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Mon. Oct 24, 2005

Journey to Caroli, Pt. 2

The biggest anticipation of the journey has come. It’s what they call “Gotcha Day,” for self explanatory reasons. LeeAnn and Danny’s (and now, Caroli’s!) diary entry for today has been posted, but I thought I go ahead and put up the important photos. As you can see, Danny’s already making her cry.

But I imagine it has been a very rough day for all of them, most especially Miss Caroli. After spending her first nine months in the orphanage, in the care of the very same person who found her on their steps on March 5, she was taken on a six hour drive to a relatively large city. Where she spent her first night in some strange room that was definitely not the orphanage. And the next morning she is handed over to people who look like no people she’s ever laid her little eyes on before. Then the only people she’s ever known … go away.

She may be an infant, but she’s human, and therefore scared that everything she’s ever known has changed. Gone. But young children are among the most adaptable creatures to ever take breath, and she’ll adapt to change. As they all do.

As LeeAnn wrote in a seperate e-mail, “The day has been much harder than expected. Caroli was obviously very attached to one of the orphanage caretakers and she’s also running a fever so not feeling well at all. So she didn’t take too well to us. But this is often the case and we just have to hang in there and wait for her.“

So, I’m hangin’. And waitin’. And thankful the Internet enables me to see and hear what’s going on from the other side of the world.