Introducing the REAL Megan part 2 of 2

Keep in mind that two weeks ago she used to cry when Tika (our dog) entered the room.

Introducing the REAL Megan Part 1 of 2

For those of you who have met Megan, you would think that she is shy and very serious, but here are some videos to show you the real Megan!

Various Pics from the Trip

Here are some of the pictures that we wanted to post during our trip. Once again blogger has inserted a lot of white space before showing the pictures. Ugh, happy scrolling.

This is Megan's orphanage. It is only 1 floor of this building.
This is the front door of the orphanage where they had signs welcoming us and the Howards.
Once we were in the front door, we were greeted by the Social worker and Megan. This is where Kyle went up immediately to Megan to give her a great big hug, which was not well received. Once both girls were crying, we went into the office to chat with the orphanage director and the social worker while Kyle (voluntarily) went in to play with the kids.
Kyle is standing next to Megan's bed
The kids were enjoying the video camera. The girl standing next to me in the white was a hoot. She walked around to everyone shaking their hands with a huge grin on her face. In the background is Gary (half of our traveling buddy duo) with his daughter Ali.
Megan with her best friend Komen(sp?). She is being adopted soon by an Italian family.
This took a lot of coaxing for Megan to sit next to us. Don't we look happy, exhausted, and hot all at the same time.
As we were leaving all the care takers came outside to wave goodbye. It was touching, you could tell that these ladies truly care for these kids.
Kyle and Megan riding the luggage cart
Did we mention that Kyle did a great job on the trip? He was always making us laugh.
Megan's first swim. She really seemed to enjoy the water.
Megan's first night in her room. She picked out the Thanksgiving PJs, which oddly enough have become her favorite PJs. I keep trying to get her to wear these cool "Rock Star" PJs, but she will have nothing of it.

Home Again

We made it home, sorry for the few days without posts. The last few days in India were busy - Rob got to have a tour of a slum school and Dana did some last minute shopping and tourist stuff.
The flights home were uneventful, the kids did great - they were both able to sleep well on the flights, not so much for the parents :). We arrived home late last night after being up for about 50 hours(with a few cat naps on flights).
Megan likes her room, but is terrified of the dog.
We will try and post again in the next few days and fill in the gaps of the last few days in India.

A Day of Waiting (from Aug. 3)

Yesterday was a day of waiting and was 1 of 2 days that we need to visit the US embassy. The embassy was a little frustrating because the AC was not working very well so it was hot and stuffy and the guards kept insisting that we sit down in chairs. Once we got into the inside waiting room, there was a nice place in the corner where we planned to sit on the floor and pull out some entertainment for the kids. We were there about 2 minutes before a guard told us to sit in the chairs, which didn’t have enough seats for us all to be together. Later when we were tired of sitting, we were standing in a corner and were once again told to sit. It was just frustrating because we are adults and this is the US embassy, we should be able to get comfortable. We got to the embassy at about 10am and left a little after 1pm.

Next, we went to the doctor’s office and were expecting a quick in and out, and unpleasantly sat in another non air conditioned room for a couple of hours. Unlike the medicals for the boys in Ukraine, this was almost a real visit. They took height and weight and made an attempt at a physical. They couldn’t get her to talk, but he wanted to make sure she could talk, so he pinched her arm till she cried.

While continuing to wait for the paperwork, we went outside where she discovered grass for the first time, she actually was running and giggling – it was refreshing to see the other side of her.

The men and kids went back to the hotel and Dana and Lisa did some shopping. They went to an Emporium, which has handicrafts from all over India, and haggle-free pricing… But no a/c – so it was a power shopping experience. Got a few things, but left with still a few needs and wants, so we will have to go out again later.

Her day of firsts (from August 3)

Well since leaving the orphanage, Megan has experienced many firsts. Her first car ride, her first milkshake (kinda, we’ll have to get her a real one sometime soon), her first bath (in a bathtub rather than a large bucket), her first shower, her first plane ride, her first swim in a pool, her first pizza (she didn’t like it, we’ll have to work on that!), etc. She is taking it all in stride and doesn’t seem to be too exhausted from it all either.

She is becoming more and more comfortable with us and is starting to walk around the room freely. She asks to go to the bathroom many many many times throughout the day and we are trying to figure out if that is a nervous thing or if it is the only thing that she can communicate at the moment so she uses it often. Nonetheless, it does get tiring the fifth or sixth time in an hour, so we are hoping that it subsides here in the next day or so (especially before our long plane rides!!!). She has been a good eater (albeit slow) and she stops eating when she is no longer hungry (many times kids from orphanages will eat everything that is placed in front of them because they have gone hungry in the past and don’t trust that there will be more food later), which shows that she is comfortable with us and trusts that we will take care of her. She is extremely quiet right now and only talks when she needs to go to the bathroom. She is shy, but very observant and is always watching what other people are doing (especially Kyle). Her facial expressions are usually very stoic, but we saw that relaxing yesterday and even saw a few smiles. She has been very compliant and hasn’t fussed about anything. She has also been very generous with her toys, she doesn’t get mad when Kyle or others play with her stuff, which I think is just amazing since she has never had anything that is hers.

