Day 2 - Part 2

The following is a detailed account of Trip #1 Day#2 Visit #2: (our trip taken back in June)


After our morning visit with Zac, we had a few hours to tootle around. We spent most of this time shopping for various gifts. Gifts for the both the caretakers as well as the children.

We made it back to the orphanage around 4:00 for what would be our final visit with Zac. We headed up to his room, and we watched him eat his dinner. Because of his special visitors, he ate early before all the other kids. During this meal, we were able to capture a really good video. It's particularly cute because Zac was eating this "bread thing" with "cheese stuff" in it and the cheese part got over over his upper lip. He looked like the "Got Milk" posterboy. Very cute.

After his quick meal, they let us take him into a visiting room of some sort. It was here that we realized this poor little kid had a major fever. He was actually sweating and was super hot to the touch. Everything seemed to aggravate him. Instead of trying to play with him and get him to smile, we just cuddled. For 1 whole hour we cuddled. I didn't try to roll him the ball. We didn't try to stack blocks. We didn't put him through any cognitive tests. We just held him. And sang. And softly read him books. Actually, just one book. (over and over again) This was because they only had 1 book in ENGLISH: 5 Little Lady Bugs. Fortunately, it's a pretty good book so we didn't mind. Also, anyone with kids knows that kids LOVE to repeat things OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER..... you get my point.

Some of the most precious pictures and videos were during this visit. Although he was so sick, he was also being very sweet. Not necessarily "happy" but definitely sweet.

Obviously, we have missed many moments with our boy, Zac. One thing that I'm thankful for is that we were able to hold him on that day that he was so sick. I'm sure that there was nothing he needed more than alittle TLC from his Mommy and Daddy. (except for Tylenol)

When our time was up, we took him back upstairs as it was time for more outside playtime. Apparently, many of the children were sick that day - so about 1/2 of them stayed inside and had quiet storytime. We watched the sick kids file into the bathroom first for potty time. When they came out of the bathroom they took off their shoes and socks, and went into their sleeping dorm. (A room with about 20 beds). As they were walking into the bedroom, the kids stepped into a bucket of water that had rocks in the bottom. The rocks were abbout the size of golf balls. I've thought about this several times afterward, and I've never been able to come up with good reason as to why they did this. I understand that they were washing their feet, but what's with the rocks? We'll never know...


As we peaked our head into the bedroom, we saw approximately 10 children sitting in tiny chairs circled around a caretaker who had just pulled out a book to read. Knowing that this was the last time we would see Zac on this trip, I said, "Pasha, Das Vi Danya" (I realize this is probablly not the correct spelling, but oh well. I attempted to say "Pasha, Good bye")

He loooked right at me, got this big smile, and waved good bye to me. HE SMILED! Although he did smile 2 other times during our trip, his smiles had nothing to do with us. This time he smiled AT US.

Of course, Katie and I laughed later that he probablly was smiling because he knew that we were leaving. Either way. I'll take it. This kid has a beautiful smile.