Little Sara is great!
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We are home safe and sound, though sadly, without little Sara. Visting with her was great. She's a little sweetheart. She likes walk around, or be carried around more precisely, likes to kick her legs with glee in her crib, especially when unbundled from the excessive clothing and blankets favored by attentive Guatemelan parents, does'nt like having her head get wet doesn't like poopy diapers (we didn't like those much either, though in all fairness it must be reported that Mike did almost all of those) or bright light when she's trying to sleep. She gets the hiccups when she's cold (whoops... us non-Guatemalan parents perhaps erred too far on the other side?) and after you change her diaper sometimes. She is just at the age where she is starting to really study your face intently with those big dark eyes... and she has a special fondness for new new daddy -- I could tell by the way she would follow him around the room with her eyes and head, even though she's just learning how to get those pointed in the direction she wants.
Sara is small -- not at all like she looks in those (not terribly flattering) first two pictures. She's about 8 1/2 lbs now and was a little less than 6 lbs at birth. She's been to the doctor twice and is gaining weight like a champ, and is doing just fine. She gets some vitamins and supplements in her formula to keep her on track. She will see a doctor regularly in Guatemala and we will get reports on her progress along with more photos.
The day the foster mom, Angelica, came to pick Sara back up was really sad. Though Sara doesn't exactly feel like our daughter yet--more like our hopeful daughter--we got very, very, very attached to her in our few days with her. Giving her back was and is still pretty heart-wrenching.
We had a chance to chat with Angelica for a while in my bad Spanish which was nice. She is clearly very devoted to Sara and a very attentive caretaker. She currently watches two babies, one a boy about three months older than Sara, as well as Sara, or Sarita (little Sara) as she calls her. It's clear that Sara is the favorite. Watching the children is her only job, and she also has quite a few family members around to her (one of her sisters, Nora, also came to help pick pu the baby). We know that Sara is in very good hands with Angelica, and we got the feeling she liked us too and will say nice things about us to Sara. In addition to extra clothes we left some things so Sara can continue to get used to us a bit while we are not there--a blanket we slept with for a few days (babies use their sense of smell a lot), big, dorky black and white pictures of our faces and a tape of us talking to her so she can hear our voices, and some more photos of us in a soft book. Angelica is also going to make a tape so that when we bring Sara home we can play a tape of a familiar voice for her now and then.
Well that is the news for now. Yes, yes, we will add more photos, as well as VIDEO, and maybe even some pics and news from the rest of our trip, which was good but just not so exciting after the Sara part.
posted by Biz at 2:51 PM
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