.000+05:45

We made our last trip (of this particular journey) to Children's Home today. It went fine! It wasn't a really emotional weepfest - the Didis (nannies) were happy to see Mina, and she seemed comfortable playing on the floor of the baby room where she lived for several months. But she was perfectly happy to return to Mommy and head back to the hotel.

We gave Children's Home a lot of gifts today for the other children. Many of these were from friends of mine and Mina's in Colorado. Thank you so much for your generosity. Kusum, the woman who directs the children's day-to-day lives, seemed kind of blown away by it all: crayons, matchbox cars, colored pencils, playing cards, bottles of infant vitamins, infant toys, a Bumbo chair (a little chair that supports babies too young to sit), lots of clothes including ten fleece suits and snowsuits for the cold nights (there is no heat in the building and it gets down to 30 degrees F at night), and lots of diaper cream. Mina's friends are Children's Home's friends too!

Also, for the Didis, we brought some beautiful sarees that my mom had bought for them in India. Thank you so much, Mom. Kusum seemed wonderfully surprised by the sarees. I told her that my mom had gotten them in Mysore, way down in South India, so hopefully it would be something different from what they would get in Kathmandu.

We did some more sightseeing and shopping today, and we are winding up our trip! I'm a little nervous about the journey - keeping formula ready but not spoiled, keeping Mina rested, etc. But somehow we'll make it.

This may be my last post from Kathmandu, but I will blog again from Colorado Springs. I am so grateful to all of you for reading and writing to me, and I'm looking forward to responding to everybody when I get home. Some of your posts really kept me going, like Mark sending me the MP3 file of "Homeward Bound" - thanks so much, Mark.

I promise to post more pictures on this blog when I get home. David took a lot of good ones and we will share them.

We'll be home sometime Thursday, February 1. I'll blog again as soon as my head is screwed on straight again. Thank you all again for sharing this experience with us.

Sittin in a railway station, ...

2007-01-29T22:33:00.000+05:45

Got a ticket for my destination, mm-mm. We got Mina's visa today and are set to return home on Wednesday. We're homeward bound. Paul Simon says it so well.

Today was actually a very nice day. The visa trip to the embassy took about 15 minutes. We visited my friend's daughter in her orphanage - a beautiful girl with roses in her cheeks and the liveliest eyes! It was a joy. We also did some shopping.

Tomorrow we will visit Children's Home for some final document stuff and gifts. I have heard it is an emotional trip - not sure what to expect. I'm wondering how Mina will respond to being in the baby room again. Should be interesting. I'll try to blog again tomorrow.

Sunday was great

2007-01-28T22:57:00.000+05:45

Today, Sunday, was a great day. We actually broke the gravitational pull of the hotel! We took a taxi to Pashupatinath, a Shiva temple in Kathmandu that is the site of many pilgrimages. It's situated along the Bagmati River. Along the river are cremation ghats, where recently deceased persons are cremated. We witnessed one of these. The body was wrapped completely in cloth. The family was grieving at the side of the ghat. It was a very interesting sight.

Then Mina and I entered the temple. Apparently it is for Hindus only, so David waited outside, near my leather shoes and belt which are not allowed in the temple. We did our obeisance, got a red tika, and took off. Here we are with our tikas in the hotel!

After Pashupatinath, we went to Boudnath, a massive Buddhist stupa. We circumambulated the stupa. It was stunning.

I was so proud that we made it to two sights today, and Mina did great! After that, we returned to the hotel, and after a few hours, Mina and Mommy did Bath Number Two! Maybe a little easier than Bath 1, but still not a pleasant experience.

We have a little more business to do on Monday and Tuesday. But I'm really looking forward to getting home. I miss my house and want to get Mina into our place and our routine. She is a very sweet thing, so lively! If you know the song by Neil Young called, "I Am a Child," you know there is a line saying, "You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile." Her smile is so exciting and happy!

Embassy interview done and David is here!

2007-01-26T22:14:00.000+05:45

Today was a great day! We had our embassy interview today, and it went fine. I was asked some questions about Mina's adoption, and they had a basket of toys for her to play with. I was done in about 30 minutes. Now I simply wait for them to let me know that Mina's visa to the U.S. has been granted.

