one month in India

On Thursday we were notified the passport arrived at the orphanage. Boy I was so happy, we picked it up and I tried to get an appointment with the embassy but they could only see us on Friday morning.

Thursday we had another swimming lesson which went quite well, he lasted almost the entire lesson before he started crying he was so cold. He also seemed to be more focussed on the teacher and didn’t try to just put his head under the water or argue with the teacher.

Friday morning we went to the embassy, all went well and they were hopeful the visa will be ready on Monday. All the documents were in order as was the passport. I had read many times that the passports only contain the first name of the child but in our case the full name is there, two first names and family name and on the back page of the passport we are listed as his parents. He was so proud of his passport, kept showing it to Momo the bear (who also has a passport) and then of course he was in a panic he had to leave it in the embassy J.

The other days were our usual routine of walking, shopping, swimming and playing.

Today we had an appointment at the orphanage at 11 to pick up his photo book, they made a beautiful book full of memories of his time at the orphanage. I am so grateful for this and he has been looking at it all day. We also met with the foster family, the foster dad collected us at the orphanage. We expected to meet his foster dad and the daughter who was helping out whilst the foster mom is away on holiday. When we got there, everybody had come to say goodbye to our boy, the entire extended family and neighbours. I felt emotional and so did he cause he kept clinging to me. They had prepared a delicious lunch which I could not refuse. We ended up staying for a few hours chatting about fostering and our son whilst we gave him some time to play with the other boy they are fostering. When it was time to say goodbye I had a hard time keeping it together and he didn’t want to go, he wanted to be with us but also wanted to stay there longer. Eventually we managed to leave. I can’t begin to express my gratitude to this family for providing such a loving home to my son for two years. We have exchanged email addresses and I hope we can keep in touch with them. It is clear they all loved him very much (including the neighbours) and everyone kept asking us to look after him and kept telling him to be a good boy for mommy and daddy.

After we went to Air India to try and sort out tickets but their offices were closed and the swimming lesson was also cancelled so we just went to “our coffee shop” for the usual hot chocolate and cappuccino.

Tomorrow is our one month anniversary, I can’t believe it has been one month. The first week I felt emotional and scared I was not going to be a good mom to this little boy. But with time I feel more confident that all will be well and we will be able to provide him with what he needs. One month gone and a whole lifetime ahead...