We were able to connect with Nana and Bapa (Dana’s parents) and Nick last night via Skype. It was great to hear their voices and to hear about their adventures. While we were on the call, Megan came over and was looking at us and trying to figure out why we were talking to the computer, it was cute.

Today, we are going to the embassy to start the visa process for Megan and then we are going shopping for all kinds of stuff. We will be back at the hotel this evening for some swimming and relaxing.

She is Beautiful!!!

We are back in Delhi and we have Megan with us! We apologize for the lack of updates; we did not have Internet access in Nagpur. We will try and recap the last few days.

Yesterday was the gotcha day at the orphanage. If we said that her leaving the orphanage was traumatic, that would be putting it lightly. She is a shy girl, and doesn’t like strangers, which is not a bad thing, but didn’t make our exit from the facility enjoyable for anyone. Dana was holding Megan and she was screaming and trying to pull Dana’s hands away. We just wanted to fast forward life to get past these moments. It was just very sad. That orphanage had been her life since she was born. She had rarely been out of the small confines of that place. Once Dana, Kyle, and Megan were inside the cab, then she quit crying and hasn’t cried since.

The orphanage was nice and very small. All the caregivers were very friendly and seemed concerned about the children. There are only 22 kids in the facility, and 2 less after yesterday. It was not as clean or regimented as our boys’ orphanage; it had more of a family feel. We were not able to get a detailed answer about the daily routine at the orphanage, but it seemed that a strict routine was not followed (sometimes bedtime is this, sometimes we don’t take naps etc.) Megan was one of the oldest kids, most them are all under 3 years old. An Italian family is adopting Megan’s best friend, so we hope to be able to get some contact information from them.

When we first got to the orphanage, we got to see Megan in the foyer, but she started crying so they took her back to their room. Kyle was soooo excited to see her and went rushing up to her with a big hug, but she obviously was not interested in that. While we were talking with the head social worker, Kyle was able to go in and play with all the kids. He is so excited about having Megan, he keeps kissing her on the cheek and telling her that he loves her and talking about how cute she is. He offered her his pooh bear, but pooh is a bit big and overwhelming when in your face J

For the grandma’s who are itching to get into the pink section, she fits pretty well in the 3T stuff that we brought. (Measurements taken today. Foot: 6”, Torso: 10”, Height: 35”)

Last night, we hung out with our traveling buddies and their new little girl, ordered French fries and fruit from room service and called it a night. Having Kyle around was handy. As we were getting ready for bed, she watched him brush his teeth, then she brushed hers, she follows him around, which is cute and concretes our decision to bring him. He has been talking about 5000 words a minute since we got her, so she is being immersed in English J.

Yesterday we took a city tour of Nagpur where we saw the maternity home where Megan was born and then drove around a bit. Nagpur is a nice little city – lots going on. In case you couldn’t find it on the map, we are in the geographical center of India. We were able to see and experience the real India a bit more, and not just the 4star hotel sheltered life, which was great.
We did a little shopping, sort of looking for a doll for Megan, but was shocked to see that all the dolls look like Barbie (although named Betty), with blond hair blue eyes – go figure.

The Tuli hotel in Nagpur has a lot to be desired. It was a far cry from the hotels in Delhi and Agra, but was nicer than the places that we had stayed in while in Ukraine. The pool was under maintenance and looked like a stinky green mosquito farm, so Kyle was a bit disappointed. I am sure this was quite the place when it was built. It was listed as one of the nicest hotels in Nagpur, but the bathroom looks like something that Motel 6 would put on it’s list of things to update yesterday. The AC works, but not very well, but there is a ceiling fan that helps.

Food has been interesting. Dana and Kyle are both pretty adventurous eaters, but it is all so spicy. Our flight was a little over an hour from Delhi yesterday and they had a complete hot breakfast on the flight. Rob took a bite of the soupy stuff and said, that is hot, then took a bite of the rice cake-type things and said those are fine. Turns out his mouth was so scorched from the hot stuff, he didn’t realize how hot the cake things were. So he had a great stomach warming breakfast, while Dana and Kyle ate the fruit and croissant.

Here we are at the geographical center of India in Nagpur
Here is a "school bus" near a school in Nagpur. We saw several of these going to and from the school.
Her first "milkshake". It was a literal milk shake and didn't contain any ice cream. This was also the first time that she used a straw and she decided to abandon the straw to get to the good stuff.