Then when I returned from the embassy, David had arrived at the hotel and was checked into his room! It was great to see him. His journey from Colorado was just fine, long but safe. We went for a walk and had dinner in Thamel, the tourist district. We ate at a small restaurant, a new one, and had a nice mutton curry-fry and a very hot alu gobi. Mina was asleep in the Baby Bjorn for most of the time, but eventually she awoke.

I've been VERY happy with the Baby Bjorn. It's fairly easy to get her into it (just have to lasso one leg and the rest is a piece of cake). And she can either face forward or toward me, and it's secure, and even kind of warm. Sometimes the straps cut into my shoulders after a long time, or if I'm wearing the backpack at the same time. But I will buy some soft spongy material to put around the straps when I get home.

I'm feeling pretty relaxed about tomorrow. My own adoption business is nearly complete. Now I want to help a few friends with airline reservations and visiting other babies at orphanages, and David, Mina and I will do some sightseeing. But I don't have that sense of running the gauntlet.
And I feel pretty good that we will get the visa in time for our departure on Wed Jan 31. I know people who did not get their visa and had to delay their departure... So I'm glad things are moving along.

Two crazy girls

2007-01-24T17:20:00.000+05:45

Here are two crazy girls! One has oatmeal in her hair, the other has bacterial conjunctivitis in both eyes! Can you guess which is which?

Yeah, the conjunctivitis thing really sucks, especially because it's very contagious and I'm trying to prevent Mina from getting it. But the hotel doctor came very quickly, and I got the right eye drops, and it's all good.

On Tuesday we didn't do much other than take a walk through the tourist district, called Thamel. Lots of shopping potential. On our way into the shopping area, a woman with a baby came up to me with an empty bottle and asked me to buy her milk at the supermarket. I stopped and looked into her baby's eyes, and looked down at Mina in her carrier on my chest, and walked over to the market with them. She bought one box of Lactogen 2, the same formula that Mina used to drink at Children's Home. I was saddened by it. When I exited the store, two other women with babies and empty bottles asked the same thing. I realized it was a racket of sorts, or maybe "pattern" is a better word, and I wondered if the milk was really for the baby, and if the baby really belonged to the woman, or if the women borrowed babies and traded the milk for money somewhere to someone who resold the Lactogen 2... But anyway, I realized that I didn't care much if it was a racket. There is so much poverty here that even a pattern of hungry babies can be used to beg. And I'm sure there are plenty of hungry babies that have no formula.

Thamel, the tourist district, is an interesting place. It's mostly lined with shops selling khukuri knives (a special knife used by Gurkha fighters, I think), pashminas and silk scarves, Buddhist thangka paintings, embroidered suede purses, and music. There are also some high-end trekking stores for the mountaineers; I didn't actually check the prices, but since most things are not that inexpensive compared to US prices, and since the brand names are the same, I'm guessing it's costly high-tech gear. There are plenty of bars, restaurants and hotels, although it seems like the hotels would be noisy places to sleep.

Today, Wednesday, I got the news that our appointment with the U.S. Embassy is on Friday at 2 pm. I will be asked a few questions by the staff, and hopefully I will be put in the queue to receive Mina's U.S. visa within 24-72 hours. If all goes as planned, we will have that visa in time to depart for home on Wednesday, January 31,

On Friday around that same time, my friend David is arriving! I can't wait. By the time he gets here, my paperwork will be mostly done, and I look forward to actually having some more fun. Up till this point, I've loved being a mom, and most of the time I'm in survival mode: what's the next thing I have to do, the next paperwork, the next etc. I eat my meals fast and furiously. Hopefully when David gets here, and there are two of us to be with Mina, we can all have some fun. There are some great tourist sights that I'd like to visit with him and Mina.

I want to thank all of you so much for all your emails and comments. I haven't been able to respond to many emails here, except for time-sensitive stuff, but I will do my best to get back to you all. It means a lot that you are out there, reading and sharing this experience with us.

Monday and other reflections

2007-01-22T17:00:00.000+05:45

First, here is Mina yesterday, going for the camera (of course!). That always seems to be my last photo: Mina approaching Mommy and reaching for the camera. Maybe I can make a collection of just those photos.

Today, Monday, was intense. Mina and I had to go to the U.S. Embassy Consular Section to turn in our documents for review. They will review them in advance and then call me about setting an appointment for her visa interview.

Our visit to the Embassy was tense. The photographs are not right, some documents are missing. We managed to get everything turned in, but it led me to think a lot about the emotional tenor of this trip.

This second trip is joyful but stressful too. We carefully go through our documents in English or whatever our native language in, find an error, and scramble to fix it. We check and recheck against our checklists (what else would you check against?), and we make calls around the city to fill in the gaps. We all do our best to communicate in different languages, and our paperwork needs are so pressing and important that everything takes on a painful urgency. Some of the urgency stems from our timetable: the embassy (of whatever country we are from) must interview the family and issue a visa for our child before we can depart Nepal. And often the embassy has limited hours for handling these concerns: for example, the U.S. embassy sees families on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:30 to 3:30 for document review. And then the actual interview cannot be scheduled until all the documents are in the embassy's hands, so the urgency of the first embassy trip is to get ourselves in the queue for the interview. Meanwhile the clock ticks toward our departure dates and our expensive airline tickets, which often do not have an open return date.

We families are all compadres in this journey, and I've been super super lucky to share this with four other families: three American and one French. We meet each morning over breakfast and compare notes on the process, we carry each others' kids when we urgently have to do paperwork (THANK YOU STEPHANIE!), and tonight we are unwinding together over dinner. I really hope we families stay in touch over the years, even though everybody's busy and it's hard sometimes to stay in contact, because we were together during this critical time and we supported each other through it. I often wonder what all the little girls will be like five years from now, entering kindergarten or first grade, still resembling their baby selves but also carrying the imprint of their families.

Amid all the noise and haste, I am trying to preserve some memories of this time for Mina when she gets older. Really, this trip is not about me being stressed out and rushing around. It is about her and me uniting as a family. She will want to know what she did and how she played and talked, and how she woke up at night, and how she would laugh. So I am taking pictures and video and trying to capture HER during this trip, because that is what she will ask me about.

Right now she is sleeping - a much needed nap after our travails of the day. But when she sleeps I can see her beautiful smile in my mind's eye. Sometimes I look at her and wonder, what did I do that was so good to deserve her? She is the greatest blessing.

Okay, anyway, tomorrow we don't have any real business planned. Hopefully we can just walk around enjoying ourselves outside the hotel. I'm getting a little stir crazy. And we both have colds - I am popping ibuprofen like candy.

Note to self: Wear bathrobe next time

2007-01-20T12:26:00.000+05:45

I should have known better. When my sister Archana was little, my mom would give her a bath and come out of the bathroom almost as wet as my sister. But I didn't remember that ...

Mina and I tried her first bath today. I was dreading it but kept telling myself, hey, maybe she'll love it, maybe you're making a big deal of nothing. The bathroom sink in our hotel room is about the right size, so I filled it up with warmish water and I ran a hot shower for about five minutes, to make the bathroom nice and warm and steamy.

So she's in a good mood, and I get her clothes off, and we enter the bathroom. The towel is warm and ready, and the soap and toys are right beside the sink. I hold onto her so she is facing me, and I slowly start lowering her in, feet first. Big mistake! She is crying a lot, pulling up her feet, so I think, is the water too hot? It's just warm, and I add a bit more cold and try it again. She screams and crawls up me, and in her panic, a little warm stream hits my T-shirt. At this point I basically give up any hope of this being easy. But we gotta push on through - I don't want to start this all over from scratch. So I soap up the backs of her legs and fill a teacup with water and pour it down them. She seems okay with that.

Then I turn her around to face the sink and held onto her in a sitting position on a towel covering the sink ledge. That was the key to success! She was happy dangling her legs in the water, looking at herself in the mirror, and reaching for her keys. So I soaped her up a part at a time and poured water over her with the teacup. I did manage to wash her face without too much argument, and that really needed a good wash after all the bottle feedings and rice cereal and runny noses. But her hair was totally out of the question - I could not go there today.

I got her rinsed off, dried and clothed, and then I had a few minutes to change out of my "anointed" clothes. So for the next bath, I'll definitely cover up with a bathrobe.

Friday: quiet, shopping and citizenship

2007-01-19T18:20:00.000+05:45

Mina likes the camera! Not only does she know that she is supposed to look at it, but she also likes to reach for it. The wrist strap is especially interesting!

Mina is very strong. When I carry her down the hall, she is leaning forward. We are like a ship, the U.S.S. Pyati, and she is the figurehead, leaning forward at an odd angle. Sometimes when I hold her facing me, she tries to climb me like a set of stairs! It seems like walking is not far away, although she doesn't really like to stand or walk on the ground (only on me). She is crawling, though.

Today, Friday, we had a quiet day. No embassy business after all - that will be on Monday. We did a little shopping at a local department store called Kasthamandap, where I could have bought just about anything I needed. Nice to know it's there. Also bought Mina's airline ticket for the return journey.

I saw something interesting in yesterday's newspaper (here - forgot the title of the paper). Apparently there is a big push nationwide for citizenship papers. I'm not sure what the origin of that is. But anyway, Nepalis across the country are registering themselves for citizenship, and the article I saw mentioned two women trying to obtain citizenship for their children. Both were denied it, because the fathers of the children were not present. One woman was a widow (I think) and the other was divorced. Without the father's citizenship verified, the children could not obtain citizenship. Both mothers were Nepalis but that was not satisfactory for the kids. A different system.

Okay, more later. Saturday and Sunday are business-free, I think, so hopefully Mina and I can relax and have some fun! There is a very nice swing beside the hotel pool, and she likes swinging and rocking, it is sooo comfortable for my back. So we will likely be there tomorrow!

Thursday was busy

2007-01-19T05:54:00.000+05:45

Thursday was a day of paperwork and medical stuff. We went to the Foreign Ministry to get Mina's Travel Document, which is similar to a passport. We then went to get a little medical checkup. She is doing really well, so tall and skinny! This picture is from Thursday late morning.

Yesterday we had good success with the rice cereal too. Portion sizes for an infant are pretty tiny! So I can give her a few tablespoons and that's good.

She is actually pretty good about playing by herself. At times she just wants mommy, but sometimes (like right now) I can put her down and she can play with her toys for a while on her own. I'm glad. If she needs me she'll let me know. but when she is not making much eye contact with me, she is pretty happy with her own stuff.

On Friday, I think we have to begin our embassy business. That takes a few steps but will be fine. Thank you all for your wonderful comments and emails! It is great to have your support.

It's official!

2007-01-17T14:47:00.001+05:45

Hi friends,

Today we went to the Nepalese Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare, I signed my name a couple of times, and Mina Pratishta is officially my daughter! Yay! It was an easy process, but just a long wait outside the office. It was kind of fun, though, because there were lots of other families, mostly from Spain, waiting for their paperwork too.

Right now, Mina is napping again, so I can catch up on lots of things. Thanks much to my friend Christina for letting a bunch of UCCS folks know that I'm in Nepal! I actually tried to email a short hello to a lot of people, but my outgoing email is not working yet (I think I have to change the SMTP server). But I'm getting everything you're sending, on both my UCCS and pcisys emails, so keep it coming! I love hearing from you.

I'm back in Kathmandu, and my girl is with me!

2007-01-16T19:00:00.000+05:45

Well, my file finally got approved, and I got back to Kathmandu today, Tuesday, January 16, 2007. I am just blissed out and thrilled about uniting with my little girl, whose picture here is from December - she sure has grown since the old pictures! Her name will be Mina Pratishta. I'll be blogging here about our paperwork journey and our getting to know each other in the hotel. My friend David is going to join me in ten days to help me and Mina get home to Colorado.

Right now the little princess is sleeping in her crib - wonder how long that will last?

Hellooo!

2006-08-20T22:04:00.000+05:45

Hi readers! (If any of you are left...) I got home last Monday and was pretty much exhausted from the travel for the whole week. It's finally Sunday and I'm well enough to come into work and get onto the internet.

My final day in Kathmandu was sad. It was very hard to leave Pratishta at Children's Home. But she must have known it would be hard, because she fell asleep before I left - so much easier than leaving a happy, talkative baby. I hope the months fly.

I'll be blogging at this site very irregularly between now and the time I travel again, but I will post here when I am permitted to take that second trip. If I can, I'll email you all again then - hopefully in the December - February timeframe. Thank you so much for reading and sending your comments.

Friday

2006-08-12T21:49:00.000+05:45

Today I did a few things: sightseeing in the morning and early afternoon, seeing Pratistha in the late afternoon, and shopping till I dropped in the evening. In the morning, I went with Uttara (our tour guide) and an adopting family to two places high in the hills around Kathmandu: Nagarkot and Bhaktapur. Nagarkot is very small, hardly even a town, on the summit of a hill. The views are beautiful, and when the sky is clear you can see the Himalayas. Bhaktapur is a town in the hills that is being preserved for its historic quality. It costs $10 for foreigners to enter the town!

Pratistha was a delight as always today. She is a very lively girl.

Finally I went to the district of Thamel, a ten-minute walk from my hotel. It's a very touristy area, full of shops and restaurants. I shopped hard and heavy and came back with some treasures.

I hope to blog tomorrow in the morning. I will leave Kathmandu tomorrow at 1:40 pm, fly to Bangkok and stay overnight, and fly into Los Angeles and then Denver on the 14th.

Learning new things

2006-08-11T18:09:00.001+05:45

Today Pratistha and I both learned something new. She learned to roll over! Or at least she tried it and it happened! I think 3.5 months is a bit early to roll over regularly, but she did try and succeed. It was pretty funny. She was on her stomach, and she pushed down with her right hand and started to tilt to the left. She looked down at the bedsheet with a quizzical look and kept pushing. She was watching everything as she fell over to the left and landed on her back. No help from me at all! She looked up and was happy! Here she is looking at her frog.

I learned something new today, something less wonderful than rolling over. I learned how to resize my JPEGs. Now it takes me a minute to upload a photo instead of 15 minutes at a time. Blogging will be much better.

Finally, I learned a lot about Children's Home. It is a very good place. Right now they have about 70 kids: 20 babies and 10-15 toddlers and young children of both genders, and then about 35-38 girls up to 16 years old. Most of the older children sleep in bunkbeds in the main building. There are two baby rooms in the separate buildings. Pratistha is actually in the older-baby room, although she seems to be one of the younger babies there. The tiny-baby room has infants that are so young and precious! I think they are more in the newborn to two months age range. I will post a pic of the current Children's Home tomorrow - turns out all I have is a movie, not a still photo.

The Children's Home organization is constructing a brand new orphanage for girls out in the country. It's pictured here. I got a tour of the site today from Kusum, one of the directors. It's in a beautiful location, and it looks spacious. The windows are solidly constructed. It's a bit farther to the city, but the kids will still be taken to school.

Children's Home is a pretty forward-looking organization. Their website is here: http://www.childrenshome.org.np . Take a look.

Finally, I'll let you know that I took an early morning flight along the Himalayas and saw Sagarmatha, or Mount Everest. It is the high peak on the left in the picture below. It is the second most magnificent thing I saw today.

Wednesday: baby time and another orphanage

2006-08-11T05:47:00.000+05:45

Wednesday was a great day. I spent about six hours (!) at Children's Home, and Pratistha did almost everything: slept, ate, played, pooped. No barf, though! She slept for a long time, and once she woke up she was as happy as ever, shaking her arms and legs and laughing during her diaper change.

In the evening I visited another orphanage called Nepal Children Welfare Service Centre. One of my Colorado Nepali mommy friends adopted her son from there, and so I went for a visit. It was delightful! I learned a lot about how children arrive at an orphanage. The most interesting fact I learned was that many of the children do have living family (one or both parents, or grandparents, or aunts and uncles), but the family lives in a village with little access to education. So these families place their children in orphanages largely to give them an education. They are generally well cared for, and in both orphanages I've seen so far, the orphanage staff act as loving parents toward these kids. Of course, some of the kids are truly without family. In these cases the police searches for the parents and the child's face is placed in a newspaper ad soliciting family, and if no family comes forward, the child is eligible for adoption.

Today I am up early because I am taking a small airplane flight to see the Himalayas, including Mount Everest! I'll write again today (Thursday).

Baby barf

2006-08-09T18:11:00.000+05:45

Hello on Wednesday! My luggage arrived today, and Pratistha's timing was perfect, because she picked the day when I got my clean clothes to barf on me! She was sitting up, looking around, when she unexpectedly puked a little on my pants. It was kind of funny. Baby barf is not really gross, it's just undigested milk (especially because she's only 3.5 months old and only drinks formula). It has a sour smell that reminds me of something else, I can't think what. The weird thing is, it doesn't really smell that gross, not nearly as bad as some cheeses I've tried, and I thought, "I've put stuff in my mouth that smells ten times worse than this..." Not that I want to try baby barf or anything.

It was a nice day overall. Uttara, our tour guide, took me to a Hindu temple called Pashupatinath, a big Shiva temple where only Hindus are permitted (Chad, I would have made sure you got in too). We walked around a huge golden statue of Shiva's bull, and then we watched cremations occurring along the Bagmati River. No, I could not see the bodies - the pyre is made of wood, the body is placed inside it, and the body is covered with straw, all before lighting it afire. The pyres are pictured right: you can see a bit of flame on the right one. Uttara told me that there is a special cremation platform for the royal family of Nepal, and another for government and army officers.

Then we went to Boudnath, the largest Buddhist stupa in Nepal. Magnificent!

Wow, I'm amazed I could post two pictures in less than half an hour. So now it's Wednesday evening and I'm having dinner with the other adopting family and the orphanage director.

Also, in case you're wondering, I'll be back in Colorado Springs on Monday, August 14, in time to start school at UCCS on August 21. Then I will make a second trip to Kathmandu to pick up Pratistha in roughly six months.

I will update more later!

Paperwork done!

2006-08-08T21:53:00.000+05:45

It's Tuesday evening, and I'm done with my official paperwork! Today I visited the Chief District Office, the municipal office that has to generate a file for me in the Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare. I just had to sign my name a few times and put fingerprints near my name.

Supposedly my luggage is arriving tomorrow - we'll see if it materializes.

From here on out, my plan is to spend time with Pratistha in Children's Home, do sightseeing, and do a few other errands here for friends. I will be posting more pictures (it seems to be working!).

Just as a refresher (I'm sure you all know this but I had to review it before I got started on all this adoption stuff), here's Nepal on a map, with some other interesting facts.

2,000 Words

2006-08-08T18:01:00.000+05:45

Here is the squirmacious singing princess!

Tuesday morning

2006-08-08T08:43:00.000+05:45

Today I will start the day with some sightseeing. I think we're going to a temple called Pashupatinath. Then in the afternoon I will go to my final business meeting at the City District Office and then hang out with Pratistha. I'll blog more tonight, and I will try to post more photos. I tried to post one just now, but the photoserver on blogger.com is somewhat slow.

Monday - a happy baby

2006-08-07T18:45:00.000+05:45

Today was a decent day. In the morning I did some sightseeing with my friends in the hotel (the other adopting family) and our guide Uttara. We went to the Swayambhunath Temple - you may have seen pictures of it. It is magnificent. We spun the prayer wheels - they have "Om Mani Padme Hum" written on them, and you spin them clockwise to cleanse your sins. We also went to Durbar Square in Kathmandu, where we saw several temples. They are mostly built in the pagoda style.

After the sightseeing, I went to the U.S. Embassy to get a Letter of Guarantee, stating that I am who I say I am, and including pictures of me and Pratistha. She is very small in the photo. That process took about 45 minutes and it went very smoothly. Now my last official piece of business is visiting the City District Office (CDO) tomorrow, to officially start the paperwork process of the Nepal government.

The embassy gave me a useful document about intercountry adoption that explains what happens after I submit my paperwork to the CDO. Next a committee at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (WCS) meets and reviews each adoption file. These meetings have been a bottleneck lately, because of the change in the government, among other things. But this committee's charge is to check to see if everything looks to be in order, and then it recommends the case to the legal section of the WCS. The legal section also reviews the file, and if they give a positive recommendation, the Secretary of WCS issues and signs the final adoption decree in English.

The length of time taken by this process varies. Essentially this is the reason why I need to wait six months to bring Pratistha home. Of course, there is a chance that our file will clear sooner, but I've been told six months is a realistic estimate.

So as I said, my embassy process went just fine. I followed that up with a visit to Thai Airways to track down my luggage. No one knows where it is. I am following that up with tons of emails and phone calls.

Finally I got to Children's Home at about 4 pm. Pratistha was awake and in good spirits! I carried her around, and then when I laid her on her back, she looked into my eyes and started singing! She says "aah aah" in a musical way, and I imitate her, and she imitates me. She was very happy. It was the best thing I'd seen all day.

Tonight I'll have a low key dinner in the hotel, and then try calling LAX to find my two suitcases. I'll post again tomorrow for sure, and I will try my best to post pictures.

Finally the first picture!

2006-08-07T06:40:00.000+05:45

We did it! Finally my first picture is posted! This has to bode well for my day. Maybe my luggage will arrive.

Hello on Sunday

2006-08-06T09:25:00.000+05:45

Today was a great day. I started with a huge buffet breakfast in my hotel, and then I went to the Children's Home with another family who is adopting a little girl. I spent the early part of my morning with Pratistha and this other family, and we took the babies to a doctor near the Children's Home. He looked them both over and found them to be pretty healthy. Pratistha got really animated and started making all kinds of singing sounds while the doctor examined her. She was delightful.

After that, I spent some time in the baby room, taking some video and photos, and holding the other babies. They are very sweet. Some of the babies seem to be as old as a year.

Then I toured Patan, the town where Children's Home is located. My tour guide, Uttara, has been sharing Kathmandu with tourists for the last ten years, and she was excellent. We saw the temples at Durbar Square in Patan first. There are several temples in a small area, both Hindu and Buddhist. The architecture was the pagoda Newari style, which is common in Nepal, but not in South India where I have traveled.

After the temples, we toured a Tibetan carpet-making factory staffed by refugees from Tibet. I watched women spinning wool and weaving it into beautiful carpets on looms. The designs on the carpets are often Tibetan Buddhist religious symbols, or dragons, or skyscapes. I may go back to the showroom in a few days!

Finally, we spent time in a village called Khokana just strolling around. Khokana is a traditional Nepalese village, where goats and roosters roam the stone-paved streets. Women were spinning wool and making long chains of red chilies for drying, just like the ristras of New Mexico. I got a taste of Pakshi, a homebrewed alcoholic spirit made from rice. It was good!

I returned to the hotel and have been trying to track down my still-lost luggage. I'm still working on posting photos - not as easy as it was in New Orleans. I'll write more tomorrow.

Safe in Kathmandu and met Prathistha!

2006-08-05T22:28:00.000+05:45

Well, I'm safely in my hotel after a long journey, and I want to post a picture, but Blogger won't let me do so yet. So I'll let you know: I had a great day on Aug 5 - got to meet my little girl! She is a beautiful little thing, very alert and with big brown eyes. She didn't cry at all but made some baby noises. She is still little enough that she doesn't quite know recognize her name yet. She is totally precious. I have both pictures and video, and will post photos as soon as I can.

Hanging out in LAX

2006-08-04T10:28:00.001+05:45

Well, I got a very precious ticket onto a flight to Bangkok tonight, after my flight to Hong Kong was canceled. So I've got about an hour left at Los Angeles airport and wanted to make a quick post. My plan is to fly into Bangkok and then Kathmandu, make a short stop at my hotel, and then go to Children's Home to meet my little girl. Her name is Pratistha and she is three months old. I am really looking forward to seeing her.

I wish I could write more but I have very little battery power and sketchy wireless. More later. And sorry if you tried to send comments today - I think I had not enabled that feature. Please send me a line - I love hearing from you!

Welcome to my Nepal blog!

2006-08-02T10:13:00.000+05:45

Hello Friends! On Thursday I'm leaving on my first trip to Nepal, to meet my child! This is an exciting time. I'll be posting to this blog daily if possible and uploading pictures too. I love hearing from you, so please use the comments section; just sign your name if you want me to know who you are!